Editing Vladimir Lenin (section)

===Munich, London and Geneva: 1900–1905===
His exile over, Vladimir was banned from St. Petersburg, instead settling in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pskov Pskov], a small town two hours' train ride from the capital, in February 1900. His wife, who had not served the entirety of her sentence, remained in exile in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ufa Ufa], where she fell ill.Intent on founding a newspaper, Vladimir and Struve raised money for the publication of ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iskra Iskra]'' (''The Spark''), a new organ of the Russian Marxist movement, now calling itself the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Social_Democratic_Labour_Party Russian Social Democratic Labour Party] (RSDLP). After visiting his wife, on 29 July 1900, Vladimir left Russia for Western Europe. In Switzerland and Germany, he met with Axelrod, Plekhanov and Potresov, and lectured on the Russian situation. On 24 August 1900, a conference of Russian Marxists was held in the Swiss town of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corsier Corsier] to discuss ''Iskra'', but both Vladimir and Potresov were shocked at Plekhanov's controlling nature and [[Anti-Semitism|antisemitism]]. It was agreed that the paper would be produced in Munich, where Vladimir moved in September 1900. The first issue was printed on Christmas Eve, and contained an article written by Vladimir decrying European intervention in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_Rebellion Boxer Rebellion]. A second RSDLP publication, ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zarya_%28publication%29 Zarya]'', appeared in March 1901, and would run for four issues, but ''Iskra'' was far more successful, being smuggled into Russia illegally, becoming the most successful Russian underground publication for 50 years. It contained contributions from such figures as the Polish [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg], the Czech-German [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Kautsky Karl Kautsky], and a young Ukrainian Marxist, [[Leon Trotsky]], who became a regular contributor from the autumn of 1902.

Vladimir adopted the ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nom_de_guerre nom de guerre]'' of "Lenin" in December 1901, possibly taking the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Lena River Lena] as a basis, thereby imitating the manner in which Plekhanov had adopted the pseudonym of "Volgin" after the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Volga River Volga]. In 1902, he published a political pamphlet entitled ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_to_Be_Done%3F What Is to Be Done?]'' – named after Chernychevsky's novel – under this pseudonym. His most influential publication to date, it dealt with Lenin's thoughts on the need for a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanguard_party vanguard party] to lead the working-class to revolution. When his wife finished her sentence, she joined him in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich Munich]; she became his personal secretary, aiding the production of ''Iskra''. Together, they continued their political agitation, with Lenin writing further articles for ''Iskra'' and drafting the program for the RSDLP, attacking ideological dissenters and external critics. Despite remaining an orthodox Marxist, he had begun to accept the Social Revolutionary Party's views on the revolutionary power of the Russian peasantry, penning a pamphlet in 1903 entitled ''To the Village Poor''.

In 1903, Lenin attended the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2nd_Congress_of_the_Russian_Social_Democratic_Labour_Party 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party], which initially convened at [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels Brussels] before moving to London. Here a longstanding ideological split developed within the party between the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolshevik Bolshevik] faction, led by Lenin, and the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menshevik Menshevik] faction, led by Martov. These terms "Bolshevik" (from the Russian ''bol'shinstvo'' meaning "majority") and "Menshevik" (from the Russian ''menshinstvo'' meaning "minority") derive from the narrow Bolshevik electoral defeat of the Mensheviks to the party's newspaper editorial board, and to central committee leadership The break partly originated from Lenin's book ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_to_Be_Done%3F What Is to Be Done?]'' (1902), which proposed a smaller party organisation of ''professional'' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary revolutionaries], with ''Iskra'' in a primary [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideology ideologic] role. Another issue that divided the two factions was Lenin's support of a worker-peasant alliance to overthrow the Tsarist regime as opposed to the Menshevik's support of an alliance between the working classes and the liberal bourgeoisie to achieve the same aim (while a small third faction led by Trotsky espoused the view that the working class alone was the instrument of revolutionary change—needing no help from either the peasants or the middle classes).