V. I.   Lenin

32

To:   LYUBOV AXELROD

Published: First published in 1929 in Lenin Miscellany XI. Sent from Munich to Berne. Printed from the original.
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, [1977], Moscow, Volume 43, pages 70^b-71^a.
Translated: Martin Parker and Bernard Isaacs
Transcription\Markup: R. Cymbala
Public Domain: Lenin Internet Archive (2005). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source. • README

Dear L. I.,

Forgive me for not replying at once and for being very brief: I’ve again caught something like influenza and my head is absolutely no good. In my opinion, if no account of the conference can be compiled we should do the following: all the documents and statements submitted at the conference to the bureau (the Geneva^[1] resolutions, the amendments to them, the statement of the Union and our statement on the Bund, our declaration on withdrawal, etc.) should be printed consecutively, none of the speeches need be given (not even mentioned, to say nothing of a detailed account), just link the documents with a couple of words. It seems to me that the documents are so eloquent and speak for themselves so clearly that it is enough to print them (merely indicating how, in what order and on what issues they were submitted or read out) for all sensible people fully to understand why we walked out.^[2]

If you do not have the questions submitted by Frey, ask Leiteisen and Dan; they may have them.

Try to confine yourself to such a comparison of documents and send the result as soon as possible to Geneva;   they will print them there and perhaps make some minor amendments if such are needed.

Best regards,
Yours....

Notes

[1] In the manuscript: “London”, by mistake.—Ed.

[2] A reference to the preparation of the pamphlet Documents of the “Unity” Conference. The preface was written by Lenin (see   present edition, Vol. 5, pp. 302–05). The pamphlet was put out in Geneva in the printery of the League of Russian Revolutionary Social-Democracy Abroad. The reference to G. D. Leiteisen and F. I. Dan suggests that at the conference they were secretaries from the Iskra and Zarya organisation.