Published:
First published in 1963 in French in Cahiers du Monde Russe of Soviétique No. 1–2.
First published in Russian in 1964 in Collected Works, Fifth (Russian) Ed., Vol. 48.
Sent to Brussels.
Printed from a typewritten copy.
Translated from the French.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
[1977],
Moscow,
Volume 43,
pages 390b-391.
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.
Cracow, March 7, 1914
Dear Huysmans,
First of all, leaving aside the altogether objectionable tone of your letter,[3] I will state the facts in regard to my report.
On February 2, 1914 I left Brussels; as promised, my re port had already been written. A quarter of an hour before my departure I wrote you a letter (in the presence of Comrade Popov) at a café near the Northern Railway Station; in that letter I informed you that my report was already prepared (20 small pages and the resolution of the Lettish Congress[1] ) and that Comrade Popov had undertaken to translate it and deliver it to you.[2]
The address of the café was printed on the envelope of this letter, and if the letter has not been delivered to you I shall lodge a protest with the Brussels Post Office.
If you did receive this letter, I am greatly astonished that you do not mention it.
If Comrade Popov has not yet forwarded you a translation of my report, then I am completely at a loss. I wrote to him several times, believing him to have fallen ill, since he has not written to me for several weeks now.
Today I am sending him another registered letter, Re corded Delivery, in order to get to the bottom of this strange affair. I am also writing to Comrade Karlson (256. Rue Grau. Bruxelles) asking him to call on Popov personally.
Secondly, the expressions you use in your letter (“tergiversation”, “policy of procrastination”, etc.) are insulting and you have no right to employ them towards a comrade. I must ask you therefore to take back these expressions without reserve. Unless you do so, this letter to you will be my last.
Yours,
N. Lenin
[1] See V. I. Lenin, “Draft Resolution on the Attitude of the Social-Democrats of the Latvian Territory to the R.S.D.L.P.” (present edition, Vol. 41, pp. 329–30).—Ed.
[2] See Document 323 in this volume.—Ed.
[3] On March 3 (N.S.), 1914, Camille Huysmans sent a letter to Lenin demanding that his report to the International Socialist Bureau be forwarded to him as quickly as possible and telling ham that information concerning the situation within the R.S.D.L.P. had been received from the liquidators.
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