V. I. Lenin

The Third Congress of the R.S.D.L.P.

APRIL 12–27 (APRIL 25–MAY 10), 1905

SPEECH IN THE DEBATE ON THE CONGRESS STANDING ORDERS

APRIL 13 (26)

It is dangerous to substitute committees for Congress sittings. The
committees discuss many interesting questions which are then lost and do not get into the minutes. The committees do not
have enough time for serious work, and it is not desirable to extend it to
the detriment of the Congress work. It would be well to elect a resolutions
committee right away, so as to give our work some direction at least. We
also need a committee for examining the reports. I doubt whether we need
organisational, agrarian and armed uprising committees. We have the old
Rules, there is Ivanov’s draft, there is Comrade N. F.’s
opinion, {1} there is quite enough material.

| Trety ocherednoi syezd R.S.D.R.P. protokolov , Central Committee publication, Geneva, 1905 | |
| --- | --- |
| Printed from the text of the book | |

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Notes:
{1}
The draft motioned by Ivanov (A. A. Bogdanov), which Lenin mentions,
was the new draft Rules of the R.S.D.L.P. submitted to the Congress by the
Majority Committees’ Bureau. It was published in No. 13 of Vperyod
on April 5 (March 23), 1905, under the title “Organisational Question”. The draft, with some amendments outlined
at preliminary meetings of delegates, was read out by Bogdanov (Maximov) at
the fifteenth, afternoon, sitting of the Congress on April 20
(May 3). Following a discussion and the introduction of a number of
amendments, the Rules were adopted at the seventeenth, afternoon, sitting
on April 21 (May 4).

The remarks of N. F. (B. B. Essen) on Ivanov’s draft were published
under the title “Concerning the Draft Party Rules” in the Supplement to
No. 15 of Vperyod on April 20 (7), 1905.

p. 149