Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 13 - From Marx to Mao

PREFACE TO THE COLLECTION TWELVE YEARS107Geneva newspaper Vperyod 63 ),* or to the numerous repetitionsof it in Menshevik literature. I did not reply becausePlekhanov’s criticism was obviously mere cavilling, basedon phrases torn out of context, on particular expressionswhich I had not quite adroitly or precisely formulated.Moreover, he ignored the general content and the wholespirit of my pamphlet What Is To Be Done? which appearedin March 1902. The draft Party programme (framed by Plekhanovand amended by the Iskra editors) appeared in Juneor July 1902. Its formulation of the relation between spontaneityand political consciousness was agreed upon by allthe Iskra editors (my disputes with Plekhanov over theprogramme, which took place in the editorial board, werenot on this point, but on the question of small productionbeing ousted by large-scale production, concerning which Icalled for a more precise formula than Plekhanov’s, andon the difference in the standpoint of the proletariat orof the labouring classes generally; on this point I insistedon a narrower definition of the purely proletarian characterof the Party).Consequently, there could be no question of any differencein principle between the draft Party programme and WhatIs To Be Done? on this issue. At the Second Congress (August1903) Martynov, who was then an Economist, challengedour views on spontaneity and political consciousnessas set forth in the programme. He was opposed byall the Iskrists, as I emphasise in One Step Forward. Henceit is clear that the controversy was essentially betweenthe Iskrists and the Economists, who attacked what wascommon both to What Is To Be Done? and the programmedrafts. Nor at the Second Congress did I have any intentionof elevating my own formulations, as given in What IsTo Be Done?, to programmatic level, constituting specialprinciples. On the contrary, the expression I used—and it has since been frequently quoted—was that theEconomists had gone to one extreme. What Is To Be Done?,I said, straightens out what had been twisted by the Economists(cf. minutes of the Second R.S.D.L.P. Congress in1903, Geneva, 1904). I emphasised that just because we were* See present edition, Vol. 8, p. 245.—Ed.