Written: Written after June 4, 1915
Published:
First published in 1964 in Collected Works, Fifth (Russian) Ed., Vol. 49.
Sent from Sörenberg (Switzerland) to Berne.
Printed from the original.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
[1977],
Moscow,
Volume 43,
pages 454b-455.
Translated: Martin Parker and Bernard Isaacs
Transcription\Markup:
R. Cymbala
Public Domain:
Lenin Internet Archive
(2005).
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• README
I have written to you once or twice, but truth to tell, there is little news here. The news from Russia is not bad, you will read it all yourself soon, I hope, when you come here. You don’t mention a word about what length of time your dentist has appointed for your treatment. Even approximately? You should travel either by post-chaise (up to Flühli twice a day, at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. from Schüpfheim, and to us, to Sörenberg, only once a day, at 9 a.m. from Schüpfheim). To catch the morning post (that is, the post-chaise), I think you must start out from Berne at 5.30 a.m. and wait 11/2 hours at Schüpfheim. But if you leave Berne at 2.05, as we did, the post-chaise will take you only as far as Flühli; from there you will have to hire a horse-drawn vehicle (for that purpose you will have to telephone from Schüpfheim—there is a restaurant there opposite the station. The keeper for 10 pfg. will telephone us here, Hotel Marienthal in Sörenberg, saying you are coming and asking for a horse-drawn carriage to be sent: in that case they will just manage to get to Flühli from here and bring you down here from Flühli).
The fare by post-chaise is fr. 1.20 to Flühli+2 frs. from Flühli to Sörenberg.
Horse and carriage here costs 4 frs. per person (6 frs. for 2 people) from Flühli to Sörenberg.
Your letter for some reason travelled to Lucerne! I wonder why? Is it because you wrote Sörenberg in one line? Or should you not add via Schüpheim?
All the best. See you soon,
Yours,
Lenin
P.S. I wrote Grigory yesterday about inviting Grimm to Kommunist. Today I read Trotsky’s answer (to Kommunist) in Nashe Slovo.[2] We must be extremely careful, in inviting Grimm, not to risk a refusal. Tell Grigory this.
Another request: when you see Kasparov, ask him to obtain the official address of the Bureau (in Geneva? or in Berne?), which undertakes to forward money to Russian prisoners of war in Germany (letters as well as money, but chiefly money). It is very important to have the official address, so that I can apply to them and be sure the money will not get lost.
Another request (tut-tut! Our tons of things and requests will crush you completely, eh?): buy citric acid in crystals (Zitronensäure). It’s a bad job—going out into the country after everybody else!!
There is still no reply from Neuchâtel.[3]
Would you believe it!
Au revoir,
Yours,
Lenin
When opportunity offers, ask Radek before your departure whether he would like to come. If he does, we shall invite him.
Bring 15–20 copies of the Announcement of Kommunist.[4]
[1] These words are in English in the original.—Ed.
[2] The Invitation to Trotsky to write for Kommunist was sent by G. L. Pyatakov and Yevgenia Bosh in spite of Lenin’s opinion. By way of answer Trotsky published “An Open Letter to the Editors of Kommunist” in Nashe Slovo No. 105 for June 4, 1915, refusing to contribute and launching a fierce attack against the Bolsheviks.
The journal Kommunist was organised by Lenin and published by the Editorial Board of the newspaper Sotsial-Demokrat jointly with G. L. Pyatakov and Yevgenia Bosh, who financed its publication. The Editorial Board included also N. I. Bukharin. One (double) number of the journal was issued.
Lenin planned to make Kommunist the mouthpiece of the Left Social-Democrats. Serious disagreements, however, shortly arose between the editors of Sotsial-Demokrat on the one band and Bukharin, Pyatakov and Bosh on the other, which came to a head after the appearance of No. 1–2 of the journal.
Nashe Slovo (Our Word)—a Menshevik newspaper, published with Trotsky’s close co-operation in Paris from January 1915 to September 1916 in lieu of Golos.
[3] Lenin wrote to the library at Neuch&ahat;tel asking for books to be sent to him in Sörenberg.
[4] This refers to the Announcement concerning publication of the journal Kommunist written apparently with Lenin’s close co-operation. It was printed as a leaflet dated May 20, 1915, and distributed among the R.S.D.L.P. organisations in Russia and abroad, as well as among Left West-European Social-Democrats. The text of the Announcement under the heading “From the Editors” was published also in the journal Kommunist.
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