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

518 NOTES75 The Conference of the St. Petersburg Organisation of the R.S.D.L.P.was held in Terijoki on October 27 (November 9), 1907. It was attendedby 57 delegates with the right to vote and 11 consultativedelegates. The agenda consisted of the following items: 1) Reportof the St. Petersburg Committee of the R.S.D.L.P. on the electioncampaign to the Third Duma; 2) Report on the activities of theCentral Committee; 3) The All-Russian Conference; 4) The trial ofthe Second Duma’s Social-Democratic group, 5) Unemployment6) Re-election of the city conference and other organisationalquestions.The report of the St. Petersburg Committee stated that the policeused brutal violence against the working-class voters during theelections to the Third Duma, prevented the Social-Democrats fromconducting their election campaign, and so on. The report alsomentioned the existence in St. Petersburg of an absolutely independentorganisation of the Mensheviks, which was kept a secret fromthe Party.The report on the activities of the Central Committee pointedout that the latter’s efficiency was inadequate owing to the absenceof a stable majority. On many important questions (the publicationof a Central Organ, endorsement of the resolution on the tradeunions, discussion of the Duma group’s first steps, etc.) the CentralCommittee had not been able to arrive at any decisions owing to thedisruptive role of the Mensheviks On this item of the agendathe Conference expressed the wish that the representatives of theSt. Petersburg organisation at the forthcoming All-Russian Conferenceshould do their utmost to “help the C.C. out of the presentimpasse and raise its activities to the requisite level” (Proletary,No. 20, November 19, 1907).Lenin delivered reports at the Conference on the preparations forthe All-Russian Conference, namely, on the tactics of the Social-Democratic group in the Third Duma and the participation ofSocial-Democrats in the bourgeois press. On the questions of S.D.tactics in the Duma the Conference voted for Lenin’s resolution bya majority of 37 against 12. Those who voted against it were theMensheviks, who proposed supporting the “Left” Octobrists in theThird Duma and voting for a “Left” Octobrist in the election to theDuma presidium. The Conference adopted the Bolsheviks’ motionthat it was inadmissible for Social-Democrats to participate in thebourgeois press. During the discussion of the trial against the S.D.group in the Second Duma, Lenin informed the Conference that hehad notified the International Socialist Bureau about the impendingtrial, and that the Bureau, through the International ParliamentaryUnion, would raise the question in the British, German, and Belgianparliaments in order to draw the attention of the internationalworking class to this matter. The Conference decided to call a onedaystrike of the men and women workers of St. Petersburg and thegubernia on the opening day of the trial against the S.D. group ofthe Second Duma.The Conference elected two Bolshevik delegates to the All-RussianConference of the R.S.D.L.P. p. 135