 In late 1912, he twice crossed into the Austro-Hungarian Empire to visit Lenin in Kraków, eventually bowing to Lenin's opposition to reunification with the Mensheviks.In January 1913, Stalin travelled to Vienna, where he conducted researches into the 'national question' of how the Bolsheviks should deal with the Russian Empire's national and ethnic minorities.Lenin, who encouraged Stalin to write up an article on the subject, wanted to attract these groups to the Bolshevik cause by offering them the right of secession from the Russian state, but at the same time hoped they would remain part of a future Bolshevik-governed Russia.