Written: Written in Paris and mailed to a local address
Published:
First published in 1933 in Lenin Miscellany XXV.
Printed from the original.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
[1977],
Moscow,
Volume 43,
pages 257b-258a.
Translated: Martin Parker and Bernard Isaacs
Transcription\Markup:
R. Cymbala
Public Domain:
Lenin Internet Archive
(2005).
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Dear Comrade,
Having walked out of today’s meeting I consider it my duty to explain to you, in case of any Party (and quasi-Party) rumours and gossip, the significance of my action. I consider it not only my right but my duty to refuse to participate in a so-called “discussion” which serves as a pretext for the liquidationist section of the Editorial Board to indulge in the worst kind of rumours circulated by the worst kind of anti-Party elements. When Martov, for ex ample, refers to the otzovists as a section of the Party, and at the same time openly repeats the gossip noised by the most blackguard elements of the otzovists abroad, alleging that the case of Comrade Victor was closed or hushed up as a result of bribery,[2] and at the same time demands that they, Martov and Dan, be protected from such suspicions on the part of “a section of the Party”, then anyone can see quite clearly that under cover of “protection” from otzovist blackmail we are being offered nothing more nor less than liquidationist abetting of otzovist sallies of the worst kind.
Considering it beneath my dignity to participate in a “discussion” in which such things are brought up, I declare that in future too I shall try to walk out of any meeting where there is such a “discussion”.
With comradely greetings,
N. Lenin
7.XI.10
[1] The chairman of the meeting of the Editorial Board of the C.O. probably was either A. Warski or his deputy V. Leder.
[2] One of the questions taken up at the January 1910 plenary meeting of the C.C. was the case of V. K. Taratuta (Victor), a member of the Bolshevik Centre, who demanded that the C.C. institute an inquiry concerning the rumours circulated in the Party defaming him. The plenary meeting appointed an investigation commission which after a thorough inquiry unanimously agreed that there were no grounds whatever for accusing Victor of being a provocateur and cleared his name completely.
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