Date: 1906-05-08
Source: ru:LS/v39

Source: ru:LS/v39

a representative assembly, 49 — against.
For
direct elections to a Constituent Assembly, which was to consist of a single chamber, — 71; for indirect elections — 54. Ten abstained. For
universal suffrage in a permanent representative assembly — 127, against — 8; for universal suffrage in the Constituent Assembly — 104, against — 15; 14 abstained. — All of this, it seems, were merely trial votes, intended to gauge public sentiment. Politically speaking, the liberal gentlemen have not committed themselves and are presenting no clearly defined electoral program to the Tsar!
1 We are referring to the conference of zemstvo leaders held in Moscow from April 22–26 (Old Style) 1905. At this conference, the question of the fundamental principles underlying the desired organization of popular representation in Russia—and the proper procedures for bringing representative institutions into being—was thoroughly discussed.
V. I. Lenin devoted several articles to the history of the debate over the convocation and functioning of the zemstvo congresses, as well as to the relations between zemstvo representatives and the tsarist government: “The Councils of the Conservative Bourgeoisie” (Complete Collected Works, Volume 10, pp. 223–226), “Revolutionary Struggle and Liberal Brokerage” (ibid., pp. 256–265), “The First Steps of Bourgeois Betrayal” (ibid., pp. 291–297), “‘Revolutionaries’ in White Gloves” (ibid., pp. 298–303).

NOTE IN CONNECTION WITH THE DISCUSSION
AT THE IV CONGRESS OF THE RSDLP ON THE QUESTION OF RELATIONSHIPS
TO THE STATE DUMA 1
[Late April – before May 8, 1906]
Should we not add to our critique of the first part of the minority resolution that it reveals a complete failure to grasp the dangers inherent in the “theory of compromise”?
1 At the Fourth (Unifying) Congress of the RSDLP, held in Stockholm from April 23 to May 8, 1906, both Bolsheviks and Mensheviks put forward two draft resolutions on the question of relations to the State Duma. In the committee tasked with drafting a unified resolution on the State Duma—established during the seventh session of the congress—it proved impossible to reach consensus, and the congress was presented with two competing resolutions: the Menshevik resolution, authored by G. V. Plekhanov, P. B. Axelrod, and F. I. Dan; and the Bolshevik resolution, authored by V. I. Lenin, I. I. Skvortsov-Stepanov, and A. V. Lunacharsky. In his supplementary report on the question of relations to the State Duma, delivered at the seventeenth session of the congress, Lenin subjected the Menshevik resolution to sharp criticism (see Complete Collected Works, Volume 12, pp. 379–384).
This note was apparently written in connection with the discussion of the resolutions and the delivery of the supplementary report.