The Seventh (April) All-Russia Conference of the R.S.D.L.P.(B.)

APRIL 24–29, 1917

Concluding Speech at the Closing of the Conference

      April 29 (May 12)

Owing to lack of time Lenin made no speech in favour of changing
      the name of the Party, but referred the delegates to his newly
      written pamphlet The Tasks of the
      Proletariat in Our
Revolution,[1]which will serve as material for discussion in the local Party organisations.

A word about the Conference.

We have had little time and a lot of work. The conditions in
      which our Party finds itself are difficult. The defencist
      parties are strong, but the proletarian masses look with
      disfavour upon defencism and the imperialist war. Our
      resolutions are not written with a view to the broad masses, but
      they will serve to unify the activities of our agitators and
      propagandists, and the reader will find in them guidance in his
      work. We have to speak to the millions; we must draw fresh
      forces from among the masses, we must call for more developed
      class-conscious workers who would popularise our theses in a way
      the masses would understand. We shall endeavour in our pamphlets
      to present our resolutions in a more popular form, and hope that
      our comrades will do the same thing locally. The proletariat
      will find in our resolutions material to guide it in its
      movement towards the second stage of our revolution.

[1][PLACEHOLDER.]—Lenin