V. I.

Lenin

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

April 12 (25)-April 27 (May 10), 1905

3

Draft Resolution on the Attitude of the R.S.D.L.P.
Towards the Armed Uprising

1. Whereas the proletariat, being, by virtue of its position, the foremost and
most consistent revolutionary class, is therefore called upon to play the
role of leader and guide of the general democratic revolutionary movement in
Russia;

2. Whereas only the performance of this role during the revolution will ensure
the proletariat the most advantageous position in the ensuing struggle for
socialism against the propertied classes of the bourgeois-democratic Russia
about to be born; and

3. Whereas the proletariat can perform this role only if it is
organised under the banner of Social-Democracy in to an independent
political force and if it acts in strikes and demonstrations with the
fullest possible unity;— Therefore, the Third Congress of the
R.S.D.L.P. resolves that the task of organising the forces of the
proletariat for direct struggle against the autocracy by means of
mass political strikes and the armed uprising, and of setting up for
this purpose an apparatus for information and leadership, is one of
the chief tasks of the Party at the present revolutionary moment;
for which reason the Congress instructs both the C.C. and the local
committees and leagues to start preparing the political mass strike
as well as the organisation of special groups for the obtainment and
distribution of arms, for the elaboration of a plan of the armed up
rising and the direct leadership of the rising. The fulfilment of
this task can and should proceed in such a way as will not only not
in the least prejudice the general work of awakening the
class-consciousness of the proletariat, but, on the contrary, will
render that work more effective and successful.

| Written on April 14 (27), 1905 | |

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