Written: Written December 5, 1904
Published:
First published in 1964 in Collected Works, Fifth (Russian) Ed., Vol. 46.
Sent from Geneva.
Printed from a copy in Krupskaya’s hand writing.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
[1977],
Moscow,
Volume 43,
pages 142b-144a.
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
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5/XII.
Dear Comrade,
We have received: 1) the statement of the elected representatives of the class-conscious workers in the Baku R.S.D.L.P. Committee concerning the reorganisation of the committee; 2) the Balakhany and Bibi-Eibat workers’ leaflet of October 20; 3) the Baku Committee’s leaflet “The New Fox-Tail Policy”; 4) the necessary explanation, and 5) the statement of November 9. We do not have the resolution of the Baku Committee or the resolution of the conference of Caucasian committees which we have been told was sent to us.
As regards the “statement” the following must be said. Some time ago (in the summer) a detailed letter was received from the C.C. representative in the Caucasus concerning the Minority affair. The letter was immediately forwarded to the Central Organ, which means that the Council was well aware of his opinion, as was C.C. member Glebov, who took part in investigating the matter.
The Majority is putting out a pamphlet, The Council Against the Party, which will examine the matter in detail on the basis of the opinion of the C.C. representative in the Caucasus.[2]
Please let us know what size parcels sent from Sosnowice should be. Reply as soon as possible.
A violent controversy is now under way between the editors of Iskra and the Majority on the question of the Zemstvo campaign. The editors circulated an absurd letter “for Party members only” in which they thoroughly confused the issue of the attitude towards the Zemstvo people. Lenin replied with the pamphlet The Zemstvo Campaign and “Iskra’s” Plan.[1] There is nothing confidential about the question, and it is important enough to warrant open discussion.
Therefore demand that the Editorial Board’s letter on the Zemstvo be reprinted for everybody to read. For it is disgraceful to say one thing in Iskra and another in a letter to Party members. This is a matter of concern for all. Parvus sent in a letter supporting Lenin’s viewpoint and opposing that of the Minority. We have sent you the pamphlet The Zemstvo Campaign and “Iskra’s” Plan.
Tell Lenochka that her letter has been received; it got into the hands of the Minority and was passed on to us opened. I shall write her in a few days. She’s much too pessimistic....
With comradely greetings,
Lenin
[1] See present edition, Vol. 7, pp. 497–518.—Ed.
[2] A reference to the unlawful actions of a Menshevik member of the Baku Committee of the R.S.D.L.P. who co-opted Mensheviks into the Committee to replace members who had been arrested. The Chairman of the Caucasian Union Committee and the representative of the C.C. dissolved the Baku Committee, in accordance with the Rules of the Caucasian Union, as having been improperly constituted. For details see the pamphlet The Council Against the Party by Orlovsky (V. V. Vorovsky), Geneva, 1904, pp. 24–30.
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