Vladimir Lenin
Seventh All-Russian Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. (B.)
April 24 - 29, 1917
Delivered: April 24 - 29, 1917
First Published: (noted at end of each document)
Transcription/Markup: Brian Basgen and David Walters
Online Version: Lenin Internet Archive (marxists.org) 1999
[Description of the Congress]
Contents:
Note: The number next to each article denotes the order they were spoken. The
articles have been arranged here by subject.
1. Speech Delivered at the Opening of the Conference (April 24)
2. Report on the Current Situation (April 24)
3. Speech Winding Up The Debate on the Report on the Current Situation (April
24)
21. Speech In Favour of the Resolution on the Current Situation (April 29)
22. Resolution on the Current Situation
4. Speech on the Proposal To Call An International Socialist Conference (April
25)
5. Resolution On Borgbjerg's Proposal
6. Speech on the Attitude Towards The Soviets (April 25 - Brief Press Report)
7. Draft Theses to the Resolution on the Soviets
17. Resolution on the Soviets of Workers and Soldiers' Deputies
8. Speech in Favour of the Resolution on the War (April 27)
9. Resolution on the War
10. Resolution on the Attitude Towards the Provisional Government
11. Report on the Question of Revising the Party Programme (April 28)
12. Resolution on the Question of Revising the Party Programme (April 28)
13. Report on the Agrarian Question (April 28)
14. Rejoinder to N. S. Angarsky During the Debate on the Agrarian Question
(April 28)
15. Resolution on the Agrarian Question (April 29)
16. Resolution on Uniting the Internationalists Against the Petty-Bourgeois
Defencist Bloc
18. Speech on the National Question (April 29)
19. Resolution on the National Question
20. Speech on the Situation Within The International and the Tasks of the
R.S.D.L.P.(B.) (April 29)
23. Concluding Speech at the Close of the Conference (April 29)
Speech Delivered at the Opening of the Conference
(April 24)
Comrades, we are assembled here as the first conference of the proletarian
party, in conditions of the Russian revolution and a developing world revolution
as well. The time is approaching when the assertion of the founders of
scientific socialism, and the unanimous forecast of the socialists who gathered
at the Basle Congress, that world war would inevitably lead to revolution, is
being everywhere proved correct.
In the nineteenth century Marx and Engels, following the proletarian movements
in various countries and analysing the possible prospects for a social
revolution, repeatedly stated that the roles would, in general, be distributed
among these countries in proportion to, and in accordance with, their
historically conditioned national features. They expressed their idea briefly
as: The French worker will begin, the German will finish it.
The great honour of beginning the revolution has fallen to the Russian
proletariat. But the Russian proletariat must not forget that its movement and
revolution are only part of a world revolutionary proletarian movement, which in
Germany, for example, is gaining momentum with every passing day. Only from this
angle can we define our tasks.
I declare the All-Russia Conference open. Please nominate your candidates for
election to the Presiding Committee.
[A brief report published May 12 (April 29), 1917 in Sotsial-Demokrat No. 43
First published in full in 1921 in N. Lenin (V. Ulyanov), Works, Volume XIV,
Part 2
Published according to the typewritten copy of the Minutes]
Report on the Current Situation
(April 24)
Comrades, in evaluating the current situation I have to deal with an exceedingly
broad subject, which, to my mind, falls into three parts. First, the estimate of
the political situation proper here in Russia, our attitude towards the
government and the dual power that has come into existence; second, our attitude
towards the war; third, the international background to the working-class
movement, a situation which has brought the workers of the world face to face
with a socialist revolution.
I think, I shall have to deal only in brief with some of the points.
Furthermore, I am going to submit to you a draft resolution on all these
questions with this reservation, however, that, owing to the extreme lack of
facilities and to the political crisis that has been created here in Petrograd,
we were unable to have discussions of the resolution, or to communicate it in
good time to the local comrades. I repeat, then, that these are only preliminary
drafts, designed to make work easier in the committee and concentrate it on a
few of the most essential questions.
I begin with the first question. If I am not mistaken, the Moscow Conference
adopted the same resolution as the Petrograd City Conference. [Interruption:
"With amendments."] I have not seen the amendments, and I cannot pass an
opinion. But since the Petrograd resolution was published in Pravda, I shall
take it for granted, if no one objects, that it is known to everybody here. I
submit this as a draft resolution to the present All-Russia Conference.
Most of the parties in the petty-bourgeois bloc controlling the Petrograd Soviet
represent our policy, in contrast to their own, as a rash policy. What
distinguishes our policy is our demand above all for a precise class analysis of
current events. The chief sin of the petty-bourgeois bloc is that it resorts to
empty phrases to conceal from the people the truth about the government's class
character.
If the Moscow comrades have any amendments, they may present them now.
(Reads the resolution of the Petrograd City Conference on the attitude towards
the Provisional Government.)
"Considering:
"(1) that the Provisional Government, by its class character, is the organ of
the landowner and bourgeois domination;
"(2) that the Provisional Government and the classes it represents are bound
with indissoluble economic and political ties to Russian and Anglo-French
imperialism;
"(3) that the Provisional Government is carrying out its proclaimed programme
only partially, and only under pressure of the revolutionary proletariat and, to
some extent, of the petty bourgeoisie;
"(4) that the forces of bourgeois and landowner counter revolution, now being
organised, have already, under cover of the Provisional Government and with the
latter's obvious connivance, launched an attack on revolutionary democracy;
"(5) that the Provisional Government is avoiding fixing the date for the
elections to the Constituent Assembly, preventing the arming of the people as a
whole, opposing the transfer of all the land to the people, foisting upon it the
landowners' way of settling the agrarian question, obstructing the introduction
of an eight-hour workday, condoning counter-revolutionary propaganda in the army
(by Guchkov and Co.), rallying the high-ranking officers against the soldiers,
etc...."
I have read the first part of the resolution giving a class definition of the
Provisional Government. There are scarcely any essential differences between
this resolution and that of the Moscow comrades, as far as it is possible to
judge from the latter's text alone. But the general definition of the government
as counter-revolutionary is, in my opinion, incorrect. If we speak in general
terms, we must specify which revolution we mean. As far as the bourgeois
revolution is concerned, this cannot be said, because that revolution is already
completed. As far as the proletarian and peasant revolution is concerned, such a
statement is premature, for we cannot be sure that the peasants will necessarily
go farther than the bourgeoisie. To express our confidence in the peasants,
particularly now that they have turned to imperialism and defencism, i. e., to
supporting the war, is, in my opinion, unsound. at the present moment the
peasants have entered into a number of agreements with the Cadets. That is why I
regard this clause in the Moscow resolution as politically incorrect. We want
the peasants to go farther than the bourgeoisie, we want them to take the land
from the landowners, but so far we can say nothing definite about their future
conduct.
We studiously avoid the words "revolutionary democracy". We may use them when
there is a question of an attack by the government, but at the present moment
they are highly deceptive, for it is very difficult to distinguish the classes
which have mingled in this chaos. Our task is to free those who are trailing
behind. The Soviets are important to us not as a form; to us it is important
what classes they represent. We must, therefore, do a great deal of work to
develop the class-consciousness of the proletariat....
(Resumes reading the resolution.)
"(6) that this government, at the same time, is relying at present on the
confidence of, and, to a certain extent, on an actual agreement with, the
Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, which now unites an obvious
majority of workers and soldiers, i. e., peasants;
"(7) that every step of the Provisional Government, in both its domestic and
foreign policies, is bound to open the eyes, not only of the proletarians in
town and country and the semi-proletarians, but also ...
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