Published:
First published in 1930 in Lenin Miscellany XIII.
Sent to Paris.
Printed from the original.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
1971,
Moscow,
Volume 36,
page 264.
Translated: Andrew Rothstein
Transcription\Markup:
R. Cymbala
Public Domain:
Lenin Internet Archive.
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• README
October 28, 1913
Cracow, Ul. Lubomirskiego. 51
Dear Comrade,
I quite understand your indignation against the scoundrels in the so-called Chief Executive, but would advise the commission[3] first of all, nevertheless, to secure a formal refusal from the Chief Executive. You can after all secure this (the address of Rosa Luxemburg, as a member of the International Socialist Bureau, etc.), for without it the I.S.B. will probably not interfere, and inclusion of the question will be rejected on formal grounds. You should not improve the position of Tyszka and Co. by any step on your part which may call forth an I.S.B. refusal of your request.
I advise you to write a careful information letter on behalf of the commission to Huysmans (mainly pressing the point that the Zarzad Glówny[1] refuses to have its “ judgement” reviewed by a panel of I.S.B. affiliated parties active in Russia) asking him to help you to bring moral pressure to bear on the Chief Executive. This would be better than a premature formal appeal, entailing the risk of failure.
I hope you will inform me, if Plekhanov replies to you.
With Social-Democratic greetings,
N. Lenin
Ulianow. Ul. Lubomirskiego. 51. Krakow.
[2] V. L. Leder—a Polish Social-Democrat (a “Rozlamist”) who supported the Left wing of the Social-Democratic Party of Poland and Lithuania.
[3] The Commission to review the decision of the trial of Karl Radek on charges of unethical behaviour was set up by the Chief Executive of the Social-Democratic Party of Poland and Lithuania; under a decision of the court, Radek was expelled from the party and from the German Social-Democratic Party.
The Commission was set-up in Paris in early September 1913 on the initiative of the bureau of the sections abroad of the Social-Democratic Party of Poland and Lithuania (Rozlamists).
The Commission worked for five months and arrived at the conclusion that there was no ground for the party trial of Radek and his dismissal from the party.
Lenin sided with the opposition (Rozlamists) and believed that the charges sprang from the acute struggle which the Chief Executive waged against the opposition, and were motivated by factional considerations. He supported the review of the Radek case.
For details on the differences between the Chief Executive and the opposition, see present edition, Vol. 19, Note 135.
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