V. I.

Lenin

Draft Resolutions for the Fifth Congress of the R.S.D.L.P.

4. The Tactics of the Social-Democrats in the State Duma

1. The correctness of the tactics of boycotting the State Duma, which helped
the masses to make a proper appraisal of the impotence and lack of
independence of this institution, was fully confirmed by the farcical
legislative activities of the First State Duma and by its dissolution; 2.however, the counter-revolutionary behaviour of the bourgeoisie and the
compromising tactics of the Russian liberals prevented the immediate success
of the boycott and compelled the proletariat to accept battle with the
landlord and bourgeois counter-revolution, using the arena of the Duma
campaign as well; 3.the Social-Democrats must wage this struggle, out side the Duma and within
the Duma, to develop the class-consciousness of the proletariat, strengthen
and expand its organisation, further expose constitutional illusions in the
eyes of the people, and promote the development of the revolution; 4.the Social-Democrats’ immediate political tasks in the forthcoming Duma
campaign are: (1) to make clear to the people the complete unfitness of the
Duma as a means of realising the demands of the proletariat and of the
revolutionary petty bourgeoisie, especially of the peasantry; (2) to make
clear to the people the impossibility of achieving political freedom by
parliamentary means as long as real power remains in the hands of the tsarist
government; to make clear the necessity of insurrection, of a provisional
revolutionary government, and of a constituent assembly elected on the basis
of universal, direct and equal suffrage and a secret ballot; 5.to carry out its fundamental socialist, as well as immediate political,
tasks, the Social-Democratic Party, as the class party of the proletariat,
must remain absolutely independent, must form a Social-Democratic group in
the Duma, and should under no circumstances merge its slogans or tactics
with those of any other oppositional or revolutionary party; 6.with particular reference to the activities of the revolutionary
Social-Democrats in the Duma, the following questions, which are being raised by the whole course of political life at the
present moment, must be clarified:

(1)as one of our Party organisations, the Social-Democratic group in the Duma
should see its primary function in carrying on work of criticism,
propaganda, agitation and organisation. This, and not immediate
“legislative” objectives, should be the purpose of the bills the
Social-Democratic group will introduce in the Duma, particularly on such
questions as improving the standard of living, securing freedom for the
class struggle of the proletariat, overthrowing the feudal yoke of the
landlords in tile rural districts, giving aid to the starving peasants,
combating unemployment, releasing the sailors and soldiers from the slave
conditions at army barracks, etc.; (2)the tsarist government will certainly not surrender its positions until the
decisive victory of the revolutionary people has been achieved and,
consequently, a conflict between the Duma and the government is inevitable
what ever tactics the Duma pursues, other than treacherous sacrifice of the
people’s interests to the Black Hundreds; the Social-Democratic group
and the Social-Democratic Party, taking into consideration only the course
of the revolutionary crisis that is developing outside of the Duma as a
consequence of objective conditions, must, therefore, neither promote
premature conflicts nor artificially avert or postpone a conflict by
modifying their slogans, for this would only discredit the Social-Democrats
in the eyes of the masses and cut them off from the revolutionary struggle
of the proletariat; (3)exposing the bourgeois nature of all the non-proletarian parties and
opposing all their Duma bills, etc., with their own, the Social-Democrats
must constantly fight against Cadet leadership in the movement for freedom,
and compel the democratic petty bourgeoisie to choose between the
hypocritical democracy of the Cadets and the consistent democracy of the
proletariat.

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