November 17, 1903

2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party

Second RSDLP Congress closes after producing Bolshevik and Menshevik alignments

The future "minority" won the famous membership vote: Martov beat Lenin 28–23. And the listed split date, 17 November, has no secure event behind it.

The vote Lenin lost

The Second Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party met in Brussels and then London from 30 July to 23 August 1903, New Style. On the membership rule, Julius Martov's broader formula defeated Vladimir Lenin's by 28 votes to 23.

Lenin's clause required recognition of the programme, financial support and personal participation in a party organisation. It did not say "full-time professional revolutionaries obeying central leadership" — that is an interpretive gloss, not the wording put to the ballot.

Forty-three delegates holding fifty-one mandates were present for that debate.

How the "majority" was assembled

Lenin's side became the majority only after seven votes left the hall: five Bund representatives and two from Rabocheye Dyelo, the "Economists". With those gone, his supporters carried the elections to the party's central bodies.

Iskra's editorial board was the other battleground, and a three-person board was elected 25–2 with 17 abstentions. Georgi Plekhanov chaired the congress, initially sided with Lenin, and then sought reconciliation by restoring the former editors.

When the congress closed on 23 August, the two groupings were rival factions inside one party rather than two separate parties.

Where 17 November came from, and didn't

The consulted congress records do not identify 17 November as the date the two factions were created. The foundational votes had all happened in July and August.

A popular History Today account dates an "irrevocable" split to 16 November and connects it with Lenin's resignation. Lenin's surviving statement is dated 1 November New Style, and on 18 November he merely requested publication of an announcement effective from 1 November.

Historians separate the 1903 emergence of factions from the later organisational rupture: the party held a Unification Congress in 1906, and some date the Bolsheviks' existence as a fully separate party to 1912.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 7 sources not yet audited Date disputed

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Date disputed. Sources disagree; the research places it at 1903-08-23.

What the sources leave uncertain

The listed 17 November date is not supported by the congress record. The foundational votes occurred during the July–August congress, which ended on 23 August Gregorian style. Source: https://docs.historyrussia.org/ru/nodes/19331
A popular History Today account dates an 'irrevocable' split to 16 November and connects it with Lenin’s resignation. Lenin’s surviving statement, however, is dated 1 November New Style; on 18 November he merely requested publication of an announcement effective from 1 November. Source: https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1903/nov/01a.htm
Russian sources commonly give both Julian and Gregorian dates: 17 July–10 August Old Style equals 30 July–23 August New Style. Source: https://docs.historyrussia.org/ru/nodes/19331
Historians distinguish the emergence of factions in 1903 from later organizational ruptures; some date their existence as fully separate parties to 1912. Source: https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/191/