On Faction Centers

Concluding that: 1) in broad party circles, without distinction of currents, there is an ever-increasing desire to establish the factical unity of the party and to achieve the destruction of organized factions; 2) that the Central Committee has unanimously adopted a number of important resolutions determining the character of the coming period of party work; 3) that the representatives of the Bolshevik faction have announced their dissolution of their factional organization, the Central Committee calls upon the representatives of the Mminshevik faction to embark decisively on the path of restoring actual Party unity and putting an end to factional struggle.

In view of the conditions prevailing in the Party, the central factional newspaper (which must be connected with the existence of a factional treasury competing with the all-Party treasury) is the most important component of the factional organization; the Central Committee therefore recognizes the existence abroad of factional newspapers or a newspaper incompatible with the real destruction of factional struggle.

The further condition for the actual restoration of unity is the destruction of the existing split abroad.

Recognizing that the statement of Messrs. Martov and Martynov, made by them on behalf of the editors of the "Golos Social-Democrat "2 on the question of the destruction of the factional centers does not give a direct answer to the question whether the leading circles of the Menshevik faction are ready to take the path of actual party unity, -The Central Committee recognizes the publication of the factional newspaper "Voice of the Social-Democrat" by the Mensheviks abroad as incompatible with the establishment of the actual unity of the party and invites the Mensheviks to transfer their literary activity to the pages of the Central Committee and the discussion book.

The Central Committee expresses its full confidence that only this way will ensure real party unity and create the possibility of a normal ideological struggle of currents without an organizational split.

Fond 2, op. 1, d. 2599 - autographs.

1 The Unifying Plenum of the Central Committee of the RSDLP was held in Paris on January 2-23 (January 15-February 5), 1910. There were 17 questions on the agenda; 13 resolutions were adopted. However, the main goal - the unification of social-democratic organizations in Russia - was not achieved. The minutes of the meetings of the plenum have not survived. For the resolutions of the plenum see: The CPSU in Resolutions and Decisions of Congresses, Conferences and Plenums of the Central Committee. 9th ed., vol. 1, pp. 350-360.

The draft resolution on the factional centers, introduced by G.E. Zinoviev and V.I. Lenin (the latter's edit is printed in the margin), was not adopted by the plenum. For the final version of the resolution, see the above edition, p. 358. 358.

2 "Voice of the Social-Democrat" was an illegal newspaper, the foreign organ of the Mensheviks, published from February 1908 to December 1911 in Geneva and Paris.