Written: Written prior to July 6, 1914, at Poronin
Published:
First published in 1964 in Collected Works, Fifth (Russian) Ed., Vol. 48.
Printed from the original.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
[1977],
Moscow,
Volume 43,
pages 410b-411.
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 Suren,
I am surprised that you have not answered (or not noticed) the important point of the Bill. How to determine the proportionate share of expenditure on the education of different nations? (if this share is required to be not lower than the share of the given nation in the population).
You should consider this. Collect data. Go through the literature. Go into details. Give examples in figures from the life of the Caucasus.
Yet not a word from you about this!
To include autonomy in self-determination is wrong. It is a downright error. See my articles in Prosveshcheniye.[1] You are vacillating and “searching” for something. It’s wrong. You should understand the Programme and stand for it.
Write me a criticism of my articles in Prosveshcheniye, and we’ll talk it over.
It is shameful to stand for an official language. It is a police-regime idea. But there is not a shadow of police-regime practice in advocating Russian for small nations. Don’t you understand the difference between the truncheon and the advocacy of a free man? Amazing!
“I exaggerate the danger of Great-Russian nationalism”!!! Now that’s really funny! Do the 160 millions in Russia suffer from Armenian or Polish nationalism? Is it not a shame for a Russian Marxist to adopt the point of view of an Armenian hen-coop? Is it Great-Russian nationalism that oppresses and shapes the policy of Russia’s ruling classes, or is it Armenian, Polish?? “Armenian” blindness makes you a Handlanger of the Purishkeviches and their nationalism!
To change the subject. Collect immediately and send me exact information: 1) on the time and frequency of publication in the Caucasus of Social-Democratic newspapers in Georgian, Armenian and other languages (from such-and-such a date to...). So many issues. Liquidators’ and ours. 2) Circulation of each of them. 3) The number of workers’ groups which have made donations. 4) Other information. Hurry. It is facts that Vienna needs, not phrases. Answer immediately.
Yours,
V. I.
[1] See “Critical Remarks on the National Question” and “The Right of Nations to Self-Determination” (present edition, Vol. 20, pp. 17–51 and 393–454).—Ed.
| | | | | | |