II Congress of the RSDLP

The congress opened with an opening speech by George Plekhanov .

Agenda:

1. Constitution of the congress. Election bureau. Establishment of the rules of the congress and the order of the day. Report of the Organizing Committee (OK) - rapporteur V. N. Rozanov (Popov); report of the commission on the verification of mandates and on determining the composition of the congress - B. A. Ginzburg (Koltsov).
2. The place of the Bund in the RSDLP is rapporteur Lieber (M.I. Goldman) , co-rapporteur L. Martov (Yu. O. Cederbaum) .
3. Party program.
4. The central organ 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 - V. A. Noskov (Glebov) , rapporteur of the statutory commission.
8. Separate groups of the party - introductory speech by V.I. Lenin.
9. The national question.
10. Economic struggle and professional movement.
11. May 1 celebration.
12. International Socialist Congress in Amsterdam, 1904 .
13. Demonstrations and uprisings.
14. Terror.
15. Internal issues of party work:
    1. production of propaganda ,
    2. staging of agitation
    3. production of party literature,
    4. statement of work in the peasantry,
    5. statement of work in the army,
    6. setting up work among students,
    7. statement of work among sectarians.
16. The ratio of the RSDLP to the Social Revolutionaries .
17. The attitude of the RSDLP to Russian liberal movements.
18. Election of the Central Committee and the editorial board of the central authority (TSO) of the party.
19. Election of the Party Council.
20. The procedure for the announcement of decisions and protocols of the congress, as well as the procedure for the entry into the administration of their duties by elected officials and institutions. The issue of party rules was discussed under clause 6 of the order of the day.

Disagreements at the congress began with the Bund problem. The Bundists demanded autonomy within the party with the right to develop their own policies on Jewish issues, as well as the recognition of the Bund as the only representative of the party among working Jews. Lenin, on behalf of the "Iskra-ists", organized speeches by the Jews Y. Martov (Cederbaum) and L. Trotsky (Bronstein), who were supporters of assimilation . As a result, the congress passed a resolution against the autonomy of the Bund (see also “National Question”  )

The editors of Iskra and Dawn began preparing the draft program in 1901. A draft was submitted to the congress, which took into account most of the amendments and additions made by Lenin to the two draft Plekhanov programs. The discussion of the program took nine meetings of the congress: issues of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the proletarian nature of the party and its role in the liberation movement in Russia, as well as the agrarian program and the national question were discussed.

Party Role and Character

Lenin insisted that the basic principles of Marxism about the dictatorship of the proletariat (he showed hesitation in this issue), about the hegemony of the proletariat in the revolutionary struggle, clearly emphasize the proletarian character of the party and its leading role in the liberation movement in Russia. The "economists" Akimov ( Vladimir Makhnovets ), Picker ( Alexander Martynov ) and Bundist M.I. Lieber opposed the inclusion in the program of a clause on the dictatorship of the proletariat, citing the fact that this clause was not included in the programs of Western European Social Democratic parties. L. Trotsky declared 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, they will merge. Describing the opponents' views as social-reformist, Lenin said that "they have reached ... to challenge the dictatorship of the proletariat ..." (ibid., Vol. 7, p. 271). Lenin sharply opposed the attempt of the "economists" Martynov and Akimov to amend the program.

Agricultural Program

Fundamental disagreements also emerged in the discussion of the agrarian part of the program, in particular on the issue of the union of the working class and the peasantry. Lenin insisted on recognizing the peasantry as an ally of the proletariat, substantiating the revolutionary demand for the return of the "segments" as the abolition of one of the remnants of serfdom and the need to distinguish between the demands of the agrarian program during the bourgeois-democratic and socialist revolutions. This approach was the creative development of Marxism in the historical and concrete conditions of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century (where the rapid development of capitalism was combined with the dominance of agriculture in the economy, deep-rooted vestiges of feudalism in the countryside and the predominance of the peasant population).

National Question

The discussion arose on the issue of the right of nations to self-determination . Against him were the Polish Social Democrats and the Bundists. The Poles believed that this point would be in the hands of Polish nationalists . The Bundists advocated the cultural and national autonomy of the Jews. No consensus was reached on this issue, and the Bund faction left the congress.

Result

After changing the number of delegates, the congress approved the Iskra program, which consists of two parts - the maximum program and the minimum program. The maximum program spoke of the ultimate goal of the party — the organization of a socialist society and the condition for the realization 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 the full equality of all nations, the assertion of their right to self-determination, the destruction of the remnants of serfdom in the countryside, and the return to the peasants of the land taken from them by the landowners (" segments ").

After that, it became clear that a split would occur between the “Iskra-ists”, “economists” and the Bundists. But among the “Iskra-ists” themselves, too, there was a split.

Members of the Editorial Board

The split began to appear even before the congress. The editors of Iskra had six people — Plekhanov, Lenin, Martov, Potresov , Axelrod and Zasulich . This number was even and often the editorial staff came to a stalemate in the work, since the supporters of Lenin and his opponents had an equal number of votes. To make the editorial work effective, in his view, Lenin proposed introducing the seventh - Trotsky, but Plekhanov was categorically opposed, and then Lenin proposed reducing the number of editors - excluding Potresov, Axelrod and Zasulich because he considered them to be bad journalists (Lenin cited for example, Martov wrote 39 articles for 45 issues of Iskra, Lenin himself 32, Plekhanov 24, while Zasulich 6, Axelrod 4, Potresov 8). With this proposal, Lenin accused him of striving to dominate the party.

Charter

When discussing the draft charter, a discussion developed between Martov and Lenin on the issue of membership in the party (§ 1). According to Martov and his supporters, a party member could be considered:

... anyone accepting her program, supporting the party with material means and rendering her regular personal assistance under the leadership of one of her organizations

Lenin insisted on "personal participation in one of the party organizations."

As a result of the vote, the congress by a majority of 28 votes to 22 with 1 abstention adopted the first paragraph of the charter in the wording of Martov ^[2] . All other paragraphs of the charter were adopted without significant disagreement.

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 Foreign League of Russian Revolutionary Social Democracy " and "The Union of Russian Social Democrats Abroad ." The congress recognized the League as the only foreign organization of the RSDLP. In protest, 2 representatives of the Soyuz left the congress. Five Bundists also left after the congress refused to accept the Bund in the RSDLP on the basis of the federation and rejected the Bund's ultimatum on recognizing him as the only representative of Jewish workers in Russia.

The departure from the congress of 7 delegates changed the balance of power in favor of the supporters of Lenin. As a result, it was they who got the majority of the seats in the elections to the central organs.

G. M. Krzhizhanovsky , F. V. Lengnik (both in absentia) and V. A. Noskov , a delegate to the congress with an advisory vote, were elected to the Central Committee of the party. All three are supporters of Lenin.

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). Members of the Party Council after the congress: P. B. Axelrod , F. V. Lengnik , V. I. Lenin , Yu. O. Martov and G. V. Plekhanov

Lenin, Martov and Plekhanov were elected to the Iskra editorial board. But Martov refused to work in the editorial office ^[3] .

Changes to Party Leadership After Congress

September 29 (October 12), 1903 F.V. Gusarov , R.S. Zemlyachka , L. B. Krasin, and M.M. Essen co-opted into the Central Committee.
On November 8 (21), 1903, V.I. Lenin and L.E. Halperin were also co-opted.

On June 19 (July 2), 1904, F.V. Lengnik was arrested, and in July G. M. Krzhizhanovsky and F. V. Gusarov left the Central Committee and R. S. Zemlyachka was removed. M.M. Essen was also arrested .
Instead, in July 1904, I.F. Dubrovinsky , L. Ya. Karpov, and A.I. Lyubimov were co-opted.

In November 1904, E.M. Alexandrova-Jacques , V.N. Krokhmal and V.N. Rozanov were co-opted.

On February 7 (20), 1905, V. I. Lenin was removed from the Central Committee, and on February 9 (22), V. A. Noskov , L. E. Halperin , I. F. Dubrovinsky , L. Ya. Karpov , E were arrested . M. Alexandrova-Jacques , V.N. Krokhmal and V.N. Rozanov .

Thus, by March 1905, only L. B. Krasin and A. I. Lyubimov remained in the Central Committee.

The change in the composition of the congress allowed Lenin to hold most of the congressional resolutions in its own edition: on the Bund’s place in the RSDLP, on the economic struggle, on May 1, on the international congress, on demonstrations, on terror, on propaganda, on attitudes towards student youth, on party literature , about the distribution of forces. The congress also adopted 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.

At the de facto constituent congress of the RSDLP, the party split into two factions: the followers of Lenin and everyone else. Supporters of Lenin began to call themselves Bolsheviks , and their opponents - Mensheviks . These names were fixed in Soviet party historiography for a long time.

• The congress was of historical importance as a de facto constituent congress, uniting disparate groups of Russian Social Democrats into a political party .
• The congress organizationally consolidated the political role of Lenin as the leader of the radical wing of the RSDLP, which he called the "Bolsheviks." Lenin later wrote:

Bolshevism has existed as a trend in political thought and as a political party since 1903.

- Lenin V. I. Children's disease of “leftism” in communism .

• The Soviet historiography attached great importance to the congress:

For the first time in the history of the international labor movement, after the death of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the congress adopted a revolutionary program, which put forward as the main task - the struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat .

- Great Soviet Encyclopedia . 2nd ed. T. 22. / Ch. ed. Vvedensky B.A. - S. 35-44 (neopr.) . Date of treatment April 21, 2013. Archived on April 28, 2013.

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• The Second Congress of the RSDLP / Shaumyan S.S. // Veshin - Gazli. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1971. - (The Great Soviet Encyclopedia : [in 30 vol.] / Ch. Ed. A. M. Prokhorov ; 1969-1978, vol. 5).
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• The split (television series 1993)

• Delegates of the Second Congress of the RSDLP 17.7
• Reports of the Social Democratic Committees to the Second Congress of the RSDLP