Bolshevik delegates at the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP (4 photos are missing)Menshevik (top row), anti-Iskrist (middle row) and Centre (neutral) delegates at the 2nd Congress (6 photos missing: 2 Mensheviks, 1 Anti-Iskrist and 3 Centre)
The 2nd Congress of the
Martov
.
Preparation
The Organising Committee for convening the Second Congress of the RSDLP was originally elected at the
Lenin's suggestion, a new Organising Committee was set up at a conference of Social-Democratic committees held in November 1902 in Pskov. On this committee the Iskra-ists had an overwhelming majority.[citation needed] Under Lenin's guidance,[citation needed] the Organising Committee carried out extensive preparatory work for the Second Congress. Draft Regulations for the convening of the Congress were adopted at a plenary session held in Orel in February 1903. Following this plenary session, members of the Organising Committee twice visited the local Party organisations with a view to assisting them in their work. With their participation, the local committees discussed the draft Regulations, after which the Organising Committee finally endorsed the Regulations and approved a list of the local organisations entitled under them to representation at the Congress. The Organising Committee prepared for the Congress a detailed written report on its activities.[2]
Congress
There were 37 sessions and 51 delegates. Of these, 33 supported
Bund and there were 2 economists (Marxists who believed workers should concentrate on economic demands rather than political ones). 6 delegates were neutral.[citation needed
]
During the fifteenth session the delegates voted in favor of supporting a dictatorship of the proletariat as it approved into the party programme the paragraph "A necessary condition for this social revolution is the dictatorship of the proletariat, that is, conquest by the proletariat of such political power as will enable it to suppress any resistance by the exploiters.".[3]
At the 27th session, one of the constituent groups of the party, the
Transcaucasian Social Democrats) was passed.[4] Moreover, the Bund proposed that the RSDLP should have a federal structure, with the Bund as a constituent party. This was defeated 41–5 (5 abstentions). Bolsheviks and Mensheviks were united in their opposition to the Bundist proposal, calling it separatist, nationalist and opportunist. After their proposal was rejected, the Bund withdrew from the RSDLP.[4] The two economists also walked out when the congress decided that the Iskraists should represent the party abroad.[citation needed
]
The
2nd Central Committee was elected at the congress. Iskra's editorial board became the party's Central Organ and was cut from six to three members (Lenin, Plekhanov and Martov).[5]
^ abJohnpoll, Bernard K. The Politics of Futility; The General Jewish Workers Bund of Poland, 1917–1943. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1967. pp. 30–31
^Tony Cliff, Building the Party 1893–1914, pages 103–12
