Written: Written on October 18, 1914
Published:
First published in 1929 in Lenin Miscellany XI.
Sent from Berne to Geneva.
Printed from the original.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
1971,
Moscow,
Volume 36,
pages 303-304.
Translated: Andrew Rothstein
Transcription\Markup:
R. Cymbala
Public Domain:
Lenin Internet Archive.
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 V. K.,
I am sending you the manifesto on account of five amendments. Please make them in the proofs as carefully as possible.[1]
I am also sending “A Reply to Vandervelde”[2]—for setting.
As many articles as possible should be set in brevier. We must get the maximum of material into the two pages. It’s a pity that we hadn’t thought of this when sending the manifesto for setting.
The whole question now is, how many thousands of letters can be got into the two pages? The C.O.’s old format should be taken (there is no masthead in Geneva it is desirable to make up the new masthead as economically as possible, so as to lose the least space: say, have the masthead fit in a corner, instead of “covering” all three columns).
We are waiting for an exact calculation of the size: how many letters in brevier can be got in.
Best of all, send us both the proof of the manifesto (the second proof) and samples of all types, including the very smallest.
The masthead for the issue (this should be the next No. of the C.O.) should also specify the price: 10 cts., I think. In any case, it is essential to send us a proof of the issue made up into pages.
If the whole thing could be set up in brevier, with the C.O. format, we should have about 40,000 letters in the two pages. We could then insert another couple of articles which we are preparing. (If the manifesto has already been set, and in an unsuitable type, etc., we shall publish it separately.)
You will have considerable correspondence expenses: everything must be sent in envelopes, not in wrappers. Keep a record of your postal expenses and draw upon the “fund” (160 frs.), otherwise you will be ruined!
Ask Syoma to get us Sozialistische Monatshefte [all the issues since the war ] from the Bundists: if necessary, we shall pay, and will guarantee to return them at the time fixed (even with a deposit, if required).
Best wishes,
Yours,
Lenin
P.S. Let me know when the two-page issue of the C.O. can be ready. I shall be lecturing at Montreux shortly (I don’t know exactly when) and can call on you, should it be necessary.[3]
[1] Lenin made five amendments in the manifesto of the C.C., R.S.D.L.P., which copy is now at the Central Party Archives of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the C.C., C.P.S.U. The manifesto was published under the title “The War and Russian Social-Democracy” in the Central Organ of the R.S.D.L.P., Sotsial-Demokrat No. 33, November 1, 1914.
[2] The Bolsheviks’ reply to E. Vandervelde’s telegram urging the Duma Social-Democratic group to support the Russian Government in the war against Germany. The reply signed by the C.C. of the R.S.D.L.P. was published in Sotsial-Demokrat No. 33, November 1, 1914. The Bolsheviks said they believed that in the interests of democracy and socialism it was an urgent task of the revolutionary proletarian party in the period of imperialist war to extend and strengthen the class organisations of the workers and to develop their class struggle against the imperialist bourgeoisie and their own governments.
[3] Lenin read his lecture on the war at Montreux (near Clarens) on Monday, October 26, and in Zurich, on Tuesday, October 27, 1914.
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