Before the Second Congress a young intellectual called [Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov]? joined the party, better known by his pseudonym - Lenin. In 1902 he had published What is to be Done?, outlining his view of the party's task and methodology - to form 'the vanguard of the proletariat' needed a disciplined, centralised party of committed activists.
In 1903 the Second Congress of the party met in Belgium to attempt to create a united force. At the congress the party split into two irreconcilable factions: the Bolsheviks (Bolshinstvo - majority party, Lenin's faction) and Mensheviks (Menshinstvo - minority party, actually the larger faction they were headed by [Julius Martov]?). It was Lenin's uncompromising stance on pushing his ideas that caused the split, he named the two factions too. Despite a number of attempts at reunification the split proved permanent.
The SDs boycotted elections to the First Duma? (April-July 1906), but were represented in the Second Duma (February-June 1907), with the SRs they held 83 seats. The Second Duma was dissolved on the pretext of the discovery of a SD conspiracy to subvert the army. Under new electoral laws the SD presence in the Third Duma (1907-12) was reduced to 19. From the Fourth Duma (1912-17) the SDs were finally and fully split, the Mensheviks had five members at the Duma and the Bolsheviks had seven, including Roman Malinovskii who was later uncovered as a police agent.
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