Taking into account:

1. that the expanding peasant movement now underway, while spontaneous and politically unconscious, nevertheless inevitably turns against the existing political order and against all remnants of serfdom in general;

2. that among the tasks of social-democracy is the support of every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order;

3. that by virtue of this, social-democracy must strive to purify the revolutionary-democratic content of the peasant movement from every reactionary admixture, developing the revolutionary self-consciousness of the peasants and carrying their democratic demands to completion;

4. that social-democracy, as the party of the proletariat, must in all cases and under all circumstances steadfastly strive toward the independent organization of the rural proletariat and explain to it the irreconcilable opposition between its interests and the interests of the peasant bourgeoisie;

– the III Congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party instructs all party organizations

a) to conduct propaganda among the broad masses of the people that social-democracy sets as its task the most energetic support of all revolutionary measures undertaken by the peasantry capable of improving its condition, up to and including the confiscation of landlord, state, church, monastery, and appanage lands;

Second page of the manuscript of V. I. Lenin "Resolution on Attitude Toward the Peasant Movement," April 1905 (Reduced)

b) as a practical slogan of agitation among the peasantry and as a means of introducing the greatest consciousness into the peasant movement, to put forward the necessity of the immediate organization of revolutionary peasant committees for the purpose of carrying through all revolutionary-democratic transformations in the interests of freeing the peasantry from police-bureaucratic and landlord oppression;

c) for the purpose of disorganizing the autocracy and supporting the revolutionary onslaught against it, to call upon the peasantry and rural proletariat to resort to all manner of political demonstrations, to collective refusal to pay taxes and levies, to refuse performance of military service and compliance with government decrees and orders and those of its agents;

d) to strive toward the independent organization of the rural proletariat, toward its merger with the urban proletariat under the banner of the social-democratic party, and toward the introduction of its representatives into the peasant committees.

Introduced April 20 (May 3) Published from the manuscript

Speech on the question of relations between workers and intellectuals in social-democratic organizations. April 20 (May 3)

Comrade Sergeev asserted here that the elective principle would not provide greater awareness. This is incorrect. If the elective principle were applied in practice, it would undoubtedly provide greater awareness. Furthermore, they pointed out that intellectuals usually stood at the head of splits. This observation is very important, but it does not resolve the question. I have for a long time now, in my published works, advised that workers be introduced into the committees in the largest possible numbers.[59] The period following the II Congress is characterized by insufficient fulfillment of this obligation – such was the impression I gained from conversations with practitioners. If in Saratov only 1 worker was introduced into the committee, then it means they did not know how to select suitable people from among the workers. It is undoubted that this was also conditioned by the split within the party: the struggle over defending the committees had a harmful effect on practical work. This is precisely why we endeavored in every way to accelerate the convocation of the Congress.

The task of the future center is to reorganize a considerable number of our committees. It is necessary to overcome the inertia of committee members. (Applause and hissing.)

I hear that Comrade Sergeev is whistling, not the committee members clapping. I think it is necessary to look at the matter more broadly. The introduction of workers into committees is not only a pedagogical but also a political task. Workers possess class instinct, and with a little political experience workers quite soon become disciplined social-democrats. I would very much support the position that in the composition of our committees there should be 8 workers for every 2 intellectuals. If the advice expressed in the literature – to introduce workers into the committees as far as possible – has proved insufficient, then it would be expedient for such advice to be expressed in the name of the Congress. If you have a clear and definite directive from the Congress, then you will have a radical method for combating demagogy: there is the clear will of the Congress.