When the first congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party was held, Russia had not yet established an influential and national Marxist political newspaper. Proletarian political parties need such newspapers. The newspaper Mars, founded by Lenin and others in 1900, was an important propaganda position for Russian Marxists in the early 20th century and made great contributions to the establishment of a real Russian Marxist political party. When Lenin was still in exile in Siberia, he carefully considered the plan of running a newspaper to build the party. 1900 1, Lenin left the exile in Siberia and immediately set out to realize his long-planned newspaper. In the first half of this year, Lenin went to Ufa, Moscow, Petersburg, Smolensk and other places to meet some Marxists and discuss with them the policy of running a newspaper and how to raise funds for running it. In July of the same year, Lenin came to Switzerland and met with plekhanov, Axeri Rhodes and Cha Suric, the main members of the Labor Liberation Society. They agreed to publish the Mars newspaper abroad. The newspaper was first published in Leipzig, then in Munich, London and Geneva. The editorial board of Mars consists of Lenin, plekhanov, martov, axelrod, Cha Sulic and Pautre Soff. Lenin is actually the editor-in-chief and organizer of this newspaper. In addition to carefully considering the newspaper's political policy and writing editorials, he also spent a lot of energy personally assembling manuscripts and reviewing proofs of articles. Krupskaya used to be the secretary of the editorial department of Mars.

The first issue of Mars was published in 1900 and 65438+ February. The positive inscription is taken from the poem in the letter of Russian December revolutionaries to the famous poet Pushkin: "Look at the fire of a star, it burns into a raging flame!" " "This short and passionate poem expresses the newspaper owner's belief in the victory of the proletarian revolution. The publication of this newspaper not only inspired Russian Marxists living abroad, but also promoted the revolutionary struggle of the Russian working class. Newspapers were secretly transported to Russia for distribution, and workers rushed to read them. Mars newspaper is not only a revolutionary public opinion organ, but also the leading center of Russian workers' movement. At that time, there were opportunist groups (economic groups) and other petty bourgeoisie groups (populists) in the movement against the czar's authoritarian government. Although these groups are opposed to tsarist absolutism, they are also opposed to Marxism and the socialist goals of the working class. Marxists must draw a clear ideological line with temporary fellow travelers and all kinds of opportunists. The first is to draw a clear line with Bernstein's believer economics. When The Mars was published, the editorial department of the newspaper issued a statement saying: "We advocate the thorough development of Marx and Engels' thoughts, and resolutely oppose the specious and ambiguous opportunistic amendments rashly proposed by Ai Bernstein and Pi Sturuwei, which are very popular at present. "

Mars' main task is to fight for the establishment of a Marxist political party in Russia. The first issue of the newspaper published an editorial entitled "The Urgent Task of Our Movement" drafted by Lenin. The editorial pointed out that without a strong Marxist political party, the proletariat could not carry out conscious class struggle, the workers' movement would be in a state of disintegration, the working class could not complete the great mission entrusted by history, the working class and other workers would be enslaved for a long time, and the outstanding fighters of the working class would be persecuted by the reactionary ruling class. After the publication of Mars, Lenin published Where to Start? ? "and a series of important articles, discusses the party building and the fundamental principles of the Russian proletariat in the revolutionary struggle. In addition to publishing special issues, the newspaper also has columns such as inner-party news, memorabilia of the workers' movement and letters from factories, rural news, sketches of social life and foreign comments. Its circulation per issue is about 8,000 copies, sometimes exceeding 1000 copies. As a secret political newspaper, its circulation is quite large.

The improvement of the reputation and the expansion of the influence of Mars Newspaper can not be separated from the establishment of its agent network. The agent of Mars contacted revolutionary organizations at home and abroad and distributed newspapers to China. They listen to the voices of workers all over Russia, learn about social democratic organizations all over the country, and often provide materials for newspapers and write newsletters. The famous agents of Mars are: Krzhizhanovski, Livinov, Petrovsky, Kuluba, Dubrovski, Babushkin, Bowman, Sverdlov, Stalin, Stasova, Poporovskaya, Kalinin, Shao, Pyatnitski, Temriacheka and so on. Later, most of them became the backbone of the Bolshevik Party. Therefore, the establishment of "Mars" not only made ideological and public opinion preparations for the establishment of Russian Marxist political parties, but also trained a large number of cadres for the party. This newspaper used to be a school for training Party cadres and a gathering place for Russian professional revolutionaries. Mars newspaper believes that one of its important tasks is to unify the social democratic organizations scattered all over Russia at that time ideologically and guide them to engage in political struggles. Social Democratic organizations in most parts of Russia recognize Mars as its leading organ, support its political line and agree with its struggle strategy.

Before the second congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party was held, Mars also criticized the bourgeois nationalism of separatists and the terrorist tactics of social revolutionaries. At the beginning of the 20th century, some remaining populist groups united to form the "Social Revolutionary Party". Social revolutionaries are some petty-bourgeois adventurists. They inherit the tradition of the People's Party and advocate the road of individual terrorist struggle, which hinders the organization of the masses to carry out revolutionary struggle. Mars drafted a draft party program of the proletarian party. This draft points out the party's purpose and task, and ideologically unifies the scattered Russian Social Democratic Party organizations, thus laying the foundation for organizational unity. The draft party program clearly stipulates that the ultimate goal of the workers' movement is to replace capitalism with socialism; The means to achieve this goal are socialist revolution and proletarian dictatorship. The current task of the Russian Workers' Party is to overthrow the czar's autocratic system and establish a democratic republic. According to Lenin's suggestion, the editorial department of Mars published the draft party program on June 1902. The editorial department of Mars set up an organizing committee in the winter of 1902 to prepare for the second congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. The members of this organizing committee are representatives of all parties: Krasnouha (on behalf of the Petersburg Committee), Levin (on behalf of the Southern Workers' Daily), Lashchenko (on behalf of the Mars Daily), Stopani (on behalf of the Northern Association) and Portnoy (on behalf of the Collapse School); There are also Gorma Cirja Novski, Christopher Velinik, Peter A. Krause Foucault, etc. These people later became party member of the Bolshevik Party. The organizing committee was established in Pskov, Russia, which facilitated the contact with various social democratic labor organizations in China.

The second congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party was held in secret on July 30th, 1903 (Russian calendar1July) and opened in an old warehouse in Brussels, Belgium. The meeting was held in secret. However, it was discovered by the Belgian police and transferred to a club in London, England, and continued to be held in secret. The congress ended on August 23rd (August in Russian calendar 10). The Congress elected a presidium composed of plekhanov, Lenin and Foucault. The main task of this meeting is to "establish a real political party on the basis of the principles and organizations put forward and formulated by Mars". The activities of "Mars" in the past three years and the recognition of "Mars" by most committees have decided in advance that Congress should work according to this policy. This congress has 43 official delegates (565,438+0 votes), representing 26 organizations, including Mars, Labor Liberation Society, Russian Revolutionary Social Democratic Party Foreign Alliance, Russian Social Democratic Party Foreign Alliance, the collapsed Central and Foreign Committee, Southern Workers' Association, four social democratic alliances and 65,438+04. Among the delegates to this conference, Martians (people who support the Mars newspaper) are in the majority. The anti-Mars elements at the meeting are the collapse elements and economic elements, and they have 8 votes. The middle school that Lenin called "mire school" appeared at the meeting had 10 votes. Among Martians, they are divided into: staunch Martians (Lenin Martians) and so-called "moderate Martians" who follow martov; The former has 24 votes and the latter has only 9 votes. The staunch Marxists are: Lenin, plekhanov, Bowman, Clasey Foucault, Temriacheka, Shortman, gusev, Sesia Faneuf, Stopani, Knuanz, Knipovich, Liadov, Galdin, Willensky, Dey Ulyanov (Lenin's younger brother) and so on.

The Second Congress of Social Democratic Labor Party was held in secret in Brussels and London from July 30th to August 23rd, 1903. Representing complex composition, there are firm and unstable Martian elements and anti-Martian elements, so the struggle is fierce. The main agenda of the congress is to discuss and adopt the party platform, party constitution and the election of the party's leading bodies. When discussing the draft party program, the focus of the debate is whether to write the principle of proletarian dictatorship into the party program. After the struggle, the Mars faction headed by Lenin won. The party program adopted by the congress clearly stipulates that the necessary condition of socialist revolution is the dictatorship of the proletariat. After the death of Marx and Engels, this is the first revolutionary program in the international proletarian movement with the basic task of fighting for proletarian dictatorship. When discussing the first article of party constitution, the General Assembly held a more intense debate. Lenin and martov put forward draft articles respectively. The difference in principle between the two is the question of what party to establish. What Lenin wants to create is a disciplined, centralized and unified revolutionary party. All party member without exception must join the Party organization and accept the supervision and leadership of the Party. What martov wants is a complex, amorphous and undisciplined social group. Thanks to the support of opportunists and some unstable Martians, the conference adopted martov's article. In the election of the party's leading body, people who support Lenin are in the majority, so they are called Bolsheviks (that is, the majority). Martov is a minority, known as the Mensheviks (that is, ethnic minorities). Since then, there have been two factions with opposing political views within the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party.

The staunch Marxists, led by Lenin, resolutely refuted this opportunistic theory, prompting the party congress to affirm the fundamental principle of proletarian dictatorship in the party program adopted. The Party Program said: "The social revolution of the proletariat replaces private ownership with public ownership of means of production and circulation, organizes the social production process in a planned way, and ensures the welfare and all-round development of all members of society, which will certainly eliminate the class division of society, thus liberating all oppressed people and eliminating all forms of exploitation of others by some people in society. The necessary condition of this social revolution is the dictatorship of the proletariat, that is, the proletariat seized power to suppress all the resistance of the exploiters. " Compared with the party programs of the workers' parties in Europe at that time, it was the only party program that expressed the idea of proletarian dictatorship, thus inspiring the Russian proletariat to fight for power. When the General Assembly discussed the party constitution issue, especially the provisions on party member's qualification, there were differences within the Marsi faction. Martov's qualification clause about party member is: Anyone who recognizes the Party's program, helps the Party materially and often helps the Party under the leadership of the Party organization can be regarded as party member. The article on party member's qualification in Lenin's draft Party Constitution submitted to the General Assembly says: Anyone who recognizes the Party's program, helps the Party materially and participates in the Party's organization in person can be regarded as party member. Literally, the difference between these two clauses does not seem to be very big, but in fact they are different in principle.

In the process of discussing party constitution, martov thought that "the more party member, the better". According to his article, anyone who wants to join the party can become a party member, and all workers and intellectuals engaged in various occupations can join the party voluntarily, regardless of their ideological consciousness; They don't have to join the party organization and are not bound by the party's organizational discipline. If so, the party organization will be disorganized, and the workers' party will become a mass organization without shape and fighting capacity. Martov's "open door" policy will open the door for all people with weak revolutionary will and speculators, and turn the proletarian party into a club that can freely enter and leave. According to Lenin's regulations, any party member must join the Party organization, be bound by the Party's organizational discipline, and be educated by the Party's Marxism. Lenin believed that ten practical workers would rather not call themselves party member than give an empty talker the right and opportunity to be party member. He also said: "Our task is to protect the firmness, firmness and purity of our Party. We should strive to improve the status and role of party member, improve it, and then improve it. This is why I oppose the martov clause. " At the second congress of Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, there was a long debate on party member's qualification clause. Akimov, an opportunist, distorted and attacked Lenin's article, saying that Lenin tried his best to write "pure military and police spirit" into party constitution. But plekhanov supported Lenin when discussing party constitution. He said: "The more people talk about this topic, the more I ponder over your speeches, the more firmly I believe in my mind that truth is on Lenin's side." Because moderate Martians and other opportunists (economists, decomposers and centrists) all supported martov's stipulation, Lenin's stipulation on party member's qualification failed to pass.

Later, when choosing the Central Committee of the Party and the editorial department of Mars, there was a heated debate at the conference, and the Leninists won. Three members of the Central Committee, Gema Cirja Novski, F Wei Linjenik and F Ya Noskov, who were elected as members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, supported Lenin's line at the meeting. Since Leninists won the election of the Central Committee, opportunists demanded that the power of the Central Committee of the Party to dissolve local committees be restricted, and they tried to narrow and weaken the leading role of the Central Committee. However, in the party constitution adopted by the Congress, it is stipulated that the Central Committee shall guide all the practical activities of the Party, and Party organizations at all levels must implement all the resolutions of the CPC Central Committee. In the election of the editorial board of Mars, martov asked the original six editorial boards Lenin, plekhanov, martov, axelrod, Zha Sulic and Pautre Soff to be all elected, because it was beneficial to martov himself, and the last three supported him. Lenin opposed martov's idea, thinking that there were too many six editorial boards, so it was difficult to unify opinions and make decisions quickly and effectively. Leninists advocate that only Lenin, plekhanov and martov should be elected to form the new editorial board of Mars. The election result is only the choice of these three people (plekhanov 23 votes, Lenin 20 votes, martov 22 votes). Therefore, martov announced his resignation from the editorial department, which led to the split of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party.

Because the second congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party supported Lenin's majority in the elections of the Central Committee and the Mars newspaper, it was called Bolshevik (the meaning of majority) and the minority opposed to Lenin was called Menshevik (the meaning of minority). Therefore, at the second congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, the Bolshevik Party was officially announced. This is also a great historical achievement of this congress. Since then, Menshevik has become synonymous with opportunism, Bolshevik has become a symbol of loyalty to the proletarian revolutionary cause, and Bolshevik Party has become synonymous with Marxist political parties. Lenin thought: "The Bolsheviks existed as a political trend of thought and a political party from 1903." The birth of the Bolshevik Party was not accidental, but the inevitable result of the development of the Russian revolutionary workers' movement. It was formed on the basis of the party's ideological principles and organizational principles formulated by Lenin's Mars. It came into being in the struggle against all kinds of opportunism. The birth of the Bolshevik Party can not be separated from the efforts of Lenin Mars School, so Lenin is recognized as the founder and leader of the Bolshevik Party. Plekhanov, as the first generation of Russian Marxists, once belonged to the firm Marxists, supported Lenin, and made great achievements in the second congress of Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. However, after this congress, he quickly reconciled with the Mensheviks, gradually slipped into the quagmire of the Mensheviks and went to the opposite of the Bolsheviks.

Since its birth, the Bolshevik Party headed by Lenin has been making unremitting efforts for the victory of Russian bourgeois democratic revolution and socialist revolution. Actively participated in the bourgeois democratic revolution in February 1905 and February 19 17, led the proletariat to win the great victory of the October Revolution and established the first socialist country in the world. The establishment of the Bolshevik Party is of great historical significance to the international proletarian movement. It united Marxists from all countries, waged unremitting struggles with revisionists from the Second International, safeguarded the purity of Marxism and proletarian internationalism, and supported the establishment of production parties in all countries.