Statement on the Party’s School

Author(s)	Lenin
Written	30 July 1911

First published in 1961 in Vol. 20 of the Fifth Russian edition of the Collected Works. Printed from the original.
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1977, Moscow, Volume 41, page 241.2.

Keywords : Bolshevism, RSDLP, Russia

The statement also bears the signature of G. Y. Zinoviev. p. 241

In our capacity as members of the meeting we, the under-signed, having learned of the decision of the Technical Commission^[1] not to issue any money to the school,^[2] declare that we consider this decision downright illegal and motion the following proposal for a vote by the members of the meeting: Members of the meeting resolve that the amount required for the school (for travelling or living expenses not later than September 1, 1911) should be issued from cash (or the trustee funds)—in accordance with the decision of the Party’s School Commission.

July 30, 1911

N. Lenin

↑ The Technical Commission (Technical Commission Abroad, T.C.A.) was set up by the June meeting of the RSDLP CC members at their sitting of June 1 (14), 1911, to perform the technical work in connection with Party publishing, transportation, etc. As a temporary organ, pending a CC Plenary Meeting, the T.C.A. was subordinate to the group of CC members who took part in the June meeting. It consisted of one representative each from the Bolsheviks, the conciliators and the Polish Social-Democrats. The conciliatory majority of the T.C.A.—M. K. Vladimirov and V. L. Leder, who supported him—held lip the issue of money for the OCA, which was to go into a fund for the convocation of the Party conference, as well as appropriations for publishing the Bolshevik newspaper Zvezda; it also tried to hold up the publication of the Party’s Central Organ, the newspaper Sotsial-Demokrat. In its press organ—-Informatsionny Bulleten (Information Bulletin)—the T.C.A. attacked Lenin and the Bolsheviks. During the discussion of the “Announcement” and the resolutions of the ROC at the T.C.A.’s sitting of October 19 (November 1), the Bolshevik M. F. Vladimirsky motioned that the T.C.A. abide by the decisions of the ROC. The motion was rejected. Vladimirsky withdrew, and the Bolsheviks severed all ties with the T.C.A. p. 241
↑ A reference to the Party school at Longjumeau, a few kilometres from Paris, set up by the Bolsheviks under Lenin’s guidance in the spring of 1911 for the workers of Party organisations of the major proletarian centres in Russia. There were 13 students representing Moscow, St. Petersburg, Baku, Ivanovo-Voznesensk, Nikolayev, Tiflis, Sormovo, Yekaterinoslav Gubernia, Dabrowa District (Poland) and 5 external students. Among them were I. S. Belostotsky, B. A. Breslav, I. D. Chugurin, A. I. Dogadov, A. I. Ivanova, G. K. Orjonikidze, I. V. Prisyagin, E. Prukhnyak, I. I. Shvarts and Y. D. Zevin. Most of them were Bolsheviks, but there were some pro-Party Mensheviks and one Vperyod man. The lecturers were chosen by the School Committee together with the students. Invitations to lecture were sent out to representatives of various trends in the RSDLP The Mensheviks L. Martov, F. I. Dan and others declined, and most of the lecturers were Bolsheviks.
Lenin was the school’s ideological guide and its principal lecturer. When two-thirds of the students had arrived, Lenin held classes on the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. Lenin read 29 lectures (43 hours) on political economy and 12 lectures (18 hours) on the agrarian question. Under the initial plan, the lectures on philosophy were to be given by G. V. Plekhanov. When it turned out that he was not coming after all, the students asked Lenin to give the lectures, and he read three on the materialist view of history. Also at the students’ request, Lenin spoke on the present situation and the state of affairs in the Party.
After completing the course on August 17 (30), the students went back for illegal work in Russia. They took an active part in preparing and holding the Sixth (Prague) All-Russia Conference of the RSDLP Many of those who graduated from the school subsequently became leading Party and Soviet Government workers. p. 241

[1] The Technical Commission (Technical Commission Abroad, T.C.A.) was set up by the June meeting of the RSDLP CC members at their sitting of June 1 (14), 1911, to perform the technical work in connection with Party publishing, transportation, etc. As a temporary organ, pending a CC Plenary Meeting, the T.C.A. was subordinate to the group of CC members who took part in the June meeting. It consisted of one representative each from the Bolsheviks, the conciliators and the Polish Social-Democrats. The conciliatory majority of the T.C.A.—M. K. Vladimirov and V. L. Leder, who supported him—held lip the issue of money for the OCA, which was to go into a fund for the convocation of the Party conference, as well as appropriations for publishing the Bolshevik newspaper Zvezda; it also tried to hold up the publication of the Party’s Central Organ, the newspaper Sotsial-Demokrat. In its press organ—-Informatsionny Bulleten (Information Bulletin)—the T.C.A. attacked Lenin and the Bolsheviks. During the discussion of the “Announcement” and the resolutions of the ROC at the T.C.A.’s sitting of October 19 (November 1), the Bolshevik M. F. Vladimirsky motioned that the T.C.A. abide by the decisions of the ROC. The motion was rejected. Vladimirsky withdrew, and the Bolsheviks severed all ties with the T.C.A. p. 241

[2] A reference to the Party school at Longjumeau, a few kilometres from Paris, set up by the Bolsheviks under Lenin’s guidance in the spring of 1911 for the workers of Party organisations of the major proletarian centres in Russia. There were 13 students representing Moscow, St. Petersburg, Baku, Ivanovo-Voznesensk, Nikolayev, Tiflis, Sormovo, Yekaterinoslav Gubernia, Dabrowa District (Poland) and 5 external students. Among them were I. S. Belostotsky, B. A. Breslav, I. D. Chugurin, A. I. Dogadov, A. I. Ivanova, G. K. Orjonikidze, I. V. Prisyagin, E. Prukhnyak, I. I. Shvarts and Y. D. Zevin. Most of them were Bolsheviks, but there were some pro-Party Mensheviks and one Vperyod man. The lecturers were chosen by the School Committee together with the students. Invitations to lecture were sent out to representatives of various trends in the RSDLP The Mensheviks L. Martov, F. I. Dan and others declined, and most of the lecturers were Bolsheviks.
Lenin was the school’s ideological guide and its principal lecturer. When two-thirds of the students had arrived, Lenin held classes on the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. Lenin read 29 lectures (43 hours) on political economy and 12 lectures (18 hours) on the agrarian question. Under the initial plan, the lectures on philosophy were to be given by G. V. Plekhanov. When it turned out that he was not coming after all, the students asked Lenin to give the lectures, and he read three on the materialist view of history. Also at the students’ request, Lenin spoke on the present situation and the state of affairs in the Party.
After completing the course on August 17 (30), the students went back for illegal work in Russia. They took an active part in preparing and holding the Sixth (Prague) All-Russia Conference of the RSDLP Many of those who graduated from the school subsequently became leading Party and Soviet Government workers. p. 241

[1]

[2]

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