Lenin Collected Works/Volume 8

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Preface by Progress Publishers

Volume 8 contains the works of Lenin written between January and July 1905, during the early period of the first Russian revolution. Most of the book consists of articles published in the underground Bolshevik newspapers Vperyod and Proletary.

The articles “The Autocracy and the Proletariat”, “The Fall of Port Arthur”, “European Capital and the Autocracy”, and “Debacle” give an analysis of the military defeat and political crisis of the autocracy and predict the inevitability of the revolution in Russia.

The articles “Two Tactics”, “Should We Organise the Revolution?", “New Tasks and New Forces”, “On the Provisional Revolutionary Government”, “The Revolutionary- Democratic Dictatorship of the Proletariat and the Peasantry”, and “The Revolutionary Army and the Revolutionary Government” examine and develop the revolutionary tactics of the Bolshevik Party and expose and criticise the opportunist tactics of the Mensheviks.

Lenin's campaign against the splitting activities of the Mensheviks and for preparing the Third Congress of the RSDLP—the first Bolshevik congress—is unfolded in his articles “Time to Call a Halt!", “A Brief Outline of the Split in the RSDLP", “General Plan of the Third Congress Decisions”, “Draft Resolutions for the Third Congress of the RSDLP", “The First Step”, “What the Bonapartists Are Up To”, “The Second Step”, and “Open Letter to Comrade Plekhanov, Chairman of the Council of the RSDLP"

A considerable part of the volume consists of documents pertaining to the Third Congress of the RSDLP—Lenin's reports and speeches at the Congress, and resolutions drafted by him on the armed uprising, on the provisional revolutionary government, on support to the peasant movement, on the events in the Caucasus, and on other questions.

The volume includes articles directed against bourgeois liberalism, such as “The Agrarian Programme of the Liberals”, “Political Sophisms”, “The First Steps of Bourgeois Betrayal”, "'Revolutionaries' in Kid Gloves”, and “The Struggle of the Proletariat and the Servility of the Bourgeoisie".

Fourteen articles and briefer items, published for the first time in the Collected Works of Lenin, are devoted to an analysis of the revolutionary events in Russia and to questions pertaining to the Third Congress of the RSDLP

In his article “Revolution in Russia”, Lenin for the first time evaluates the events of January 9 as the beginning of the revolution and salutes the insurgent proletariat. His articles “The First Steps”, “The Eve of Bloody Sunday”, “The Number of Killed or Wounded”, “The Battles on the Barricades”, and “St. Petersburg After January 9" deal with the early days of the revolutionary struggle in St. Petersburg and with the growing political consciousness of the Russian proletariat.

In his “First of May” leaflet, Lenin sets forth the tasks of the proletariat and the peasantry in the revolution and calls for the preparation of the popular armed uprising.

The item “Conferences of the Committees” reports on the conferences of the local committees which went on record for the immediate convocation of the Third Party Congress. The article “From the New-Iskra Camp” exposes the systematic deception of the Party by the Mensheviks.

The documents “Resolution on the Armed Uprising”, “Speech on the Procedure of the Discussion of the Resolutions on the Relations Between Workers and Intellectuals Within the Social-Democratic Organisations”, “Resolution on the Publication of the Congress Proceedings”, and “Draft Resolution on the Events in the Caucasus” pertain to the materials of the Third Congress of the RSDLP

In the short article “The New Russian Loan” Lenin deals with the decline of the tsarist government's credit abroad due to the military defeats and the growing discontent within the country.

 

1905

The Autocracy and the Proletariat	17
Good Demonstrations of Proletarians and Poor Arguments of Certain Intellectuals	29
Time to Call a Halt!	35
Conferences of the Committees	40
The New Russian Loan	41
To A. A. Bogdanov	43
The Fall of Port Arthur	47
Fine Words Butter No Parsnips	56
A Letter to the Zurich Group of Bolsheviks	63
A Letter to Y. D. Stasova and to the Other Comrades in Prison in Moscow	66
Revolution in Russia	71
Working-Class and Bourgeois Democracy	72
From Narodism to Marxism Article One	83
The St. Petersburg Strike	90
Our Tartuffes	94
The Beginning of the Revolution in Russia	97
Revolutionary Days What is Happening in Russia? Father Gapon The Plan of the St. Petersburg Battle Supplement to the Article “The Plan of the St. Petersburg Battle” “Our Father the Tsar” and the Barricades The First Steps The Eve of Bloody Sunday The Number of Killed or Wounded The Battles on the Barricades	101
The Tsarist Peace	124
A Brief Outline of the Split in the RSDLP The Letter to Greulich	125
Trepov in the Saddle	132
St. Petersburg After January 9	136
The First Lessons	138
A Letter to A. A. Bogdanov and S. I. Gusev	143
Two Tactics	148
A Militant Agreement for the Uprising	158
Should We Organise the Revolution?	167
The Convening of the Third Party Congress	177
From the New-Iskra Camp	181
A Letter to the Organisations in Russia	182
General Plan of the Third Congress Decisions	184
Draft Resolutions for the Third Congress of the RSDLP Resolution on the Disruptive Behaviour of the Mensheviks, or New-Iskrists Resolution on Plekhanov's Conduct During the Party Crisis Resolution on the Theoretical Position of the New Iskrists Resolution on the Relations Between Workers and Intellectuals in the Social-Democratic Party	191
Modification of the Clause in the Rules Concerning the Centres	197
Questionnaire For the Third Congress of the Party	200
Preface to the Pamphlet Memorandum of Police Department Superintendent Lopukhin	202
Plan of a Lecture on the Commune	206
New Tasks and New Forces	209
Osvobozhdeniye-ists and New-Iskrists, Monarchists and Girondists	221
Evasions Without End	223
Whom Are They Trying to Fool?	225
The Proletariat and the Bourgeois Democrats	228
The Proletariat and the Peasantry	231
Street Fighting (The Advice of a General of the Commune)	237
The First Step	239
On the History of the Party Programme	245
On Our Agrarian Programme (A Letter to the Third Congress)	246
What the Bonapartists Are Up To	252
A Revolution of the 1789 or the 1848 Type?	257
To the Party	260
The Second Step	262
European Capital and the Autocracy	267
Social-Democracy and the Provisional Revolutionary Government	275
The Revolutionary-Democratic Dictatorship of the Proletariat and the Peasantry	293
Graft: A Franco-Russian Custom	304
The Guilty Blaming the Innocent	306
The Agrarian Programme of the Liberals	315
Marx on the American “General Redistribution”	323
The Council is Caught Out	330
Open Letter to Comrade Plekhanov, Chairman of the Council of the RSDLP	335
Concerning the Third Congress	344
Plan for a May Day Leaflet	345
The First of May	347
The Constitutional Market-Place	351
Fortnightly Reports of the Party Organisations	356
The Third Congress of the RSDLP April 12 (25)-April 27 (May 10), 1905 Speech on the Validity of the Congress. April 13 (26) Speech on the Qualifiedness of the Kazan and Kuban Committees. April 14 (27) Draft Resolution on the Attitude of the RSDLP Towards the Armed Uprising Draft Resolution on the Armed Uprising Speech on the Question of the Armed Uprising. April 15 (28) Speech on the Question of the Armed Uprising. April 16 (29) Resolution on the Armed Uprising Speech on the Attitude Towards the Government's Tactics on the Eve of the Revolution. April 18 (May 1) Addendum to the Resolution on the Attitude Towards the Government's Policy on the Eve and At the Moment of the Revolution Draft Resolution on the Question of Open Political Action By the RSDLP Draft Resolution on the Participation of the Social-Democrats In a Provisional Revolutionary Government Addendum to the Resolution on the Participation of the Social-Democrats in a Provisional Revolutionary Government Report on the Question of the Participation of the Social-Democrats in a Provisional Revolutionary Government, April 18 (May 1) Draft Resolution on the Provisional Revolutionary Government Speech on the Amendments to the Resolution on the Provisional Revolutionary Government. April 19 (May 2) Report on the Resolution on the Support of the Peasant Movement. April 19 (May 2) Draft Resolution on the Support of the Peasant Movement Speech on the Question of the Relations Between Workers and Intellectuals Within the Social-Democratic Organisations. April 20 (May 3) Draft Resolution on the Relations Between Workers and Intellectuals Within the Social-Democratic Organisations A Remark During the Discussion of the Resolution on the Relations Between Workers and Intellectuals Within the Social-Democratic Organisations. April 22 (May 8) Speech on the Procedure of the Discussion of the Resolutions on the Relations Between Workers and Intellectuals Within the Social-Democratic Organisations. April 22 (May 1) Speech During the Discussion of the Party Rules. April 21 (May 4) Speech on the Wording of Clause 9 of the Party Rules. April 21 (May 4) Speech on an Agreement With the Socialists-Revolutionaries. April 23 (May 6) Speech on the Report on the Work of the Central Committee. April 25 (May 8) Resolution on the Publication of the Congress Proceedings Draft Resolution on the Events in the Caucasus	359
Political Sophisms	425
Report on the Third Congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party	433
How the Congress was Constituted	440
The Third Congress	442
Victorious Revolution	450
On Confounding Politics with Pedagogics	452
A Letter to the International Socialist Bureau	456
The Advice of the Conservative Bourgeoisie	457
On the Provisional Revolutionary Government Article One. Plekhanov's Reference to History Article Two. Only From Below, or From Above As Well As From Below?	461
Debacle	482
Revolutionary Struggle and Liberal Brokerage	486
To the Jewish Workers	495
A New Revolutionary Workers' Association	499
The Democratic Tasks of the Revolutionary Proletariat	511
The First Steps of Bourgeois Betrayal	519
“Revolutionaries” in Kid Gloves	526
Open Letter to the Editorial Board of the Leipziger Volkszeitung	531
Sketch of a Provisional Revolutionary Government	534
The Struggle of the Proletariat and the Servility of the Bourgeoisie	537
A Third Step Back	544
To the International Socialist Bureau	555
Three Constitutions or Three Systems of Government	557
The Revolutionary Army and the Revolutionary Government	560
The Russian Tsar Seeks the Protection of the Turkish Sultan Against His People	569
The Bourgeoisie Bargains with the Autocracy, The Autocracy Bargains with the Bourgeoisie	574