Dear comrades! Your letter with news about the views and plans of the remaining editorial board of "Yuzhny Rabochy" 196 has greatly pleased us. We wholeheartedly join your proposal for the closest contacts and cooperation between "Yuzhny Rabochy" and "Iskra." It is necessary to take the most energetic measures immediately to consolidate these close relations and move on to unified actions, which stem from our unity in views. First, we will use your suggestion to negotiate with Chernyshev. Please give us his address. Will he not be abroad (as we have heard) and will he not visit us*? Second, indicate to us your official representative. Provide immediately a direct address for letters to you from abroad and from Russia, as well as an address for meeting with you. We have already taken steps to ensure that members of the Russian organization "Iskra" meet with you and discuss everything in detail. To avoid wasting time, please write to us in more detail about the affairs. What are the immediate practical plans of the editorial board of "Yuzhny Rabochy"? Does it have connections with the southern committees and formal relations with them? From your words that you intend to conduct the business as it was conducted before the formation of the "Union of Southern Committees and Organizations" 197, we conclude that both the composition and direction of the current editorial board of "Yuzhny Rabochy" differ from the composition and direction of the editorial board that existed in the spring, during the conference? In what exactly does this divergence of directions consist, and what position do the southern committees take here, i.e., which of them support the direction of the "Union of Southern Committees and Organizations" and which support your direction?

What is your view on whether this divergence is deep, whether it will hinder party unification, and what measures are desirable for the quickest achievement of solidarity? In what relation

* Write from abroad to Ditz in two envelopes, asking him to immediately forward to the editorial board of "Iskra."

TO THE MOSCOW COMMITTEE OF THE RSDRP. AUGUST 24, 1902.

do the 6 provincial groups, about which you wrote, stand to the committees of the south (and to both directions, which you mentioned)? It would be very desirable if you could help us fully clarify all these questions, as this would greatly facilitate the rapprochement between your friends and the members of the Russian organization "Iskra" working in the south.