"Bolshevism has existed as a current of political thought and as a political party since 1903."

V.I. Lenin developed a draft Party Charter, wrote a plan for a report to the congress on the activities of the Iskra organization, and other materials. V.I. Lenin developed the regulations and order of the day of the congress, draft resolutions: on demonstrations, on work among the peasantry, on work in the army, on the attitude towards student youth.

The Second Congress opened on July 17, 1903 in Brussels. The first meeting took place in a warehouse on one of the working outskirts of the Belgian capital. But due to police persecution, the work of the congress was moved to London. 26 organizations sent their delegates to the congress. Their composition was heterogeneous. Along with consistent proletarian revolutionaries, “economists”, centrists and other representatives of opportunism took part in the work. This determined the severity and intensity of the struggle that unfolded at the congress on many issues. Nenarokov A.P. 1917. Brief history, documents, photographs. M., 1988 p.101

V.I. Lenin actively participated in the work of the congress. He was elected vice-chairman of the congress, as well as a member of the program, statutory and credentials commissions. The minutes record over one hundred and thirty of his speeches and comments.

The congress approved the draft Party Program developed by the editorial board of Iskra; for the first time in the history of the international labor movement after the death of K. Marx and F. Engels, such a revolutionary program was adopted in which the struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat was put forward as the main task of the working class. The adopted Program emphasized the role of the proletariat - the leader of all working and exploited people in the struggle for democracy and socialism, and defined the role of the peasantry as an ally of the working class.

The fierce struggle with the Mensheviks could not but affect the health of V.I. Lenin. His nerves were tense to the limit, he suffered from insomnia, and was worried. Extreme overwork forced him to temporarily postpone all matters. Together with N.K. Krupskaya, he rested for a week in Lausanne. In August 1904, in the town of Carouge - a suburb of Geneva - a meeting of 22 Bolsheviks was held under the leadership of V.I. Lenin, at which an appeal written by him “To the Party” was adopted with a call to fight for the immediate convening of the Third Congress of the RSDLP, which was supposed to lead the party from the crisis caused by the splitting, disorganizing activities of the Mensheviks. Volobuev P.V. Political figures of Russia. M., 1993 p. 46 A major role in the preparation of the Third Party Congress was played by the newspaper “Forward” created by V.I. Lenin, which revived the revolutionary traditions of Lenin’s “Iskra”. The first issue of the newspaper "Forward" was published in Geneva. At the beginning of December 1904, Vladimir Ilyich spoke in Paris and some cities in Switzerland with a report on the internal party situation in the RSDLP. The money raised from these performances went towards publishing the newspaper. Volobuev P.V. Political figures of Russia. M., 1993 p. 47

Team of authors. — Collection of documents and materials from the “” series. - M.: Gospolitizdat, 1959 - XX + 851 p.: ill. Image good quality with text layer.The second congress of the RSDLP took place on July 17 (30) - August 10 (23), 1903. Until July 24 (August 6) he worked in Brussels, but the Belgian police forced the delegates to leave the country; The congress moved its meetings to London. There were 37 meetings in total (13 in Brussels and 24 in London). 26 organizations were represented at the congress. In total, 43 delegates with 51 casting votes participated (since many committees could not send the required number of deputies, some deputies had two mandates) and 14 delegates with an advisory vote, representing several thousand party members. The congress opened with an opening speech by G.V. Plekhanov. Order of the day:
Constitution of the Congress. Bureau elections. Establishment of the rules of the congress and the order of the day. Report of the Organizing Committee (OC) - speaker V.N. Rozanov (Popov); report of the commission for checking the mandates and determining the composition of the congress - B.A. Ginzburg (Koltsov).
The place of the Bund in the RSDLP - rapporteur Lieber (M.I. Goldman), co-rapporteur L. Martov (Yu.O. Tsederbaum).
Party program.
The central body of the party.
Delegate reports.
Organization of the party (discussion of the organizational charter of the party) - speaker V.I. Lenin.
District and national organizations - rapporteur of the statutory commission V.A. Noskov (Glebov).
Separate groups of the party - opening speech by V.I. Lenin.
National question.
Economic struggle and professional movement.
Celebrating May 1st.
International Socialist Congress in Amsterdam 1904.
Demonstrations and uprisings.
Terror.
Internal issues of party work:
The attitude of the RSDLP to the Socialist Revolutionaries.
The attitude of the RSDLP to Russian liberal movements.
Elections of the Central Committee and Editorial Board central authority(CO) of the party.
Elections of the Party Council.
The procedure for announcing the decisions and minutes of the congress, as well as the procedure for elected officials and institutions taking on their duties. G.V. was elected chairman of the congress. Plekhanov, and V.I. Lenin was elected vice-chairman, chaired a number of meetings, spoke on almost all issues, and was a member of the program, organizational and credentials commissions. Disagreements at the congress began with the problem of the Bund. The Bundists demanded autonomy within the party with the right to develop their own policies on Jewish issues, as well as recognition of the Bund as the only representative of the party among working Jews. Lenin, on behalf of the Iskrists, organized speeches by Martov and Trotsky, who, despite their Jewish origin, were supporters of the voluntary assimilation of Jews. The congress adopted the resolutions of Martov and Trotsky against the autonomy of the Bund. The most important matter of the congress was the adoption of the party program; Its discussion took 9 meetings. In the summer of 1901, the editors of Iskra and Zarya began preparing a draft party program. The congress was presented with a draft that took into account most of the amendments and additions made by Lenin to two drafts of Plekhanov’s program. Lenin insisted that the editorial draft clearly formulate the basic tenets of Marxism on the dictatorship of the proletariat (on this issue Plekhanov showed hesitation), on the hegemony of the proletariat in the revolutionary struggle, and emphasize the proletarian character of the party and its leading role in the liberation movement in Russia. Lenin wrote the agrarian part of the program. The struggle within the party on programmatic issues ended in victory for the Iskra-ists. The congress approved the Iskra program, consisting of two parts - a maximum program and a minimum program. The maximum program spoke about the ultimate goal of the party - the organization of a socialist society and about the condition for the implementation of this goal - the socialist revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat. The minimum program covered the immediate tasks of the party: the overthrow of the tsarist autocracy, the establishment of a democratic republic, the introduction of an 8-hour working day, the establishment of complete equality of rights for all nations, the assertion of their right to self-determination, the destruction of the remnants of serfdom in the countryside, the return to the peasants of the lands taken from them by the landowners (“ segments") During the discussion of the party program, a split emerged between the “Iskra-ists”, “economists” (who opposed the inclusion of a point on the dictatorship of the proletariat in the program) and the Bundists. But a split also arose among the “Iskraists” themselves, which became the main event of the congress. This split arose over an issue that, it would seem, did not affect any principles - about membership in the party. Lenin proposed the following formulation: “Anyone who recognizes its program and supports the party both with material means and with personal participation in one of the party organizations is considered a party member.” Martov and his supporters believed that a party member may not be a member of the party organization, not work in it, that is, not subject to party discipline. According to Martov’s formulation, a party member could be considered “anyone who accepts its program, supports the party with material means and provides it with regular personal assistance under the leadership of one of its organizations.” The discrepancy was subtle. Lenin wanted to create a united, militant, clearly organized, disciplined proletarian party. The Martovites stood for freer association. But at first this did not seem particularly important, and Martov was even ready to withdraw his formulation in favor of Lenin’s. But due to personal conflicts that arose even before the congress in the editorial office of Iskra, the struggle intensified. When the congress moved to vote on the charter, there could no longer be any question of compromise. As a result of voting (Bundists, “economists,” centrists, “soft” Iskraists), the congress, by a majority of 28 votes against 22 with 1 abstention, adopted the first paragraph of the charter in Martov’s formulation (at the Third Congress of the RSDLP (1905) the Leninist formulation of the first paragraph of the charter was adopted, which began to be repeated in all subsequent charters of the RCP (b) - CPSU (b) - CPSU). All other paragraphs of the charter were adopted by the congress in Lenin’s formulation. The congress created party centers: the Central Organ, the Central Committee and the Party Council. It was decided to eliminate the abnormal situation abroad, where there were two social democratic organizations: the Iskra-based “Foreign League of Russian Revolutionary Social Democracy” and the “economist” “Foreign Union of Russian Social Democrats”. The 2nd Congress recognized the League as the only foreign organization of the RSDLP. As a sign of protest, 2 representatives of the “Union” left the congress. 5 Bundists also left after the congress refused to accept the Bund into the RSDLP on the basis of a federation and rejected the Bund’s ultimatum to recognize it as the sole representative of Jewish workers in Russia. The departure of 7 delegates from the congress changed the balance of forces at the congress in favor of Lenin's followers. During the elections of the central institutions of the party, Lenin and his supporters won a decisive victory. Lenin, Martov, and Plekhanov were elected to the editorial board of Iskra. G.M. was elected to the party’s Central Committee. Krzhizhanovsky, F.V. Lengnik (both in absentia) and V.A. Noskov is a delegate to the congress with an advisory vote. All three are Lenin supporters. The fifth member of the Party Council, Plekhanov, was also elected (the Party Council consisted of 5 members: 2 from the editorial board of the Central Organ, 2 from the Central Committee, the fifth member was elected by the congress). From that time on, Lenin’s supporters, who received a majority in the elections of the central institutions of the party, began to be called Bolsheviks, and Lenin’s opponents, who received a minority, were called Mensheviks (somewhat curious is the fact that in the future the most authoritative Menshevik - Plekhanov - formally turned out to be a Bolshevik in this vote) Lenin wrote drafts of most of the resolutions adopted by the congress: on the place of the Bund in the RSDLP, on the economic struggle, on the celebration of May 1, on the international congress, on demonstrations, on terror, on propaganda, on the attitude towards student youth, on party literature, on distribution strength The congress also made decisions on a number of tactical issues: on the attitude towards the liberal bourgeoisie, on the attitude towards the Socialist Revolutionaries, on the professional struggle, on demonstrations, etc. The Second Congress of the RSDLP was a turning point in the Russian and international labor movement, since its result was the creation of a revolutionary Marxist party - the Bolshevik party.

On July 17 (30), 1903, the congress of the RSDLP opened in Brussels, the work of which was then continued in London (until August 10 (23).

It was II another congress, since the creation of the party was already proclaimed at the First Congress in 1898. 43 delegates with a casting vote from 26 organizations were present at the congress. Some delegates had 2 votes, so the number of decisive votes was 51. Composition congress was heterogeneous: it was attended by Iskra supporters (33 votes), anti-Iskra opportunists (8 votes), 10 votes belonged to hesitant centrists (V.I. Lenin called them a “swamp”). There were many pressing issues on the agenda of the congress, the main ones being the adoption of the Program, the Charter and the election of the party’s governing bodies. On all issues at the congress, a fierce struggle unfolded between the consistent Iskra-ists who rallied around V.I. Lenin, the opportunists and the “soft” Iskra-ists (Mensheviks).
A heated debate ensued around the position of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Lenin's draft program clearly formulated the ultimate goal of the struggle of the proletariat - the victory of the socialist revolution. The establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat was seen as the most important condition for building socialism. It was precisely against the dictatorship of the proletariat that the opportunists came out. They denied its necessity, citing the programs of Western European social democratic parties, which did not contain this provision. The opportunists argued that the demand for the dictatorship of the proletariat was contrary to the tasks of the democratic revolution and that including it in the program would scare away the liberal bourgeoisie. Trotsky took a double-dealing position on this issue, believing that one can talk about the dictatorship of the proletariat only if the proletariat turns into the majority of the nation.
Lenin exposed all the attacks of the opportunists. He proved that the dictatorship of the proletariat does not contradict democracy, because it is established in the interests of the working majority for its complete social liberation. Congress rejected all attempts to distort Iskra’s draft program.
Disputes also arose when discussing the immediate tasks of the proletariat in the upcoming bourgeois-democratic revolution. Lenin's project provided for the overthrow of the autocracy and the establishment of a democratic republic, the introduction of an 8-hour working day, the elimination of all remnants of serfdom in the countryside and the establishment of equal rights among nations.
While ranting about the non-revolutionary nature of the peasantry, the opportunists opposed the agrarian part of the draft program, which reflected the basic demands of the peasants. Essentially, they were against the union of workers and peasants. The opportunists also opposed Lenin's program on the national question - the demand for the right of nations to self-determination.
V.I. Lenin proved at the congress the need to include demands on agrarian and national issues in the program: this provided the proletariat with reliable allies in the upcoming revolution. In a bourgeois-democratic revolution, Lenin argued, it would not be the cowardly bourgeoisie, whose interests are closely connected with tsarism, but the peasantry and the working people of the oppressed nations that would be the ally of the proletariat. This brilliant foresight of 15. I. Lenin was brilliantly confirmed by the experience of two bourgeois-cemocratic revolutions in Russia. The congress also rejected the proposals of the opportunists on agrarian and national issues.
II Congress of the RSDLP approved the Iskra program, which consisted of two parts: a maximum program and a minimum program. The maximum program spoke about the ultimate goal of the party - the socialist revolution and about the most delicate means of its implementation - the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat in Russia. The minimum program formulated the immediate political tasks of the party - the overthrow of the autocracy and its replacement with a democratic republic, i.e., a program of broad bourgeois-democratic reforms in the country was outlined. The adoption of the revolutionary Marxist program was an important victory for the Leninist trend.
A sharp struggle unfolded at the congress over organizational issues. Lenin's draft Charter determined the organizational principles of building the party, the rights and responsibilities of its members. V.I. Lenin defended the creation of a militant, monolithic revolutionary party. He proposed the first wording of the first paragraph: “Anyone who recognizes its program and supports the party both with material means and with personal participation in one of the party organizations is considered a member of the Party” (complete collection of works. Vol. 7. P. 256). The requirement for personal participation in party work denied access to the party to all unstable, wavering elements.
Some of the “soft” Iskrists opposed the Leninist project. L. Martov introduced his own project, which provided, in addition to recognition of the program and material support, only “personal assistance” to party organizations. Such a formulation opened the way for the penetration of non-proletarian, unstable elements into the party. There was a danger of the proletarian party turning into a loose, petty-bourgeois organization, unable to lead the revolutionary struggle. During the voting, the “soft” Iskra-ists were joined by the opportunists and the center (“swamp”). Martov's formulation was adopted by a small majority of votes. The vote on the first paragraph of the Charter revealed a deep fundamental difference between Leninists and opportunists on the question of what the party of the revolutionary proletariat should be - united and militant or vague. The opportunists have temporarily won
During the elections of the Central Committee of the party, Lenin’s supporters won, who from that time received the name “Bolsheviks”; their opponents began to be called “Mensheviks.”
II Congress of the RSDLP had a huge worldwide historical meaning. A Marxist revolutionary party was created, putting an end to the ideological vacillations and organizational fragmentation of the Social Democrats in Russia. “Bolshevism,” V.I. Lenin pointed out, “has existed as a current of political thought and as a political party since 1903” (Pol. sobr. soch. T. 41. P. 6). The Congress indicated to the Russian proletariat the immediate and ultimate goals of its struggle and identified its allies in the bourgeois-democratic revolution.
Congress was a turning point in the history of the international labor movement, creating a new type of party that became a model for revolutionary Marxists in all countries. From experience RSDLP revolutionary Marxists in other countries learned to fight opportunism.
The creation of a new type of proletarian party, free from revisionism and opportunism, the scope of the workers' and democratic movements indicated that the center of the world revolutionary movement had moved to Russia. The Russian proletariat, under the leadership of revolutionary social democracy, has become the vanguard of the world revolutionary movement.

Opening of the congress and agenda

The congress opened with an opening speech by G.V. Plekhanov.

Order of the day:

1. Constitution of the Congress. Bureau elections. Establishment of the rules of the congress and the order of the day. Report of the Organizing Committee (OC) - speaker V.N. Rozanov (Popov); report of the commission on checking mandates and determining the composition of the congress - B.A. Ginzburg (Koltsov).
2. The place of the Bund in the RSDLP is the rapporteur Lieber (M.I. Goldman), co-rapporteur L. Martov (Yu.O. Tsederbaum).
3. Party program.
4. The central body of the party.
5. Delegate reports.
6. Organization of the party (discussion of the organizational charter of the party) - speaker V.I. Lenin.
7. District and national organizations - rapporteur of the statutory commission V.A. Noskov (Glebov).
8. Separate groups of the party - opening speech by V.I. Lenin.
9. National question.
10. Economic struggle and professional movement.
11. Celebrating May 1st.
12. International Socialist Congress in Amsterdam 1904.
13. Demonstrations and uprisings.
14. Terror.
15. Internal issues of party work:
    1. production of propaganda,
    2. campaigning,
    3. production of party literature,
    4. organizing work among the peasantry,
    5. organizing work in the army,
    6. organizing work among students,
    7. organizing work among sectarians.
16. The attitude of the RSDLP to the Socialist Revolutionaries.
17. The attitude of the RSDLP to Russian liberal movements.
18. Elections of the Central Committee and the editorial board of the central body (CO) of the party.
19. Elections of the Party Council.
20. The procedure for announcing the decisions and minutes of the congress, as well as the procedure for elected officials and institutions taking on their duties. The issue of the party charter was discussed under item 6 of the order of the day.

IN AND. Lenin was elected to the congress bureau, chaired a number of meetings, spoke on almost all issues, and was a member of the program, organizational and credentials commissions.

RSDLP and Bund

Disagreements at the congress began with the problem of the Bund. The Bundists demanded autonomy within the party with the right to develop their own policies on Jewish issues, as well as recognition of the Bund as the only representative of the party among working Jews. Lenin, on behalf of the “Iskrists,” organized speeches by Martov and Trotsky, who themselves were of Jewish origin, but were supporters of the voluntary assimilation of Jews. The congress adopted resolutions by Martov and Trotsky against the autonomy of the Bund.

Party program and “economists”

The most important matter of the congress was the adoption of the party program; Its discussion took 9 meetings. In the summer of 1901, the editors of Iskra and Zarya began preparing a draft party program. The congress was presented with a draft that took into account most of the amendments and additions made by Lenin to two drafts of Plekhanov’s program. Lenin insisted that the editorial draft clearly formulate the basic tenets of Marxism on the dictatorship of the proletariat (on this issue Plekhanov showed hesitation), on the hegemony of the proletariat in the revolutionary struggle, and emphasize the proletarian character of the party and its leading role in the liberation movement in Russia. Lenin wrote the agrarian part of the program. During the discussion of the draft program at the congress, a sharp struggle broke out. The “economists” Akimov (V.P. Makhnovets), Picker (A.S. Martynov) and the Bundist Lieber opposed the inclusion of the point on the dictatorship of the proletariat in the program, citing the fact that this point was absent in the programs of Western European social democratic parties. L. D. Trotsky stated that the implementation of the dictatorship of the proletariat is possible only when the proletariat becomes the majority of the “nation” and when the party and the working class are “closest to identification,” that is, merged. Characterizing the views of his opponents as social reformist, Lenin said that “they came... to the point of challenging the dictatorship of the proletariat...” (ibid., vol. 7, p. 271). Lenin sharply opposed the attempt of the “economists” Martynov and Akimov to push through a number of “amendments” (Akimov alone proposed 21) to the program in the spirit of the “theory of spontaneity” and denial of the importance of introducing socialist consciousness into the labor movement and the leading role of the revolutionary party in it.

Fundamental disagreements also emerged during the discussion of the agrarian part of the program, in particular on the problem of the alliance of the working class and the peasantry. Lenin insisted on recognizing the peasantry as an ally of the proletariat, substantiated the revolutionary demand for the return of “cut-offs” as the destruction of one of the remnants of serfdom and the need to differentiate the demands of the agrarian program during the bourgeois-democratic and socialist revolutions, which was a revision of Marxism. The struggle within the party also flared up on the national issue - the right of nations to self-determination. Polish Social Democrats and Bundists opposed him. Polish Social Democrats believed that this point would benefit Polish nationalists. The Bundists took the anti-Marxist position of cultural-national autonomy. The struggle within the party on programmatic issues ended in victory for the Iskra-ists.

The congress approved the Iskra program, consisting of two parts - a maximum program and a minimum program. The maximum program spoke about the ultimate goal of the party - the organization of a socialist society and the condition for the implementation of this goal - the socialist revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat. The minimum program covered the immediate tasks of the party: the overthrow of the tsarist autocracy, the establishment of a democratic republic, the introduction of an 8-hour working day, the establishment of complete equality of rights for all nations, the assertion of their right to self-determination, the destruction of the remnants of serfdom in the countryside, the return to the peasants of the lands taken from them by the landowners (“ segments"). Subsequently, the demand for the return of the “cuts” was replaced by the Bolsheviks (at the 3rd Congress of the RSDLP) with a provision for the confiscation of all landowners’ land.

The congress adopted a Marxist program, fundamentally different from the programs of the social democratic parties of Western European countries. It recognized the need for the dictatorship of the proletariat and put forward the task of fighting for it. The program laid the foundation for the strategy and tactics of the revolutionary party of the proletariat.

Disagreements among the “Iskraists” and discussion of the charter of the RSDLP

After this it became clear that there would be a split between the Iskra-ists, the Economists and the Bundists. But a split also arose among the “Iskraists” themselves, which would become the main event of the congress.

This split began to manifest itself even before the congress on an issue that, it would seem, did not affect any principles. There were six people on the Iskra editorial board - Plekhanov, Lenin, Martov, Potresov, Axelrod and Zasulich. This number was even, and often during the work the editorial board came to a stalemate when it was divided into threes with opposing opinions. To make the work of the editorial office effective, Lenin proposed introducing a seventh - Trotsky, but Plekhanov was categorically against it, and then Lenin decided to reduce the number of editors - to exclude Potresov, Axelrod and Zasulich due to the fact that he considered them bad journalists (Lenin gave an example that for 45 issues of Iskra, Martov wrote 39 articles, Lenin himself - 32, Plekhanov - 24, while Zasulich - 6, Axelrod - 4, Potresov - 8). With this proposal, Lenin aroused the accusation that he was seeking to dominate the party.

When discussing the draft party charter, especially the first paragraph on party membership, the struggle at the congress became especially intense. Lenin proposed the following formulation: “Anyone who recognizes its program and supports the party both with material means and with personal participation in one of the party organizations is considered a party member.” Martov and his supporters believed that a party member may not be a member of the party organization, not work in it, that is, not subject to party discipline. According to Martov’s formulation, a party member could be considered “anyone who accepts its program, supports the party with material means and provides it with regular personal assistance under the leadership of one of its organizations.” The discrepancy was subtle. Lenin wanted to create a united, militant, clearly organized, disciplined proletarian party. The Martovites stood for freer association. But at first this did not seem particularly important, and Martov was even ready to withdraw his formulation in favor of Lenin’s. But due to personal conflicts over the editorial board of Iskra, the struggle intensified. When the congress moved to vote on the charter, there could no longer be any question of compromise. As a result of voting (Bundists, “economists,” centrists, “soft” Iskraists), the congress, by a majority of 28 votes against 22 with 1 abstention, adopted the first paragraph of the charter in Martov’s formulation (at the Third Congress of the RSDLP (1905) the Leninist formulation of the first paragraph of the charter was adopted, which began to be repeated in all subsequent charters of the RCP(b)-VKP(b)-CPSU)

All other paragraphs of the charter were adopted by the congress in Lenin's formulation. It had special meaning in the struggle for the organizational plan on the basis of which the Marxist party in Russia arose and subsequently strengthened. The Congress created party centers: the Central Organ, the Central Committee and the Party Council. It was decided to eliminate the abnormal situation abroad, where there were two social democratic organizations: the Iskra-based “Foreign League of Russian Revolutionary Social Democracy” and the “economist” “Foreign Union of Russian Social Democrats”. The 2nd Congress recognized the League as the only foreign organization of the RSDLP. As a sign of protest, 2 representatives of the “Union” left the congress. 5 Bundists also left after the congress refused to accept the Bund into the RSDLP on the basis of a federation and rejected the Bund’s ultimatum to recognize it as the sole representative of Jewish workers in Russia. The departure of 7 delegates from the congress changed the balance of power at the congress in favor of Lenin's followers.

During the elections of the central institutions of the party, Lenin and his supporters won a decisive victory. Lenin, Martov, and Plekhanov were elected to the editorial board of Iskra. But Martov refused to work in the editorial office. G. M. Krzhizhanovsky, F. V. Lengnik (both in absentia) and V. A. Noskov, a congress delegate with an advisory vote, were elected to the party’s Central Committee. All three are Lenin supporters. The fifth member of the Party Council, Plekhanov, was also elected (the Party Council consisted of 5 members: 2 from the editorial board of the Central Organ, 2 from the Central Committee, the fifth member was elected by the congress). From that time on, Lenin’s supporters, who received a majority in the elections of the central institutions of the party, began to be called Bolsheviks, and Lenin’s opponents, who received a minority, were called Mensheviks (somewhat curious is the fact that in the future the most authoritative Menshevik - Plekhanov - formally turned out to be a Bolshevik in this vote) . Lenin wrote drafts of most of the resolutions adopted by the congress: on the place of the Bund in the RSDLP, on the economic struggle, on the celebration of May 1, on the international congress, on demonstrations, on terror, on propaganda, on the attitude towards student youth, on party literature, on the distribution of forces . The congress also made decisions on a number of tactical issues: on the attitude towards the liberal bourgeoisie, on the attitude towards the Socialist Revolutionaries, on the professional struggle, on demonstrations, etc.

The Second Congress was of historical significance. It marked a turning point in the Russian and international labor movement. The main result of the congress: the creation in Russia of a revolutionary Marxist party - the Bolshevik Party. “Bolshevism,” Lenin pointed out, “has existed as a current of political thought and as a political party since 1903” (ibid., vol. 41, p. 6).

Literature

• Lenin V.I., II Congress of the RSDLP. July 17 (30) - August 10 (23), 1903, Full. collection cit., 5th ed., vol. 7;
• his, Story about the Second Congress of the RSDLP, ibid., vol. 8;
• his, One step forward, two steps back, in the same place;
• CPSU in resolutions and decisions of congresses, conferences and plenums of the Central Committee, 7th ed., part 1, M., 1954;
• History of the CPSU, vol. 1, M., 1964;
• Second Congress of the RSDLP. Protocols // Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the CPSU Central Committee. Minutes and verbatim reports of congresses and conferences Communist Party Soviet Union. State Publishing House of Political Literature, M., 1959, 850 p.
• Krupskaya N.K., Memoirs of Lenin, M., 1957.

In cinema

Links

• Reports of the Social Democratic Committees to the Second Congress of the RSDLP

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin)
Ideas	Leninism Bolshevism Red Terror Dictatorship of the proletariat Socialist revolution Revolutionary situation
Biography	Simbirsk gymnasium Kazan University St. Petersburg University First emigration II Congress of the RSDLP Second emigration Sealed carriage Head of the Soviet government Death of Lenin
Organizations	Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class RSDLP RSDLP (b) RCP (b) Second International Communist International Cheka GPU
Events	Attempts on Lenin's life V. I. Lenin's trip to Kashino April theses
Works of Lenin	What are “friends of the people” and how do they fight against the Social Democrats? “On the characteristics of economic romanticism” Development of capitalism in Russia What to do? One step forward, two steps back Party organization and party literature Materialism and empirio-criticism On the right of nations to self-determination Karl Marx (a short biographical sketch outlining Marxism) Socialism and war Imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism (popular essay) The state and revolution On dual power How to organize competition The Great initiative The childhood disease of “leftism” in communism The tasks of youth unions About the food tax Pages from the diary, About cooperation About the pogrom persecution of Jews About leftist childishness and petty-bourgeoisism Letter to the congress About our revolution
Lenin Quotes	Lenin's phrases There is such a party! We'll go the other way
Lenin and culture	Leninian Monuments to Lenin Lenin on stamps (Lenin mourning issue) Lenin on coins V.I. Lenin Museum-Memorial Stories about Lenin Lenin's hut Lenin's room
After death	Lenin's Mausoleum Anecdotes about Lenin Lenin is 100 years old Ilyich's light bulb List of objects named after Lenin Lenin is a mushroom
Ulyanov family	Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova Anna Ilyinichna Elizarova Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov Olga Ilyinichna Ulyanova Dmitry Ilyich Ulyanov Maria Ilyinichna Ulyanova

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The second congress of the RSDLP (actually the founding congress of the party) took place from July 17 (30) to August 10 (23), 1903.

The congress began its work in Brussels, then the delegates moved to London.

MEETING FIRST

“Comrades! The organizing committee instructed me to open the 2nd regular congress of the RSDLP. I explain this great honor to myself only by the fact that on my behalf the Organizing Committee wanted to express its comradely sympathy to that group of veterans of Russian Social Democracy, which twenty years ago, in 1883, first began the propaganda of Social Democratic ideas in Russian revolutionary literature . For this comradely sympathy, on behalf of all these veterans, I offer sincere comradely gratitude to the Organizing Committee. I want to believe that at least some of us are destined to fight under the red banner for a long time, hand in hand with new, young, more and more numerous fighters. The state of affairs is now so favorable for our party that each of us, Russian Social Democrats, can exclaim, and perhaps have exclaimed more than once in the words of a humanist knight: “It’s fun to live in such times!” Well, when life is fun, then there is no desire to move, as Herzen put it, into the mineral-chemical kingdom, then you want to live in order to continue the struggle; This is the whole meaning of our life.

I said that the state of affairs is now extremely favorable for our party. These words may seem an exaggeration in view of the many unrest, disagreements and disagreements that have been felt so strongly in the last five years. These disorders, disagreements and disagreements were, without a doubt, very great and regrettable. But they did not prevent our party from becoming - both theoretically and practically - the strongest party of all the revolutionary and opposition parties existing in Russia. Despite all our disagreements and disagreements, we have already won more than one glorious theoretical victory and have already had many major practical successes. Twenty years ago we were nothing, now we are already a great social force - I say this, of course, meaning the Russian scale. But force obliges. We are strong, but our strength is created by a situation favorable to us, it is the elemental strength of the situation. We must give this elemental force conscious expression in our program, in our tactics, in our organization. This is the task of our congress, which, as you see, has a lot of serious and difficult work ahead of it. But I am confident that this serious and difficult work will be happily brought to an end and that this congress will constitute an era in the history of our party. We were strong, the congress will greatly increase our strength. I declare it open and propose to begin choosing a bureau.” (Prolonged applause.)

After the opening of the congress with G.V. Plekhanov’s speech, the “routine” work began. The congress chose a bureau - Plekhanov was elected chairman, Lenin and Pavlovich were elected vice-chairmen, Fomin was elected secretary of the bureau. Then the congress approved a list of nine secretaries to keep the minutes of the congress and heard a report from a member of the Organizing Committee on the work to convene the congress.

The speaker spoke about the preparations for the congress, noted that only 27 organizations were taking part in the congress, and proposed that the congress be considered legal.

At the suggestion of the chairman, it was decided to transfer claims regarding the composition of the congress to the commission for verifying mandates.

The composition of the congress was not constant throughout the days of its work.
The minutes of the congress note that on the first day of work there were 48 people present, and in the secretarial entry: “41 delegates (with 51 votes) and 8 persons with an advisory vote are present.”

Egorov (E. Ya. Levin), a delegate from the “Southern Worker” group, a member of the Organizing Committee, arrived at the second meeting, and Goldblat (V. D. Medem), a delegate from the Foreign Committee of the Bund, arrived at the tenth meeting. Several delegates left the congress during the work, refusing to participate in it.

In all editions of the minutes of the congress the following composition of its participants is given:

The work order has already been adopted at the second meeting By 36 votes to six, with one abstention.

ORDER OF THE DAY OF THE CONGRESS

1. Constitution of the congress. Bureau elections. Establishment of the rules of the congress and the order of the day. Report of the Organizing Committee and selection of a commission to determine the composition of the congress.
2. The place of the Bund in the RSDLP.
3. Party program.
4. The central body of the party.
5. Delegate reports.
6. Party organization.
7. District and national organizations.
8. Separate groups of the party.
9. National question.
10. Economic struggle and professional movement.
11. Celebration of the First of May.
12. International Socialist Congress in Amsterdam 1904.
13. Demonstrations and uprisings.
14. Terror.
15. Internal issues of party work:

a) production of propaganda,
b) campaigning,
c) production of party literature,
d) organizing work among the peasantry,
d) organizing work in the army,
f) organizing work among students,
g) organizing work among sectarians.

16. The attitude of the RSDLP to the “socialist revolutionaries”.
17. The attitude of the RSDLP to Russian liberal movements.
18. Elections of the Central Committee and the editorial board of the Central Body of the party.
19. Elections of the Party Council.
20. The procedure for announcing decisions and minutes of the congress, as well as the procedure for elected officials and institutions to take on their duties.

After the approval of the order of work of the congress at the second meeting, the discussion of the report of the credentials committee began and continued on the third meeting.

It is noteworthy that the third meeting began with the reading (!!!) of the minutes of the first meeting, making amendments to it at the request of the deputies and approving the minutes. And a similar procedure took place at almost every meeting of the congress.

On fourth At the meeting, the congress began to discuss the question of the place of the BUND in the party. Discussion of this issue continued at fifth, sixth, seventh meetings and only at eighth meeting, it was decided to postpone the final decision on the issue until the consideration of the party charter, which began only at fourteenth meeting.

The consideration of the issues looked like this: first, the deputies discussed the issue “in general,” with the rapporteur (or rapporteurs) proposing a draft resolution, then the delegates submitted their proposals to a special commission, which, after several meetings, reported on what draft resolutions had been received, amendments, and what had been successfully completed. reduce which ones are missing, etc. Then, the submitted draft resolutions and amendments to them were discussed and amendments to each resolution were voted on. Periodically, reports were made by the credentials commission, and at some meetings time was allocated for the announcement of statements (replicas) of individual deputies (usually clarifying the meaning of their statements or factual information about some speech).

In total, at the second congress it was held thirty seven meetings

During the work of the congress, decisions (resolutions) of the congress were made both on issues included in the order of work of the congress - the so-called "major resolutions", and on "current" issues of the congress, for example, "On the selection of a commission to review reports" or "On the departure of Polish delegates from the congress."

MAIN RESOLUTIONS:

On the place of the Bund in the party
About the Central Organ of the Party
About district organizations
About local organizations
About working among sectarians
About testimony at the investigation
On the attitude towards liberals (Starovera)
On the attitude towards liberals (Plekhanov)
About socialist revolutionaries
About demonstrations
About professional wrestling
About anti-Jewish pogroms
About factory elders
About staging propaganda
On the attitude towards students
About the Amsterdam Congress
About party literature

Heatedly discussed the question of the place of the BUND in the party, then the party program, the party charter, and the elections of the governing bodies - the editorial board of the Central Organ (the central body of the party, which approved the newspaper Iskra) and the Central Committee - the central committee of the party - were especially acute.

At the same time, the intensity of passions (or the nature of the disagreements) reached the point that several delegates left the congress, and almost half of the delegates did not participate in the voting for the elections of the Party Central Committee!

It is worth noting that, having spent time and energy discussing important issues (and sometimes not too important), many resolutions were adopted on the last day of the congress without much discussion. The deputies were tired and realized that there were some internal agreements that would allow them to block objections, so there was little point in voicing them. And there is no time left - you can’t sit and discuss all your life.

The full transcript of the congress is about 350 pages; the publication of the transcript also included resolutions and a list of delegates to the congress. Some of the resolutions (or individual points) were not published for secret reasons.
The text of the verbatim report included both the real names of the delegates and (more often) their pseudonyms.

Post-revolutionary reprints of the congress transcripts also included Additional materials- draft resolutions, individual notes (usually Lenin), as well as comments that spoke about the progress of preparations for the congress, revealed the opportunistic role of the Mensheviks or Trotskyists (depending on the time of republication), as well as background information about organizations, personalities and events mentioned in speeches and decisions.

Fundamental disagreements, political disputes, intrigues, grievances, squabbles - what really happened there? The answer must be sought not in history textbooks, but in the transcripts of the congress.

Were there intrigues and “conspiracies” at the congress? Were. Lenin did not pass his wording of the first paragraph of the charter, but he did pass through his composition of the editorial board of Iskra and the Central Committee. Of course, the delegates not only spoke, but also “conspired” on how to vote. But intrigue is not the main thing. More importantly, all the delegates to the congress were solving the creative, innovative task of creating the first party in Russia. Of course, we were wrong about some things. But that was more than a hundred years ago.

AND ALL CURRENT PARTIES NEED TO LEARN FROM THE RSDLP NOT TO HIDE, BUT TO PUBLISH THEIR PARTY DECISIONS AND THE PROGRESS OF THEIR CONGRESS DISCUSSIONS, DEMONSTRATING THE TOP OF THEIR PARTY POLITICAL THOUGHT.
Who has it, of course. And there is no need to keep secrets, puff out your cheeks and wrinkle your foreheads!

From the transcripts of the SECOND CONGRESS we have selected several of the most fundamental issues - these are discussion of the PROGRAM parties, party charter And ELECTIONS of the editorial board of the Central Organ and the Central Committee.

And, of course, we present everything" major resolutions".

When understanding what kind of party the RSDLP was, be sure to look at the reports and reports of local committees of the RSDLP (PRACTICE OF POLITICAL STRUGGLE), from which it becomes clear what happened not at the congress, but in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kyiv, Voronezh, Tula...

And also, when getting acquainted with the speeches of the delegates of the Second Congress of the RSDLP, do not forget to compare their approaches, intelligence, task setting, adherence to principles, depth or superficiality of thought, ideology, etc. with the speeches of our current politicians. History is needed not in order to write student essays, but in order not to repeat the mistakes of others, including in party building. The party members will mess up, and the people will have to clean up the mess.

Here are some more simple questions: which of our current politicians could speak worthily then before the Social Democrats of the 1903 model? Which of the speakers at the congress would you support?

And by the way, do you know that one of our parties calls itself social democratic? Does she have anything in common with the Social Democrats of the early last century?