V. I. Lenin

Ultimatum from the C.C. Majority of the R.S.D.L.P.(B.) to the Minority

The majority on the Central Committee of the
R.S.D.L.P. (Bolsheviks), fully approving the policy so far
pursued by the Council of People's Commissars, considers it
necessary to address the following categorical statement to the
minority on the Central Committee.

Our Party's policy at the present moment is defined in the
resolution submitted by Comrade Lenin and adopted yesterday,
November 2, by the Central Committee. [See pp. 277-79 of this volume. This resolution
declares that every attempt to induce our Party to decline power
is treason to the proletariat's cause, since the All-Russia
Congress of Soviets, in the name of the millions of workers,
soldiers and peasants, has entrusted this power to the representatives of our Party on the basis of our programme. This
fundamental line of our tactics, which follows logically from
our whole struggle against the conciliators and which guided us
in the uprising against Kerensky's government, at present
constitutes the revolutionary essence of Bolshevism and is once
again endorsed by the Central Committee. This line is absolutely
binding on all members of the Party, and first and foremost, on
the Central Committee minority.

Yet members of the minority, both before and after yesterday's
meeting of the Central Committee, have been pursuing a policy
which obviously runs counter to our Party's fundamental line and
which is demoralising our own ranks by causing hesitation at a
moment when the greatest firmness and steadfastness are
essential.

Thus, at yesterday's meeting of the Central Executive Committee,
the Bolshevik group, with the direct participation of the
Central Committee's minority members, openly voted against a
decision of the Central Committee (on the number and persons of
the representatives of our Party in the government). This
unparalleled violation of discipline, committed by Central
Committee member's behind the back of the Central Committee
after many hours' discussions on the Central Committee,
discussions provoked by these same members of the opposition,
makes it obvious to us that the opposition intend to force the
hand of Party institutions by sabotaging the Party's work at a
moment when the fate of the Party, the fate of the revolution,
depends upon the immediate result of this work.

We cannot and do not wish to bear responsibility for such a
state of affairs.

Addressing the present statement to the minority of the Central
Committee, we categorically demand a written reply to the
question: Does the minority undertake to submit to Party
discipline and to carry out the policy formulated in Comrade
Lenin's resolution which was adopted by the Central Committee?

In the event of a negative or indefinite reply to this question
we shall immediately place before the Petrograd Committee, the
Moscow Committee, the Bolshevik group on the Central Executive
Committee, the Petrograd City Conference and the Extraordinary
Party Congress, the following alternative proposal:

Either the Party must entrust the present opposition with the
task of forming a new government in conjunction with those of
its allies on whose behalf the opposition is at present
sabotaging our work—in which case we shall consider ourselves absolutely free in relation to this new government,
which can contribute nothing but wavering, impotence and chaos.

Or—which we do not doubt—the Party will endorse the only possible revolutionary line, as expressed in yesterday's
decision of the Central Committee—in which case the Party
must categorically demand that the members of the opposition
conduct their disorganising work outside our Party organisation. There is not and cannot be any other solution. It
stands to reason, a split would be highly deplorable. But an
honest and open split would now be incomparably better than
internal sabotage, the thwarting of our own decisions, disorganisation and prostration. At any rate, we do not doubt
for a moment that the submission of our differences (which are
in the main a replica of our differences with the Novaya Zhizn and Martov groups) to the people's judgement will
ensure our policy the unreserved and devoted support of the
revolutionary workers, soldiers and peasants, and will very soon
condemn the wavering opposition to impotent isolation.