The Fifth (London) Congress¶
Core Argument¶
The Fifth (London) Congress of the RSDLP, held from April to May 1907, marked a decisive shift in the balance of forces within Russian Social Democracy, confirming the Bolsheviks’ ascendancy over the Mensheviks after a year of revolutionary turbulence. The chapter establishes that rank-and-file discontent with the Duma fraction’s conduct, particularly its conciliatory line, provided the immediate impetus for convening the congress. After being refused venues in Denmark and Sweden under tsarist pressure, the congress finally assembled in a Fabian Society church in Whitechapel — an irony the author notes with evident relish. The gathering was the most representative yet, with 303 delegates from 150,000 members across 145 organisations, including the Polish, Latvian, and Bundist parties. The author stresses that membership figures are unreliable due to factional inflation, but the trend is clear: the party’s left wing grew faster than the right, reflecting the radicalisation of advanced workers and students even as reaction set in.
The factional line-up was finely balanced but tipped toward the Bolsheviks, who held 89 full delegates against 88 Mensheviks, with the non-Russian parties — particularly the 44-strong Polish delegation led by Rosa Luxemburg, Markhlevsky, and Tyszka — swinging the congress sharply left. The author highlights the calibre of participants: Plekhanov, Martov, and Axelrod for the Mensheviks; Lenin, Bogdanov, Zinoviev, and Kamenev for the Bolsheviks; Trotsky as a non-factional delegate; and a young, credentialless Georgian named Ivanov — later Stalin — who passed entirely unnoticed. The Okhrana’s own reports are cited to confirm that Menshevism had declined as the Duma’s impotence became apparent, while “extreme revolutionary tendencies” gained ground.
The chapter’s core argument is that this congress constituted the first real debate on strategy and tactics between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, surpassing the preliminary skirmishes of the Second Congress. The agenda ranged from the Duma and bourgeois parties to trade unions, partisan activity, and organisational questions. Martov’s Central Committee report was countered by Bogdanov’s Bolshevik counter-report, and the congress opened with heated exchanges. Plekhanov’s assurance that no revisionists existed in the party provoked Lenin’s silent laughter. The Mensheviks’ spiteful attempt to challenge Lenin’s credentials was shouted down, setting the tone for proceedings. The chapter thus positions the London Congress as the moment when the revolutionary wing of Russian Social Democracy consolidated its hegemony, foreshadowing the struggles to come.