Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 16 - From Marx to Mao

65A WORD TO THE BOLSHEVIKS OF ST. PETERSBURGBy the time this issue of Proletary reaches Russia the electioncampaign in St. Petersburg will be over. Hence itis quite in place now to discuss with the St. Petersburg Bolsheviks—andall the Russian Social-Democrats—the strugglewith the ultimatumists, which almost came to the point ofa total split in St. Petersburg during the election and whichis of tremendous significance for the whole Social-DemocraticLabour Party in Russia.First of all the four stages of this struggle have to be clearlyestablished, after which we shall dwell on the significanceof the struggle and on certain differences of opinion betweenourselves and a section of the Bolsheviks in St. Petersburg.These four stages are as follows: 1) At the Conference of theenlarged editorial board of Proletary held abroad the attitudeof the Bolsheviks to otzovism and ultimatumism wasdefinitely stated, and the fact of Comrade Maximov’s splittingoff was also noted (Proletary No. 46 and its Supplement*).2) In a special leaflet likewise printed and circulatedabroad, entitled “Report of the Members Removed from theEnlarged Editorial Board of Proletary to the BolshevikComrades”, Comrades Maximov and Nikolayev (conditionallyand partially supported by Comrades Marat and Domov)set out their views on the policy of Proletary as a “Menshevik”policy, etc., and defended their ultimatumism. An analysisof this leaflet was given in a special supplement to ProletaryNo. 47-48.** 3) At the very beginning of the election campaignin St. Petersburg the Executive Committee of the St.Petersburg Committee of our Party adopted an ultimatumist* See present edition, Vol. 15, pp. 425-33, 442-60.—Ed.** See pp. 29-61 of this volume.—Ed.