V. I.   Lenin

18

To:   THE BORBA GROUP[1]


Published: First published in 1930 in Lenin Miscellany XIII. Sent from Munich to Paris. Printed from a copy in Anna Ulyanova-Yelizarova’s handwriting.
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, [1977], Moscow, Volume 43, page 57a.
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.
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12/V. 01

Dear Comrades,

Being, as before, supporters of unity in principle, we re peat our agreement to resume unity talks and gratefully accept the offer made by the Borba group to take the initiative and mediate in the preliminary phase of the talks. We agree to the holding of a preliminary conference of the Social-Democratic organisations you name.

We believe it is in place to add that we cannot of course end the polemics over issues of principle which we started with Rabocheye Dyelo.

Respectfully, on behalf of the Iskra group....

We would ask you to let us know as soon as possible whether all concerned have agreed to the idea of the conference.[2] We can definitely promise to take part in May, but a later date would involve some difficulty for us.


Notes

[1] See Note 13.

[2] A conference of representatives of S.D. organisations abroad was held in Geneva in June 1901. It drew up a resolution recognising the need to consolidate all the Social-Democratic forces of Russia on the basis of the revolutionary principles of Iskra and to unite the Social-Democratic organisations abroad, and condemning opportunism of all varieties and shades: Economism, Bernsteinism, Millerandism, etc. (see KPSS v rezolutsiyakh i resheniyakh syezdov, konferentsii i plenumov Tsentralnogo Komiteta [C.P.S.U. in Resolutions and Decisions of Its Congresses, Conferences and Plenary Meetings of the Central Committee], Part 1, 1954, pp. 22–24). After the conference the Union of Russian Social-Democrats Abroad and its organ, the journal Rabocheye Dyelo, intensified their efforts to propagate opportunism, making it impossible for the supporters of Iskra to unite with those of Rabocheye Dyelo, and thereby predetermined the failure of the “Unity” Conference.


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