Written: Written September 16, 1904
Published:
First published in 1930 in Lenin Miscellany XV.
Sent from Geneva to Russia.
Printed from the original in Krupskaya’s handwriting.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
[1977],
Moscow,
Volume 43,
pages 121b-123a.
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 Comrade,
Please acknowledge receipt of this letter if only in a couple of words. I am not certain that your address is still good, but Zemlyachka has asked to write her through you. Besides, it would be desirable to start regular correspondence. This is extremely important. To make sure that your letters do not accidentally get into the wrong hands, write on top “Private, to L.” or “Private, to N. K.” Could you let us know the whereabouts of Tomich (=Emmanuel =Emma)? We have lost touch with him. We sent him several letters but do not know whether they reached him. If you happen to know his address, please let us have it.
The Declaration of the C.C. has evidently not been too kindly received by the Majority committees.[2] In the Caucasus it caused an outburst of indignation, in Odessa, Nikolayev and Yekaterinoslav it met with strong disapproval, and our old comrades have been sending in indignant resolutions from prisons.... The “conciliators” have succeeded in deceiving some people by their fables about peace prevailing in the Party. Tula, Saratov and Astrakhan, for instance, are said to have withdrawn their resolutions on the congress, but as soon as they learn what the real state of affairs is they will of course again insist on its convocation. Incidentally, I do not know how much truth there is to the rumours that the above-mentioned committees have withdrawn their resolutions. The “conciliators” do not always accurately enough pass on information, and the Editorial Board, on the pretext of preserving peace, does not print resolutions on the congress adopted by the committees (St. Petersburg, Yekaterinoslav). Besides the ten points there are several more which are in no way secret but which the “collegium” (taking advantage of the arrest of some of its staunchest members and unlawfully expelling one member who does not share its views[3] ) has decided to conceal from the members of the Party to avoid unnecessary fuss. These include the decision to dissolve the Southern Bureau[4] and not to publish Council minutes unfavourable to the Minority, and the prohibition of the printing of Lenin’s writings in the Party printery without permission from an agent specially appointed by the “collegium”.... The Majority has decided not to permit the opinion of the Party to be misrepresented or to allow itself to be silenced; it is sponsoring the publication of Majority writings; the publishing has been undertaken by Bonch-Bruyevich. We shall not be short of literary forces, the only hitch may be finances. Galyorka’s pamphlet Down with Bonapartism! (concerning the C.C. Declaration) and a collection of articles by Galyorka and Ryadovoi have come out, and a popular pamphlet on socialism by Ryadovoi and many other things are ready for the press.
Pass all this on to Zemlyachka if you know her address, and also inform her that both of her letters have been received.
Acknowledge receipt of this letter without delay.
Lenin
P.S. Is your address for contacts still valid?
Are the Pedder and Dilon addresses good? Has Tsensky been to see you? Did you receive our letter? Let Zemlyachka know that her relatives are worried about her and are sure she is ill. Acknowledge receipt of this letter at once, and we shall send you our new address forthwith.
[1] Written by Krupskaya on Lenin’s instructions.—Ed.
[2] A reference to the “July Declaration” of the C. C. (see present Volume, Document 92).—Ed.
[3] A reference to F. V. Lengnik, Maria Essen and Rozalia Zemlyachka.—Ed.
[4] The Southern Bureau of the Central Committee was set up in February 1904 with the direct assistance of Lenin. Among its members were V. V. Vorovsky and I. K. Lalayants. The Bureau, the permanent headquarters of which was in Odessa, waged a consistent struggle against the Mensheviks and the conciliators, and was in favour of the immediate convocation of the Third Party Congress despite the wishes of the central bodies—the C.C., the Central Organ, and the Council of the Party.
In mid-August 1904 the Bureau was dissolved by the improperly adopted “July Declaration” of the C.C., but later in the autumn the first Bolshevik conference of R.S.D.L.P. committees held in the South reconstituted it. Together with the Northern and Caucasian bureaus, it formed the core of the All-Russia Bureau of Committees of the Majority established in December 1904.
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