Written: Written November 10, 1912
Published:
First published in 1964 in Collected Works, Fifth (Russian) Ed., Vol. 48.
Sent from Cracow to Paris.
Printed from the original.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
[1977],
Moscow,
Volume 43,
page 306a.
Translated: Martin Parker and Bernard Isaacs
Transcription\Markup:
R. Cymbala
Public Domain:
Lenin Internet Archive
(2005).
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10.XI.
Dear L. B.,
I have just learned that the congress in Basle will take place, in all probability, on November24.[2] For the resolutions committee we are appointing one delegate (+one each from France, Germany, Austria and Britain+Chairman Vandervelde, 4. Rue...[1] XIV. Bruxelles). Keep the address.
It is possible that I shall not go and that we shall appoint you. So begin to prepare at once: collect all the manifestos against war, get the last issue of Neue Zeit (No. 6, 8. XI) where Kautsky advances purely opportunistic arguments, etc. ...[3]
Leave on receipt of a wire (to be in Basle one or two days before the congress opens, i.e., on 22 or 23. XI).
Put out the C.O. (8 pages) at once.
Write what and how much is left for the next issue (4 pages) which we shall put out shortly. Malinovsky got in in Moscow Gubernia.
Saluts et félicitations!
Bien à vous,
Vl. Lenin
[1] Manuscript partly damaged. Several words illegible.—Ed.
[2] A reference to the Extraordinary Socialist Congress of the Second International in Basle on November 24–25 (N. S.), 1912, called to examine the question of struggle against the imminent danger of an imperialist world war, which had been further heightened by the outbreak of the first Balkan war. The congress was attended by 555 delegates. The C.C., R.S.D.L.P. sent six delegates.
At its meeting on November 25 the Congress unanimously adopted a manifesto against war.
In the event of an imperialist war, the manifesto recommended socialists to make use of the economic and political crisis caused by the war to fight for the socialist revolution.
When the First World War broke out, the leaders of the Second International ignored the Basle manifesto and sided with their imperialist governments.
[3] A reference to Karl Kautsky’s article “Der Krieg und die Internationale” (War and the International) in Die Neue Zeit No. 6, November 8, 1912, pp. 191–92.
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