The bureau has discussed the statement by Comrades Martynov and Akimov which they filed at the morning sitting. I shall not go into the motivation, although it is wrong and extremely strange. No one has ever declared the Union{1} closed and Comrades Martynov and Akimov made an incorrect inference from the Congress decision on the League. But even the closure of the Union could not deprive delegates of the right to participate in the work of the Congress. Similarly, the Congress cannot allow any refusal to take part in the voting. A member of the Congress is not free merely to approve the minutes without taking part in the rest of its work. For the time being, the bureau does not propose any resolution and refers this question for debate at the Congress. The statement by Martynov and Akimov is extremely abnormal and contradicts the status of member of the Congress.
What an absurd and abnormal situation we now have. On the one hand, we are told that the decisions of the Congress are being accepted, and on the other, there is the intention to withdraw over a decision on the Rules. By arriving here as a delegate of an organisation recognised by the Organising Committee, each one of us has become a member of the Congress. This title is not abolished by the dissolution of an organisation. What are we, the bureau, to do during the voting? We cannot simply omit those who have left, because the Congress has already approved its constitution. There is one logical conclusion that suggests itself: withdrawal from the ranks of the Party altogether. The minutes may be approved with comrades of the Union being specially invited to attend, although the Congress is entitled to approve its minutes even without them.
| Vtoroi ocherednoi syezd R.S.D.R.P. Polny tekst protokolov, Central committee publication, Geneva, 1904 | Printed from the text of the book |
{1} The Union of Russian Social-Democrats Abroad was founded in 1894 on the initiative of the Emancipation of Labour group, on the understanding that all its members accept the programme of the group.
The First Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. recognised the Union as the Party’s representative abroad. Subsequently opportunist elements—Economists (the so-called “young”)—gained the upper hand in the Union. The opportunist majority of the First Congress of the Union of Russian Social-Democrats Abroad, held at Zurich in November 1898, refused to voice solidarity with the Manifesto of the First Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. In view of this, the Emancipation of Labour group announced at the Congress its refusal to edit publications of the Union, with the exception of No. 5–6 of Rabotnik which bad been prepared for the press, and Lenin’s pamphlets, The Tasks of Russian Social-Democrats and The New Factory Law. In April 1899, the Union started to publish the magazine Rabocheye Dyelo on whose Editorial Board were the Economists B. N. Krichevsky, V. P. Ivanshin and P. F. Teplov. The Union voiced its sympathy with E. Bernstein, the Millerandists, etc.
The struggle within the Union continued until its Second Congress in April 1900 and at the Congress. The Emancipation of Labour group and its followers walked out from the Congress and formed an independent organisation called Sotsial-Demokrat.
At the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P., representatives of the Union (Rabocheye Dyelo supporters) adopted an extremely opportunist stand and walked out when the Congress recognised the League of Russian Revolutionary Social-Democracy Abroad as the Party’s only organisation abroad. The Union was dissolved by a decision of the Second Congress (see Vtoroi syezd R.S.D.R.P., 1959, p. 438). p. 94
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