V. I.   Lenin

290

To:   THE GROUP OF BOLSHEVIK MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE OF THE METALWORKERS’ TRADE UNION

Written: Written June 16, 1913
Published: First published in 1960 in Istorichesky Arkhiv No. 2. Sent from Poronin to St. Petersburg. Printed from a typewritten copy found in police records.
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, [1977], Moscow, Volume 43, pages 349^c-350^a.
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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Dear Friends,

We received both letters, thanks. We shall gladly give whatever help we can. It is not worth writing special instructions. In a day or two we shall publish a series of articles on this subject by Gr. Try and get it reprinted in Metallist. We shall write for Metallist, too, as and when   we can: You must get them to pay author’s fees—we shall then widen the circle of contributors at once. Apparently, in a day or two, there will be another decisive meeting. We learn from letters from our people that the liquidators are gathering all their forces to give decisive battle; our people, of course, are not dawdling and are leaving nothing to chance. The matter is extremely important and grave. You must fight hard to keep all you have won. We are with you in this struggle heart and soul. Why did you allow a liquidator to get in as secretary?[1] And what’s that affair about the insurance committee? We await your letters. Let us know always what we have to write about there. Keep us informed. We earnestly wish you success.

Notes

[1] This refers to the re-election of the Executive of the St. Petersburg Metalworkers’ Union. The meeting, held on August 25 (September 7),   1913, was attended by about three thousand people. Despite the attempts of the liquidators to set the meeting against the Bolshevik Executive, the vast majority, amid applause, adopt ed a resolution expressing appreciation of the Executive’s activities. The liquidators’ list collected only some 150 votes. The Bolshevik list, published beforehand in the newspaper Severnaya Pravda, was adopted by an overwhelming majority.

Secretary of the Executive of the St. Petersburg Metalworkers’ Union up till August 25 (September 7), 1913, was the liquidator V. Abrosimov, who was subsequently exposed as an agent provocateur.