1st Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party

The venue was a house belonging to Rumyantsev, a railway worker on the outskirts of Minsk (now in the town centre).

The Congress was convened by three major social democratic groups from different areas of the Russian Empire.

The Congress also elected a Central Committee of three: Stepan Radchenko, one of the oldest Russian social democrats and a leader of the Saint Petersburg League, Boris Eidelman of Rabochaya Gazeta and Arkadi Kremer,[8] a Jewish Bund leader.

[7] The first Congress failed to unite the Russian Social Democracy, neither through the proposed Statutes nor the Programme.

A wave of police repression followed, which prevented the party from functioning as a cohesive body for several years and ushered in a period of internal schisms and dissension.