V. I.

Lenin

50

To:   THE EDITORIAL BOARD OF ZA PRAVDU

To the Editor

For the Editorial Board

Dear Colleagues, Welcoming the excellent beginning of the struggle by
the six deputies for proper respect of the will of the majority
of the workers, and the excellent campaign of your paper, [1]
I would ask you also to take notice of the following:

If the Seven begin impudently proclaiming themselves the Social-Democratic group (as they have done at, the end
of their article in
No. 60 [2] ). then the Six must without fail declare calmly, briefly and firmly: “We are the
Social-Democratic Labour group, since we act in keeping with the
will of the majority of the class-conscious workers, put it
into effect and represent the majority. The seven non-Party
deputies have not refuted a single fact, a single figure,
out of the mass quoted in our paper and demonstrating this
truth. Here is our address; write to us, worker comrades,
and do not imagine that we shall insult you by thinking
you capable of believing the theory that ‘seven deputies are
higher than the Party, higher than the will of the majority
of the workers’. Even 77 deputies could not be higher than
that will. We are strictly fulfilling it.”

Such a brief declaration is essential. Then you should send a formal statement to Senior Conventus (i.e., to the
State Duma). Then the Seven will very rapidly, at, once
lose their arrogance: very, very rapidly they will agree to equality (which all of them have recognised in writing).
Neither they nor anyone else will have any other way out.
Once you have begun a job, you can’t back out. The
Six have made a splendid beginning, and their victory is
assured, if they carry on correctly —in a week or two their
victory is inevitable.

Best greetings and wishes,
V. I.