V. I.

Lenin

Declaration [1]

Dear Comrades, Our joint activities in the State Duma during the past year revealed a
number of disagreements and points of friction between our group and
yours—the other seven Social-Democratic deputies. Matters have reached
the stage of open polemics in the press; and the last decisions you adopted
just before the adjournment of the State Duma in June 1913, when some of
the deputies had already left, revealed to the full that the situation had
become intolerable and had reached an impasse. These decisions which you
adopted by a vote of seven against six, are: refusal to allow the
Bolsheviks (i.e., the six deputies) to have one of the two seats on the
Budget Committee, and the election of one delegate (instead of two) to a
certain important body.

After repeatedly, by seven votes against six, depriving the six
workers’ deputies of the right to nominate one of the two speakers put up
in the Duma, the aforesaid decisions were the last drop that filled the cup
to overflowing.

You are aware that we have been, and still are, acting entirely in
keeping with the spirit of consistent Marxism, and ideologically adhere to
all its general decisions.

You are aware, comrades, that absolutely objective facts prove that it
is no exaggeration to say that our activities have been in complete harmony
with the political consciousness and will of the overwhelming majority of
the Marxist advanced workers in Russia. This was proved by the case of
Pravda , the first workers’ newspaper which was brought into being
by the revival of the working-class movement in April and May 1912, and
which rallied to its side the majority of the workers. It was proved by the
circulation of Pravda , which reached 40,000. It was proved by the
collection of funds for Pravda by workers’ groups, the progress of which that
newspaper always openly reported. It was proved by the Fourth Duma
elections in the worker curia, which resulted in the Bolsheviks winning all
the seats in the curia, and which revealed an indisputable and undisputed
enormous growth of Marxist and anti-liquidator convictions among the
class-conscious workers of Russia as compared with the elections in the
worker curia to the Second and Third Dumas. Lastly, it was proved by the
election of the Executive Committee of the Metalworkers’ Union in
St. Petersburg and by the case of the first workers’ newspaper in Moscow
this year. It goes without saying that we regard it as our absolute duty to
act in strictest harmony with the will of the majority of the workers of
Russia who are united by Marxism.

You seven deputies, however, act independently of this will and
contrary to it. You boldly adopt decisions that run counter to the will of
the majority of the class-conscious workers. We shall mention, for example,
your acceptance on vague terms, of Jagiello, who is not a Social-Democrat,
and to this day has not been recognised by a single Social-Democrat in
Poland; and your adoption—contrary to the will of the majority of the
workers—of nationalist slogans, such as so-called cultural-national
autonomy, and so forth. We do not know exactly your attitude towards the
liquidator trend, hut we think that you incline towards liquidationism
rather than fully support it. Be that as it may, it nevertheless remains an
indisputable fact that you do not feel bound by the opinions and demands of
the majority of the class-conscious workers of Russia, with whom we go hand
in hand.

Needless to say, under these circumstances, every socialist in every
country in the world, every class-conscious worker, will regard as
monstrous your efforts to suppress us by means of one vote, to deprive us
of one of the two seats on Duma committees, or other bodies, to deprive us
of spokesmen in the Duma, etc., and to foist upon us tactics and a policy
that have been condemned by the majority of the class-conscious workers of
Russia.

We affirm, and cannot but affirm at the present time, that our
disagreements are irreconcilable in other spheres of activity besides that
of the Duma. We are compelled to regard your efforts to suppress us and to deprive us of one of the two
seats as being undoubtedly aimed at a split and, as such, precluding all
possibility of co-operation between us. Nevertheless, respecting as we do
the strong desire of the workers that the unity of the Social-Democratic
deputies be preserved at least in the Duma and in face of the outside
world, and bearing in mind our year’s experience, which has proved that it
is possible to achieve such unity in Duma activities by
means of an agreement , we call upon you to declare precisely and
unambiguously, once and for all, that the suppression, in any form, of the
six deputies from the worker curia by seven votes is impermissible. The
unity of the Social-Democratic group in the Fourth Duma can be really
maintained only on the condition that the equality of the seven and six is
fully and definitely recognised, and that the principle of agreement
between them on all questions concerning Duma activities is adhered to.