V. I.

Lenin

Dear Vladimir Dmitrievich, I have received your letter and hasten to reply. I simply
cannot understand why you fell out, and what the point is. [1] I don’t see why not sell 20–30 copies of Zarya and
why this should be “running ahead of things”. I should think this was the kind of routine matter in forwarding
that could be left entirely to the manager of the forwarding
section, i.e., to you. I am writing this very day to Martyn
Nikolayevich asking him to try and clear up the misunderstanding. You shouldn’t be too much upset about
individual expressions, even sharp ones, even unfair ones. You
see, surely, that we are all very edgy—the cause of it all
is the rotten situation created by the new traitors in the
C.C. Maybe we shall now soon put an end to all this, once
and for all, and make a fresh start—then the basis for petty
conflicts will disappear. In the meantime, we must try and see it through patiently, and I would reply to caustic
remarks by jokes about “the deadly destroyer”. [2] I quite
understand your irritation, but joking seems to be the only
answer. If a dispute arises, drag out its solution, write
to us here, that’s all you should do. Please take all possible steps to accelerate the appearance of (1) the pamphlet by Ryadovoi and Galyorka, (2) your statement with the documents, (3) Galyorka’s pamphlet which was sent
today. [3]

How is Ilya? He visited me yesterday, I told him what was in
hand, [4] but he still can’t make up his mind. Has he been given my
(1) letter on the subject of the agreement of 26.5.04 [5] ;
(2) protest against the C.C.
declaration, [6] and (3) letter about the protest [7] ? It is absolutely essential that he and all the compositors read this; don’t delay with this.

Have matters been arranged about the co-operative printing
press [8] ? Hurry.

Ilya says there is a rumour that Glebov has a letter of
resignation from Travinsky. We shall look into it and check .

They’re a nice lot, aren’t they? Five and four are arguing; two of the five resign; two of the four are taken—
then the three, instead of resigning, stage a coup d’état [9] !

Yours,
N. Lenin