When Lenin was in London (1902–1903) the newspaper was edited from a small office at 37a Clerkenwell Green, EC1,[4] with Henry Quelch arranging the necessary printworks.

[1] In 1903, following the split of the RSDLP, Chairman Georgi Plekhanov chose to seek reconciliation with dissident party members who had walked out on the vote to reduce the number of seats on the editorial board from six to three.

[2] The paper also ran a number of notable polemics against "economists", who argued against political struggle in favour of pure trade union activity for the worker's economic interests, as well as the Socialist Revolutionaries, who advocated terror tactics.

[8][failed verification] In the book What Is to Be Done?, Lenin argues that trade union activity, although being a good starting point for revolution, would only stay at the level of trade-unionist politics and would not be capable, in itself, of challenging the aristocracy or capitalism.

[2] As one of the editors, Lenin was "allowed a virtual monopoly over communications with party workers in Russia and could count on the acquiescence of his colleagues in his endeavours to put his organizational program into practice.