A Draft of Our Party Programme

The draft programme written by Lenin for the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party. This is the continuation of The Draft Programme of the Social-Democratic Party and Its Notes written by Lenin in prison from 1895 to 1896, which was completed at the end of 1899. It is contained in Vol. 1, Russian first edition of Collected Works of Lenin published in 1924. The Chinese translation is included in Vol. 4 of the Complete Works of Lenin, i.e., the 2nd revised edition.

At the end of the 19th century, the Russian workers’ movement flourished, but there was serious dispersion and spontaneity. In the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party, the economic faction, which was dominant for a while, respected Bernstein’s doctrine, was infatuated with the spontaneity of the movement, satisfied with the state of dispersion, was indulged in the economic struggle, ignored the political tasks of the proletarian movement, denied the Party’s leading role, and became a serious obstacle for the strengthening of the proletarian class consciousness and hindered the establishment of an advanced new Marxist party. Lenin began the debate against them with a view to eliminate their erroneous influence. The main contents of this article were: Lenin pointed out the urgency of formulating a program for the Russian Social Democrats. At that time, it was thought that the development, professionalization and consolidation of local organizations was more urgent than the formulation of a political program. But Lenin argued: “None of the Marxists denied that the program is of great significance for the unity and consistent activities of a political party. At present, the urgent task of Russia is not to establish newspapers and publication, but to formulate a program to meet the requirements of the revolutionary movement itself. The program can express our basic views, clarify the political tasks and put forward urgent requirements, so as to determine the scope of the agitation work and develop and deepen it gradually.”

Lenin spoke highly of the program draft of the League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class and pointed out that it reflected advanced level of Social-Democratic theory at that time. The draft put forward that the only class which is capable of being an independent fighter for socialism is the “industrial proletariat”, and the ultimate goal of the working-class struggle is to realize the “communist revolution”, which should be the theoretical basis of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party’s program, but Lenin wrote that it could be partially revised, modified and supplemented. He suggested to add “poverty, oppression, enslavement, humiliation and exploitation to this program.” Lenin also said that the Erfurt program of the Germans can be imitated, but the characteristics of Russia cannot be forgotten.

Lenin emphasized that there is a question of whether there is really a pressing need for a program of the Russian Social-Democracy, and put forward the preamble part and the practical part of the Russian Social-Democratic Working-Class Party program. For the preamble part, Lenin argued that there was no need to stipulate the struggle means or talk about the strategy in the preamble part; for the practical part Lenin argued that according to its essence, it could be divided into three parts: The demands for general democratic reforms is required (the demands  and propositions proposed in the draft program of the League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class  could be used without major modification); The demands for measures of protection for workers are required (the program of the labor liberation society can be used for reference a general requirement put forward by the leader); The demands for measures in the Interests of the peasants are required, Lenin has made important elaborations for the third part, as in the following:

Firstly, Lenin advocated that the programme should state the viewpoint of supporting the revolutionary struggle of the peasantry. It was pointed out that the peasant question in Russia differed significantly from that in Western Europe: The peasants in Western Europe were peasants in a bourgeois society; the Russian peasants were mainly peasants oppressed by pre-capitalist institutions and relations, by the remnants of serfdom no less (or even more) than by capitalism, and were the least powerful class of the Russian people, which was capable of revolutionary struggle against the remnants of serfdom and especially against the autocracy.

Secondly, Lenin pointed out that the Russian Social-Democratic working-class party demands five measures to support the specific struggle of the peasants, including: the abrogation of land redemption and quit-rent payments and of all duties at present obligatory for the peasantry as a tax-paying social-estate; the return to the people of the sums of which the government and the landed proprietors have robbed the peasants in the form of redemption payments; the abolition of collective liability and of all laws that hamper the peasant in disposing of his land; the abolition of all remnants of the peasant’s feudal dependence on the landlord, whether they are due to special laws and institutions or to the fact that the land of the peasants and the landlords has not yet been demarcated or to the fact that the cutting-off of the peasant land by the landlords has left the peasants in what is in actual fact the hopeless position of former corvée peasants; and that peasants be granted the right to demand, in court, the reduction of excessively high rents and to prosecute for usury landlords and, in general, all persons who take advantage of the necessitous condition of the peas ants to conclude with them shackling agreements.

Thirdly, Lenin pointed out that Social-Democracy’s “revolutionary appeal” to the peasants would not hinder the efforts of the industrial proletariat, on the contrary, if the peasantry prove themselves incapable, the Social-Democrats will have lost nothing as far as their good name or their movement is concerned, since it will not be their fault if the peasantry does not respond (may not have the strength to respond) to their revolutionary appeal, and the working-class movement is going its own way and will continue to do so.

Lenin concluded that the program of Russian Social-Democratic Working-Class Party should have the following parts: (1) A statement on the basic character of the economic development of Russia; (2) A statement on the inevitable result of capitalism: the growth of poverty and the increasing indignation of the workers; (3) A statement on the class struggle of the proletariat as the basis of our movement; (4) A statement on the final aims of the Social-Democratic working-class movement—on its striving to win political power for the accomplishment of these aims—and on the international character of the movement; (5) A statement on the essentially political nature of the class struggle; (6) A statement to the effect that the Russian absolutism, which conditions the lack of rights and the oppression of the people and patronises the exploiters, is the chief hindrance to the working-class movement, and that the winning of political liberty, essential in the interests of the entire social development, is, therefore, the most urgent political task of the Party; (7) A statement to the effect that the Party will support all parties and sections of the population that struggle against the autocracy and will combat the demagogic intrigues of our government; (8) The enumeration of the basic democratic demands; (9) Demands for the benefit of the working class; (10) Demands for the benefit of the peasantry, with an explanation of the general character of these demands.

The draft programme reflects Lenin’s unremitting struggle to defend Marxism, oppose local Russian revisionism and international revisionism, and pursues to establish a new type of proletarian party, and it is also part of our ideological treasure house in studying the party building and united front theories.