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The Elections to the Fourth Duma

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Russian Social Democracy and the Legal Labour Movement, 1906–14

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Abstract

It is now necessary to retrace our steps, to return to the spring of 1911, when news came to the emigrés of the arrest of the Russian Bureau of the Central Committee in Tula. With their arrest, Lenin issued another ultimatum, either the plenum of the Central Committee meet abroad, or he would found the Bolshevik faction once again. Twice before he had threatened to reform his faction, but on both occasions he had been persuaded to back down by the conciliator Bolsheviks and the Poles. Now, with the Fourth Duma elections rapidly approaching, he had to act. Of course, there was a strong element of bravado in Lenin’s action. His faction was at best half a faction, for even among the emigrés conciliators dominated. However, the sheer impossibility of reforming the Central Committee in Russia was enough to persuade the Poles and the conciliators that the impasse had to be broken, the Central Committee had to meet abroad if the sixth party conference was ever to be summoned. According to the party’s constitution, now that the Russian Bureau had been arrested, the Foreign Bureau should act, either by organising a further meeting in Russia, or by organising a foreign plenum itself.

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Notes and References

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  1. Geoffrey Swain
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© 1983 Geoffrey Swain

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Swain, G. (1983). The Elections to the Fourth Duma. In: Russian Social Democracy and the Legal Labour Movement, 1906–14. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-05849-5_6

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