Where to Begin?
С чего начать?
The leading article of Iskra No. 4 (May 1901), in which Lenin answers the question of where Russian Social-Democrats should begin: not with calls for terror or an immediate assault, but with an all-Russian political newspaper that would serve as collective propagandist, agitator and organiser, the “scaffolding” of a disciplined party. He developed the plan a year later in What Is to Be Done?
- Edition
- Translated for the Compendium from the Russian text of the Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, 5th ed., vol. 5 (Moscow, 1967), which follows the first publication in Iskra No. 4 (May 1901). The editors’ notes are omitted.
- Source
- Russian Wikisource
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Contents
- Where to Begin? 19 min 22
Lenin’s leading article for Iskra No. 4 (May 1901). Against Rabocheye Dyelo’s sudden “historic turn” from Economism to calls for storming the autocracy, and against the revival of terror, he argues that the party’s task is not an immediate assault but a “regular siege”: building a fighting organisation in advance. Its first step should be an all-Russian political newspaper, which would be not only a collective propagandist and agitator but a collective organiser, like scaffolding round a building, creating a network of agents able to lead any outbreak.