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 creat- 
ing 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 theo- 
retically 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 sec- 
tions 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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