V. I.

Lenin

94

To:   G. M. KRZHIZHANOVSKY

To Hans from Old Man

Dear friend, I have seen Beast and only learnt about your affairs from him. In my
opinion, you must make Deer go away at once and change his skin. It is stupid
and ridiculous of him to await the blow. The only way out is to go underground
and travel about. It only seems to him that such a step is difficult and hard to
take. Deer should try it and he will quickly find that his new position will
become a normal one for him. (I utterly fail to understand or share Konyaga’s
arguments against it.)

Next, about the whole political situation. Things are in a terrible
tangle. Plekhanov has gone over to the Martovites and is overpowering us in the
Council. The Council has expressed a desire that the C.C. should have additional
members (this is published in Iskra No. 58). The Council has given the
editorial board the right to send out agents and receive literature for
distribution.

The Martovites evidently have their own war fund and are only waiting for a
suitable moment for a coup d’état (such a moment as a financial crash—we
are without money—or a break-down in Russia, etc.). I have no doubt about
this and Kurtz and I are demanding that C.C. members who do doubt it should
come here to convince them selves, for it is ridiculous and undignified to have
people pulling different ways.

I believe we should now 1) kick up a row in the committees against the C.O. by
means of the most militant resolutions; 2) carry on a polemic against the
C.O. in leaflets of the committees; 3) adopt resolutions on a congress in the committees and publish them locally; 4) set Schwarz, Vakar and others to
work on leaflets for the Central Committee.

Hans should be warned that he will definitely be used to give false evidence
against me, that is certain. If Hans does not want this to happen, let him
immediately send a written categorical statement:
1) that there
was no agreement about non-publication of the negotiations;
2) that in the Council on
November 29, 1903, Hans did not promise to co-opt on to the C.C.;
3) that Hans understood that the Martovites would take over the C.O. for the purpose of peace
and that they balked his expectations by launching war, beginning with
No. 53. We shall publish this statement only if they provoke us.

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