V. I.

Lenin

Dear Comrade Radek, I have received your letter to Wijnkoop, and am sending
it off by the first post. I am adding that work should be
started right away, if the idea is to prepare a declaration
(to say nothing of another Communist Manifesto ).

We have provided (1) a manifesto; (2) resolutions; (3)
a draft declaration. [3] So let us have your amendments
or counterdrafts as soon as possible. Hurry! Or we shall
be late!

I personally am against Nashe Slovo participating, but would not make this an ultimatum. Why am I against?
(1) It is corruption, because Nashe Slovo has not itself
declared that it is an independent or third (apart from
the C.C. and O.C.) party or group for work in Russia; (2)
There are 0.C. supporters in Nashe Slovo in numbers unknown to the public. This is dual representation! (O.C.+
Nashe Slovo ).
(3) Nashe Slovo is for the Chkheidze faction in the Duma ( and the O.C. and Plekhanov+Alexinsky are
also for it). Isn’t that corruption?

Taking Lichtstrahlen as a group , and considering it more
important than Zetkin’s, is not funny.

This group includes Borchardt+Radek+contributors to
Lichtstrahlen . That is enough.

This group has a little journal (while Zetkin and Co.
haven’t got one).

Borchardt was the first to say publicly: Die Sozialdemokratie abgedankt . [1]
[4]

That was not propaganda but a most important political act. It was action , and not promise.

The most important thing for us (i.e., all the Left) is
a clear, complete, precise Prinzipienerklärung . [2]

Without this all the so-called programmes of action are nothing
but talk and deception. What did the Zetkin “resolution
of action” in Berne come to? Nothing in terms of action!
Nothing in terms of principle! [5]

The Borchardt group, if it comes forward (together with
us or separately) as an anonymous group ( Stern , or Pfeil ,
or whatever) with a clear-cut Prinzipienerklärung +a call
to revolutionary action, will play an outstanding part in
world history.

Meanwhile, Zetkin and Co., having everything in their hands (newspapers, journals, connections with Berner Tagwacht , the opportunity of visiting Switzerland, etc.), have
done nothing in 10 months to unite the international Left.
This is a disgrace.

All the best, Yours, Lenin

P.S. I advise you not to enlist. It’s stupid to help the
enemy. You will be doing a service to the Scheidemanns.
Better emigrate. Really, that will be better. There is now
a desperate need of Left-wing workers.

“ The opposition in Germany is the product of ferment among the masses, whereas the Bolsheviks represent the
orientation of a little group of revolutionaries.”

That is not the Marxist approach.

It is Kautskianism—or a dodge.

What was the 1847 Communist Manifesto and its group?
The product of ferment among the masses? Or the orientation of a little group of revolutionaries? Or both the one
and the other?

And what are we, the Central Committee? Or hasn’t the R.S.D.L. Duma group proved that there are links with
the masses? And what about the Petrograd Proletarsky Golos ? Or is there no “ferment among the masses” in Russia?

The Left in Germany will make a historic mistake if, on the pretext that they (they =Zetkin, Laufenberg, Borchardt, Thalheimer, Duncker! Ha, ha!) are “the product
of ferment among the masses”, they refuse to come forward
with a Prinzipienerklärung (anonymously, on behalf of a
Stern group, etc. Later the workers will support it and
think about it).

There is need for a Left statement and programme so as to develop the “ferment among the masses”. It is necessary
because of such ferment. It is necessary so as to transform
the “ferment” into a “movement”. It is necessary so as to develop “ferment” in the rotten International.

And immediately!

You are quite, quite wrong !

P.S. You didn’t say clearly in your letter to Wijnkoop whether it was set or proposed for August 20. Drop me
and Grigory a line about this (if it is urgent).

Rakovsky (see his pamphlet) [6] is for defence of the fatherland. To my mind, we should part company with
such people.

---
Notes:
[1]
The Social-Democrats recanted .— Ed .

[2]
Statement of principles.— Ed .

[3]
A reference to the drafts of a manifesto, declaration and
resolutions written for preliminary discussion among Left-wing
delegates of various socialist parties and for subsequent motioning
at the Zimmerwald Conference on behalf of the Left (see present
edition, Vol. 35, pp. 193–94).

[4]

J. Borchardt’s pamphlet, Vor und nach dem 4. August 1914. Hat die deutsche Sozialdemokratie abgedankt? Verlag der Lichtstrahlen
(Before and After August 4, 1914. Have the German
Social-Democrats Recanted? Lichtstrahlen Publishers), Berlin, 1915, in
which he first sharply criticised the treacherous behaviour of
German Social-Democrats at the outbreak of the war. For Lenin’s
opinion on this pamphlet see present edition, Vol. 21, p. 130.

[5]
A reference to the resolution adopted by the International
Conference of Socialist Women held in Berne from March 26 to 28,
1915. See Lenin’s article “On the Struggle Against
Social-Chauvinism” (present edition, Vol. 21, pp. 199–203).

[6]

Ch. Dumas, C. Racovski, Les Socialises et la Guerre , Bucharest,
1915.