The Sixth Congress of the R.S.D.L.P.

It was held under semi-legal conditions in Petrograd from August 8 to 16, 1917 (only the meeting was announced, but the address of the meeting was not revealed). The Congress was attended by 157 delegates with voting rights and 110 with consultative rights. They represented about 240,000 party members. Lenin was then living in seclusion on the shores of Lake Razliv, hiding from the secret agents of the bourgeois Provisional Government, but he led the Congress secretly through Stalin, Sverdlov, Molotov, and Ordzhonikidze in Petrograd. Stalin made the political report of the Central Committee in accordance with Lenin's instructions.

The Congress discussed the report of the Central Committee, and questions on the political-economical situation, whether Lenin should appear in court for trial (The Congress decided unanimously that Lenin should not appear and expressed its protest against the government’s harassment of the leader of the proletariat.), etc. The Congress elected the Central Committee consisting of 21 members and 10 alternate members. The Congress adopted a decision on the establishment of a Control Commission consisting of three deputies of the Moscow Region Party Organization and two deputies of the Petrograd City Party Organization. The Congress also determined the guidelines for the preparation of an armed uprising against the bourgeoisie and its provisional government. It was the last party Congress held before the revolution and played a decisive role in the victory of the socialist October Revolution.