To Members of the Politbureau of the C.C., R.C.P.(B.) -1920

April 19 and May 6, 1920

Lenin Collected Works, Volume 42, page 187

To Members of the Politbureau:

Please read this. Interesting. I am for seeking a compromise with them.[1]

Lenin

Notes

[1] Lenin’s note was written in connection with the decisions of the Twelfth Conference of the Bund held April 42-19, 1920. The resolutions of this conference with Lenin’s marks are to be found in the Central Party Archives of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the C.C., C.P.S.U. In the resolution “On the. Present Situation and the Tasks of Our Party” Lenin marked oil the following passage: 14. Summing up the experience of the last year, the Twelfth Conference of the Bund finds: 1) that the Bund, in principle, had adopted the communist platform since the Eleventh Conference, 2) that the Programme of the Communist Party, which is also the programme of the Soviet government, corresponds with the fundamental platform of the Bund, 3) that a ’united socialist front’ with principled opponents of Soviet power, who draw a line between the proletariat and its government, is impossible, 4) that the moment has come when the Bund can relinquish its official oppositional stand and take upon itself responsibility for the Soviet government’s policy.”

At the same time, the resolution on organisational questions stated that “the logical consequence of the political stand adopted by the Bund is the latter’s entry into the R.C.P on the same basis as the Bund’s membership of the R.S.D.L.P. (underlined by Lenin). The conference uthorised the C.C. of the Bund to see to it, as an essential condition, that the Bund preserve within the R.C.P. the status of ,an autonomous organisation of the Jewish proletariat” (marked off by Lenin).

On May 6, 1920, the Politbureau of the C.C.. R.C.P.(B.) discussed the question of ,The Conditions for the Bund’s Admission to Membership of the R.C.P.” and resolved: ,that Kamenay, Stalin and Preobrazhensky be authorised to receive the representatives of the Bund and hear their proposals” (Central Party Archives, Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the C.C., C.P.S.TJ.).

At its Thirteenth Conference in 1921 the Bund decided to dissolve itself, and part of its membership joined the B.C.P.(B.) on the basis of the rules of admission.