"One Step Forward, Two Steps Back – The Crisis in Our Party” written by Vladimir Lenin and published in May 1904. Lenin wrote this immediately after the Second Congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party that was held in Brussels and London from July 30 to August 23, 1903. At the Congress there was an irreconcilable struggle between the Bolsheviks, with Lenin at the head, and the Mensheviks, headed by Julius Martov.

Some decisions that the congress adopted were, as Lenin mentions in his book, "a step forward" in comparison with the recent past. However, the Mensheviks did everything they could to force the party after this "step forward" to make "two steps back" and return to the former disorganization. This name turned into a definition for any timid, indecisive policy, for the activities of those people who constantly hesitated; after doing something, they would retreat in fear the next day, persuading the others to move more carefully, more circumspectly - "a slow step".

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