Development of a proletarian party (1900–1903)
Once out of exile, Lenin had to establish connections with the social-democratic organizations, but on his way from Siberia to Pskov he first stops at the Ufa Gubernia to see his wife [[Nadezhda Krupskaya|Krupskaya]] and his mother-in-law to help them get settled for the rest of Krupskaya's exile.<ref name="cpsubio-married222">{{Citation|author=Pyotr Pospelov & Institute of Marxism-Leninism|year=1965|title=Lenin: a biography|chapter=For a proletarian party of a new type|section=|page=69|quote=Only one thing shadowed the joy of complete free•dom for revolutionary activity: the necessity of separation from his wife, who had still a year to spend in exile in Ufa Gubernia. How would she live this year, in what conditions? On the way back from Siberia Lenin stopped off in Ufa with his wife and mother-in-law and helped them to get settled.|pdf=|city=Moscow|publisher=Progress Publishers, CC CPSU|isbn=|doi=|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=EB243CBDFE643F26EEB1360F866F261F|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> There, he also began meeting with social-democrats who were then living in exile in the region and presented them his plan for setting up a revolutionary newspaper to broaden possibilities for the activities of the Russian [[Marxism|Marxists]].<ref name="cpsubio-married2222">{{Citation|author=Pyotr Pospelov & Institute of Marxism-Leninism|year=1965|title=Lenin: a biography|chapter=For a proletarian party of a new type|section=Preparations for founding an all-Russianewspaper|page=69|quote=On his first day in Ufa Lenin met with A. Tsyurupa, V. Krokh• mal and A. Svidersky, Social-Democrats living in exile in that city, and acquainted them with his plan for setting up a revolutionary newspaper which opened up broad possibilities for the activities of the Russian Marxists.|pdf=|city=Moscow|publisher=Progress Publishers, CC CPSU|isbn=|doi=|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=EB243CBDFE643F26EEB1360F866F261F|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> Lenin spent most of the year 1900 traveling inside Russia and abroad to meet with social-democrats discussing the publication of a Russian Marxist newspaper and magazine.<ref>{{Citation|author=Marxists Internet Archive|year=2003|title=The life and work of V.I. Lenin|chapter=1900|section=|page=|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/lifework/worklife/1900.htm|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> During this time, he wrote a draft of the editorial board declaration of the ''Iskra''<ref group="lower-alpha">Russian: Искра ''(Spark)''</ref> and ''Zarya,''<ref group="lower-alpha">Russian: Заря ''(Dawn)''</ref> in which he described the task of establishing an all-Russian social-democratic newspaper as the "the first step" on the road to open political struggle.<ref>{{Citation|author=Vladimir Lenin|year=1900|title=Draft of a Declaration of the Editorial Board of Iskra and Zarya|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=Russian Social-Democracy is already finding itself constricted in the underground conditions in which the various groups and isolated study circles carry on their work. It is time to come out on the road of open advocacy of socialism, on the road of open political struggle. The establishment of an all-Russian organ of Social-Democracy must be the first step on this road.|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1900/apr/draft.htm|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref>In the summer of 1900, Lenin discussed with Plekhanov the publication of Iskra, to which Plekhanov demanded a privileged position on the editorial board and this triggered a heated debate with Lenin to the point his relationship with Plekhanov became severely strained.<ref name="cpsubio-married22222">{{Citation|author=Pyotr Pospelov & Institute of Marxism-Leninism|year=1965|title=Lenin: a biography|chapter=For a proletarian party of a new type|section=Preparations for founding an all-Russia newspaper|page=69|quote=Plekhanov, like the other members of his group, approved the idea of such Marxist periodi•cals. But he considered himself entitled to a privileged position on the editorial board, and his arrogance was such as to exclude the possibility of normal collective work. Lenin, who stood always for collective effort, could not accept this stand. The programme of the newspaper and magazine and the problems of publication and of joint editorial work were discussed at conferences held in Belrive and Corsier (near Geneva). The disagreement with Plekhanov came out with particular force during the conference at Corsier, attended by Lenin, Plekhanov, Zasulich, Axelrod and Potresov. The discussion here was very heated, and relations were strained almost to the breaking point.|pdf=|city=Moscow|publisher=Progress Publishers, CC CPSU|isbn=|doi=|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=EB243CBDFE643F26EEB1360F866F261F|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> Plekhanov's arrogant and petty behavior profoundly affected Lenin, as described in his writing ''How the "Spark" was nearly extinguished'', where his disappointment with Plekhanov's irate, confused and manipulative behavior is detailed.<ref>{{Citation|author=Vladimir Lenin|year=1900|title=How the "Spark" was nearly extinguished|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=There was also “friction” over questions concerning the tactics of the magazine, Plekhanov throughout displaying complete intolerance, an inability or an unwillingness to understand other people’s arguments, and, to employ the correct term, insincerity. We declared that we must make every possible allowance for Struve, that we ourselves bore some guilt for his development, since we, including Plekhanov, had failed to protest when protest was necessary (1895, 1897). Plekhanov absolutely refused to admit even the slightest guilt, employing transparently worthless arguments by which he dodged the issue without clarifying it. This diplomacy in the course of comradely conversations between future co-editors was extremely unpleasant.|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1900/sep/spark.htm|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> At the end of the year, in spite of the misfortunes, Lenin had managed to establish an agreement with Plekhanov's Emancipation of Labour group<ref name="cpsubio-married222223">{{Citation|author=Pyotr Pospelov & Institute of Marxism-Leninism|year=1965|title=Lenin: a biography|chapter=For a proletarian party of a new type|section=Preparations for founding an all-Russia newspaper|page=72-73|quote=The negotiations with the Emancipation of Labour' group finally ended in agreement that until some system of formal relationships could be worked out Lenin, Plekhanov, Zasulich, Axelrod, Martov and Potresov would be co-editors, Plekhanov having two votes. It was decided that Iskra be put out in Germany, though Plekhanov and Axelrod, who wanted the newspaper to be under their direct management, and all contacts with Russia to be handled by them, had insisted on Switzerland. Lenin considered it essential that the newspaper be kept at a distance from the emigrant centre, and thoroughly secretised. That was of tremendous importance for security of communication with Russia.|pdf=|city=Moscow|publisher=Progress Publishers, CC CPSU|isbn=|doi=|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=EB243CBDFE643F26EEB1360F866F261F|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> and Lenin wrote the ''Declaration of the editorial board of Iskra'', presenting the tasks of uniting the disorganized social-democrat groups into a strong party under the single banner of revolutionary social-democracy, and establishing ideological unity against opportunist trends.<ref>{{Citation|author=Vladimir Lenin|year=1900|title=How the "Spark" was nearly extinguished|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=The following practical conclusion is to be drawn from the foregoing: we Russian Social-Democrats must unite and direct all our efforts towards the '''formation of a strong party which must struggle under the single banner of revolutionary Social-Democracy.''' This is precisely the task laid down by the congress in 1898 at which the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party was formed, and which published its Manifesto.<br>[...]<br>Before we can unite, and in order that we may unite, we must first of all draw firm and definite lines of demarcation. Otherwise, our unity will be purely fictitious, it will conceal the prevailing confusion and binder its radical elimination. It is understandable, therefore, that we do not intend to make our publication a mere storehouse of various views. On the contrary, we shall conduct it in the spirit of a strictly defined tendency. This tendency can be expressed by the word Marxism, and there is hardly need to add that we stand for the consistent development of the ideas of Marx and Engels and '''emphatically reject the equivocating, vague, and opportunist “corrections”''' for which Eduard Bernstein, P. Struve, and many others have set the fashion. But although we shall discuss all questions from our own definite point of view, we shall give space in our columns to polemics between comrades. Open polemics, conducted in full view of all Russian Social-Democrats and class-conscious workers, are necessary and desirable in order to clarify the depth of existing differences, in order to afford discussion of disputed questions from all angles, in order to combat the extremes into which representatives, not only of various views, but even of various localities, or various “specialities” of the revolutionary movement, inevitably fall.|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1900/sep/spark.htm|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> The first publication of Iskra introduced an article by Lenin titled ''The urgent tasks of our movement'', where he declares the main task of the social-democrats at the time was the overthrow of autocracy and spreading the ideas of scientific socialism into the masses.<ref>{{Citation|author=Vladimir Lenin|year=1900|title=The urgent tasks of our movement|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=The entire history of Russian socialism has led to the condition in which the most urgent task is the struggle against the autocratic government and the achievement of political liberty. Our socialist movement concentrated itself, so to speak, upon the struggle against the autocracy. On the other hand, history has shown that the isolation of socialist thought from the vanguard of the working classes is greater in Russia than in other countries, and that if this state of affairs continues, the revolutionary movement in Russia is doomed to impotence. From this condition emerges the task which the Russian Social-Democracy is called upon to fulfill — to imbue the masses of the proletariat with the ideas of socialism and political consciousness, and to organize a revolutionary party inseparably connected with the spontaneous working-class movement. Russian Social-Democracy has done much in this direction, but much more still remains to be done.|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1900/nov/tasks.htm|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref>Lenin spent the whole year of 1901 managing and writing articles for Iskra,<ref>{{Citation|author=Marxists Internet Archive|year=2003|title=The life and work of V.I. Lenin|chapter=1901|section=|page=|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/lifework/worklife/1901.htm|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> among which was ''Where to begin''?, where Lenin mentions that the role of the newspaper "is not limited solely to the dissemination of ideas, to political education, and to the enlistment of political allies. A newspaper is not only a collective propagandist and a collective agitator, it is also a collective organizer". In this article, he also reinforces the need for an all-Russian newspaper and an united revolutionary social-democratic party.<ref>{{Citation|author=Vladimir Lenin|year=1900|title=Where to begin?|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1901/may/04.htm|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> At the end of 1901, Vladimir Ilyich had begun using "Lenin" as pseudonym, with no particular reasoning behind the name.<ref name="cpsubio-married2222232">{{Citation|author=Pyotr Pospelov & Institute of Marxism-Leninism|year=1965|title=Lenin: a biography|chapter=For a proletarian party of a new type|section=The spark will kindle a flame|page=78|quote=It was at the end of 1901 that Vladimir Ilyich began to use the pseudonym "Lenin" in some of his writings. People often ask what lay behind the choice of name. Pure chance, most probably, as was the case with the other names, Lenin's associates would reply.|pdf=|city=Moscow|publisher=Progress Publishers, CC CPSU|isbn=|doi=|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=EB243CBDFE643F26EEB1360F866F261F|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref>During the period of 1901–1902, the editorial board of the Iskra was drafting a programme for the RSDLP in preparation for the Second Congress of the party. Sharp ideological differences between Plekhanov and Lenin arose, and they wrote different drafts for the programme, which was later united into a single programme by a dedicated committee. Most notably, Lenin insisted on advocating the [[dictatorship of the proletariat]] as an essential condition of the revolution in the party programme.<ref name="cpsubio-married22222322">{{Citation|author=Pyotr Pospelov & Institute of Marxism-Leninism|year=1965|title=Lenin: a biography|chapter=For a proletarian party of a new type|section=The spark will kindle a flame|page=79-80|quote=In January 1902, Lenin presented critical remarks on Plekhanov's draft. He strongly criticised, also, the second draft that Plekhanov submitted. The ideas presented; Lehin pointed out, were formulated far too abstractly, particularly in the parts dealing with Russian capitalism. Further, the second draft omitted "reference to the dictatorship of the proletariat"; it failed to stress the leading role of the working class as the only truly revolutionary class ; it spoke, not of the class struggle of the proletariat, but of the common struggle of all the toiling and exploited; it did not sufficiently bring out the proletarian nature of the Party.|pdf=|city=Moscow|publisher=Progress Publishers, CC CPSU|isbn=|doi=|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=EB243CBDFE643F26EEB1360F866F261F|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> In 1902, Lenin published his famous work, ''[[Library:What is to be done?|What is to be done?]]'', presenting a thorough analysis of the international opportunist trends in social-democratic organizations of Europe.<ref name="cpsubio-married222223222">{{Citation|author=Pyotr Pospelov & Institute of Marxism-Leninism|year=1965|title=Lenin: a biography|chapter=For a proletarian party of a new type|section=What is to be done?|page=83|quote=Disclosing the international nature of opportunism, Lenin showed that, while assuming different forms in different countries, in its content opportunism remained everywhere the same. In France it found expression in Millerandism; in England, in trade-unionism; in Germany, in Bernsteinism; in Russian Social-Democracy, in Economism.|pdf=|city=Moscow|publisher=Progress Publishers, CC CPSU|isbn=|doi=|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=EB243CBDFE643F26EEB1360F866F261F|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> In this book, he also addressed organizational questions and issues of the Russian social-democracy at the time, reinforcing the need for a united social-democratic revolutionary party.<ref name="cpsubio-married2222232222">{{Citation|author=Pyotr Pospelov & Institute of Marxism-Leninism|year=1965|title=Lenin: a biography|chapter=For a proletarian party of a new type|section=What is to be done?|page=86|quote=A considerable part of What is to be done? was devoted to organizational questions, on which, too, Lenin gave battle to the Economists. Restricting the concept of the political tasks of the pro•letariat, the Economists belittled the leading role of the party in the working-class movement, depreciated its organizational tasks. They justified the amateurish methods, petty practicality, and lack of unity of the local organizations. Lenin once more comprehensively substantiated the necessity for building up a centralised, united organization of revolutionaries. To achieve that, he pointed out, it was necessary that every attempt to depreciate the political tasks and restrict the scope of organizational work be denounced by the mass of the party's practical workers.|pdf=|city=Moscow|publisher=Progress Publishers, CC CPSU|isbn=|doi=|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=EB243CBDFE643F26EEB1360F866F261F|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref>The draft of the programme for the RSDLP was published in Iskra in June, 1902, and in the Second Congress of the RSDLP, held in July–August 1903, the party adopted the programme with minor changes. The adopted programme was the party's programme until after the revolution, in 1919.<ref>{{Citation|author=Marxists Internet Archive|year=2003|title=Material for the preparation of the programme of the R.S.D.L.P|chapter=|section=|page=|quote=The draft programme of the R.S.D.L.P. drawn up by the Editorial Board of Iskra and Zarya was published in Iskra, No. 21, June 1, 1902, and the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P., held July 17-August 10 (July 30-August 23), 1903, adopted the Iskra draft programme of the Party, with minor changes.<br><br>The programme of the R.S.D.L.P. existed until 1919, when a new programme was adopted at the Eighth Congress of the R.C.P. (B.). The theoretical part of the programme of the R.S.D.L.P., which described the general laws and tendencies of capitalist development, was included in the new programme of the R.C.P.(B.), on V. I. Lenin’s proposal.|pdf=|city=|publisher=|isbn=|doi=|lg=|mia=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/lifework/worklife/1901.htm|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> The Second Congress' agenda included a discussion of the party programme, the party organization, the election of the central committee and the editorial board of the party's central newspaper organ. In this congress, Lenin set a resolute struggle against the persisting opportunist trends of the "Economists" on the basis of ideological and organizational principles.<ref name="cpsubio-married22222322222">{{Citation|author=Pyotr Pospelov & Institute of Marxism-Leninism|year=1965|title=Lenin: a biography|chapter=For a proletarian party of a new type|section=At the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P|page=94-95|quote=The Congress agenda in•cluded twenty items, the most important of these being: the Party Programme; the organisation of the Party (adoption of the Party Rules); and election of the Central Committee and of the editorial board of the Central Organ.<br>[...]<br>Lenin, and with him the firm Iskrists, fought at the Congress for the building of the Party on the basis of ideological and organizational principles advocated by Iskra, for a solid and militant party, closely bound up with the mass working-class movement – a party of a new type, differing fundamentally from the reformist parties of the Second International. Lenin and the Iskrists sought to found a party that would be the vanguard, class-conscious, organized detachment of the working class, armed with revolutionary theory, with a knowledge of the laws of development of society and of the class struggle, with the experience gained in the revolutionary movement.|pdf=|city=Moscow|publisher=Progress Publishers, CC CPSU|isbn=|doi=|lg=http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=EB243CBDFE643F26EEB1360F866F261F|mia=|title-url=|chapter-url=|trans-title=|trans-lang=}}</ref> As a result of this congress, Lenin's supporters received the majority of votes in the Party election and they began to be known as Bolsheviks,<ref group="lower-alpha">Russian: Большевики, from большинство, 'majority'</ref> while the opportunists in minority became known as [[Mensheviks]].<ref group="lower-alpha">Russian: Меньшевики, from меньшинство, 'minority'</ref>