V. I. Lenin

The Third Congress of the R.S.D.L.P.

APRIL 12–27 (APRIL 25–MAY 10), 1905


 

1

DRAFT RESOLUTIONS OF THE ORGANISING COMMITTEE FOR CONVENING THE THIRD CONGRESS ON THE REPRESENTATION OF CERTAIN ORGANISATIONS{1}

Caucasus

The Organising Committee, having examined the question of the Caucasian delegation on the basis of the facts published in various writings and the testimony of witnesses, comrades from the Caucasus, has arrived at this unanimous decision:

1. Among the votes at the Congress, it is necessary and solely correct to reckon the 8 votes of the Caucasian delegation, because back in the autumn of 1903, the C.C. approved the Rules of the Caucasian Union Committee, and under these Rules, the Caucasian Union Committee, as a Union Committee, was allowed 8 votes at the Congress.

2. As for the contradictory statements by Comrade Glebov in the Council and the Council’s decision in May 1904 to regard temporarily, pending clarification of the question, as votes those of the four separate Caucasian committees (Baku, Batum, Tiflis and Imeretia and Mingrelia), the Organising Committee cannot consider this statement of Glebov’s and the Council’s decision an obstacle to the adoption of the conclusion stated in § 1, since Comrade Glebov has clearly shown himself to be uninformed, which is why he unwittingly misled the Council.

3. Considering it unquestionable that there are now three delegates from the Caucasus with six votes, the O.C. states that Comrade Leonov, member of the Caucasian Union Committee, declares the following concerning the fourth delegate with two votes: the Caucasian Union Committee intended to allow the Batum Committee to approve this fourth delegate. When the Batum Committee gave a vague and evasive reply on this matter, the Caucasian Union Committee, at a sitting attended by Leonov, expressed the wish that in the absence of a special delegate from   Batum at the Congress the votes of the fourth delegate should be transferred to Comrade Kamenev (Yuri).

4. Stating this, the O.C. leaves it to the Congress itself to decide on the question of a fourth delegate from the Caucasian Union Committee.

Kremenchug

Concerning the powers of the Kremenchug Committee the Organising Committee declares:

1) The Kremenchug Committee was approved by the Central Committee only in August 1904, according to Comrade Mark, a member of the C.C., who attended the meeting of the C.C. at which the approval took place.

2) The Kremenchug Committee does not appear on the Party Council’s list of 33 empowered organisations, which was published in Iskra No. 89.

On the strength of the above stated, the O.C. decides: not to regard the Kremenchug Committee among the full-fledged organisations with the right of vote at the present Congress.

Yekaterinoslav

The Organising Committee, having heard the report of Comrade Morozov, delegate of the Yekaterinoslav Majority Committee, and the written communication of Comrade Yevgeny, member of the old committee in Yekaterinoslav, reached the following unanimous decision:

The Organising Committee does not see any grounds to consider the present Yekaterinoslav Majority Committee less legitimate than the Minority Committee either in formal terms or in terms of succession and ties with local workers.

However, in view of the fact that the O.C. has no opportunity of hearing the explanations of the other side, it does not adopt a decision on the vote of the delegate from the Yekaterinoslav Majority Committee, leaving it to the Congress itself to decide on the matter.

 

Concerning the powers of the Kazan and Kuban commit tees, the O.C. has failed to reach any decision, as the votes of the C.C. and the M.C.B. were split.

The M.C.B. believes that these committees cannot be recognised as having the necessary powers because these committees did not appear on the list of committees approved until April 1, 1905, at the Council’s sitting in May 1904 (delegates Lenin and Glebov from the C.C.). Even if the Kazan and Kuban committees were approved by the Central Committee after May 1904, they will at any rate be entitled to representation only after one year. Besides, these committees could not have been approved at the general meeting of the C.C. in July 1904, because the minutes of this meeting were in their entirety delivered by Glebov to Lenin abroad, and they contained no information concerning, the approval of the Kazan and Kuban committees. Finally, nothing was said about it either at the August or September sitting of the C.C., which was attended by C.C. member Comrade Mark.

The C.C. believes that since these committees were inserted in the Iskra list, apparently on behalf of the Party Council, we have no ground for recognising these committees as lacking the required powers.

Written not later than April 11 (24) Printed from the original
Published in 1905 in the book Trety ocherednoi syezd R.S.D.R.P. Polny tekst protokolov (The Regular Third congress of the R.S.D.L.P. Full Text of the Proceedings), Central Committee publication, Geneva

Notes

{1} These resolutions, written by Lenin, were adopted at the last sitting of the Organising Committee for Convening the Third R.S.D.L.P. Congress on April 11 (24), 1905, and announced in the O.C. report at the first sitting of the Congress on April 12 (25), 1905, by L. B. Krasin, member of the O.C. from the Central Committee (see Trety syezd R.S.D.R.P. Protokoly, Moscow) 1959, pp. 30–31). p. 142

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