V. I. Lenin

Source: en:CW/CW43; ru:PSS/v47;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

August 26, 1909.

Dear Comrade Huysmans,

I have received your letter of August 23 and thank you very much for the copy of Hertzik’s letter which you forwarded to me.

This gentleman has long been persecuting me with his letters; he even wanted to speak with me, but I refused, of course, since there is a verdict of the revolutionary tribunal, composed of representatives of all parties, and according to this verdict Mr. Hertzik cannot be a member of the revolutionary party. This verdict has not been quashed, and Mr. Hertzik is definitely lying if he omits in his letter to you the most essential part of this verdict.¹⁹⁴

He asks for a review? That is his full right. But this gentleman cannot but know that there is a legal and honest way to demand a review, and if he avoids this way, if he prefers to appeal to the ISB—that is yet another proof (it seems to me) of his bad faith.

The legal and honest way to ask for a review is to address his request to the central committees of the parties whose representatives in Geneva took part in the tribunal. Why does Mr. Hertzik not apply to these committees? Why does he cite the private opinion of Mr. Burtsev, without applying to the Central Committee of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, of which Burtsev is a member? Why does he address the ISB with insinuations against the Bolsheviks, saying that they act “in bad faith,” without applying to the Central Committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party? The Bolsheviks form a part of this party. The Bolsheviks have only five members on the Central Committee, which consists of fifteen members.

Judge for yourself who is acting in bad faith in this matter.

I have never been a member of the Bolshevik circle in Geneva which conducted the investigation of the Hertzik affair. If Mr. Hertzik considers that the members of this investigating commission acted illegally, etc., he has the right (and it is his duty) to apply to the Central Committee of the party.

The International Socialist Bureau cannot, in my opinion, accept complaints and requests if they have not been previously examined by the central committees of the parties belonging to the International. I fully understand that Mr. Hertzik, like any other citizen, has the right to appeal to the ISB against the decisions of the central committees of all parties belonging to the International. But if he does not wish to apply to the central committees of the parties, members of the International, then, in my opinion, he has no right to apply to the ISB either.

In my opinion, the only reply which the ISB could give to Mr. Hertzik is the following: apply to the central committees of all the parties whose representatives took part in the tribunal—that is, the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party, the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, the Bund, and so forth. If these committees give you no answer or refuse you, only then can you apply to the ISB with a request or a complaint against this or that decision, against this or that central committee of a party belonging to the International. Such is my opinion, which I communicate to you as a member of the ISB, and as a Bolshevik, and as a member of the Central Committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party. (In Paris there is a special bureau of the Central Committee of the S.D. Labour Party, and Mr. Hertzik knows very well that he ought to have applied to this bureau. I am not a member of it.)

I very much regret, dear Huysmans, that I cannot be in Paris on August 30 and 31, 1909, and consequently cannot discuss this question with you. I hope you will forgive me for the torment I have caused you with my poor French in this letter, which, really, has turned out to be too long.

I am now resting in the country (Mr. Wl. Oulianoff. Chez m-me Lecreux. Bombon, Seine-et-Marne). I shall return to Paris before September 15.

Yours,
N. Lenin

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Sent to Brussels

First published
in French in 1962
in the journal *Cahiers du Monde
Russe et Sovietique*, No. 4

Published in Russian
for the first time, from a photostat of the manuscript

Translated from the French