A revolutionary party of the Polish working class; arose in 1893, initially as the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland, and after merging with part of the Lithuanian Social Democrats in August 1900, came to be called the SDKPiL. At the Fourth (Unity) Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. in 1906, the SDKPiL was admitted into the R.S.D.L.P. as a territorial organisation. After the defeat of the 1905–1907 revolution, differences emerged within the SDKPiL, which led to a split in Polish Social Democracy in 1912. The supporters of the Chief Executive of the SDKPiL adopted an opportunist position and backed anti-Bolshevik trends; the supporters of the Regional Executive of the SDKPiL acted in contact with the Bolsheviks and supported the line of the Central Committee of the R.S.D.L.P.

The published document was written in reply to the following letter:
“To the Editorial Board of *Sotsial-Demokrat*. Esteemed Comrades! We ask you to place the enclosed ‘Statement’ in the next issue of *Sotsial-Demokrat*. With Party greetings.
For the Regional Executive
of the SDKPiL
Ganetsky. 3.IV.14.”

The “Statement” of the Regional Executive of the SDKPiL dealt with the resolution on the national question adopted at the Poronin (“summer”) conference of the Central Committee of the R.S.D.L.P. with Party workers in the autumn of 1913. The Regional Executive, citing the fact that the SDKPiL delegates who attended the conference with a consultative voice spoke against the resolution, contested the Leninist proposition on the right of nations to self-determination, up to and including secession. The Regional Executive of the SDKPiL erroneously considered that carrying into life the slogan of the right of nations to self-determination, i.e., to secession and the formation of an independent state, would allegedly lead to the fragmentation of the forces of the proletariat.

Owing to the fact that the publication of *Sotsial-Demokrat* was temporarily suspended and the next, 33rd, issue came out only on 1 November 1914, already during the world imperialist war, the “Statement” was not printed.