LENIN ON ORGANIZATION
WHERE TO BEGIN?
(From “Where to Begin?,” “Iskra” No. 4,
May, 1901).
. . . In our opinion, the starting point of all
our activities, the first practical step towards creating
 the organization we desire and the factor which
will enable us constantly to develop, to broaden and
deepen that organization, is the creation of a
national (all-Russian) political newspaper. A paper
is what we need above all; without it we cannot
systematically carry on that extensive and theoretically
 sound propaganda and agitation which is
the chief and constant duty of the Social Democrats
in general, and the essential task of the present
moment in particular, when interest in politics and
in questions of Socialism has seized upon wide sections
 of the population. Never before has the need
been so strongly felt for supplementing individual
dgitation in the form of personal influence, local
leaflets, pamphlets, etc., by a general and regularly
conducted agitation, such as can be carried on only
with the assistance of a periodical press. It would
be hardly an exaggeration to say that the frequency
and regular publication (and distribution) of the
paper would serve as an exact measure of the extent

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