33775 j 455
Approx. 10%
Incredible!
g is s
~û :
38239 1462


82.,


1 Article – G.
Bang.
«Die
Lebenshaltung der unteren
Schichten der dänischen Landbevölkerung» (G. Bang. "The Living Standards of the Lower Strata of the Danish Rural Population") was published in 1901-1902 in the journal "Die Neue Zeit," Volume 2, No. 25. V. I. Lenin also referred to Bang's works on agricultural development and the situation of peasants in Denmark in 1901 and 1903 (see Notebooks on the Agrarian Question. 1900-1916. M., 1969, pp. 241, 347, 349).
The present document is written on a sheet of notebook paper in black ink and pencil.
We received your letter and both articles (events in Finland and the first half about the congress of the Social Democratic Party). Since the information about the congress of the Finnish Social Democratic Party is already somewhat late, the article about it will be placed in No. 49 of "Iskra," which will be published no later than October 15, new style 2. The article on events in Finland will have to be postponed, and I am therefore returning it to you so that you can update it with new material for No. 50 (at the latest - for No. 51) of "Iskra" 3. The second half of this article, pp. 3-4, I think, could be thrown out, and the beginning modified to connect with the new ending.
As for the article about the congress, it would be desirable to have its continuation sooner rather than later 4. Then it is necessary to dwell in more detail on the issue you raised about the "careless expressions" of the Finnish Social Democrats at their congress about the Finnish Sejm 5.
This is the most important prin26346
LETTER TO V. M. SMIRNOV 1
1. X . [19] 03
Dear Comrade!

cipal question and it must be explained fully. As far as I understand, are some of the workers ready to withdraw from the bourgeois Finnish struggle for a bourgeois Finnish constitution? If so, then "Iskra" needs to clarify this issue from the point of view of Marxism, to show the necessity for the Social Democratic Party to support even the bourgeois struggle for freedom, without identifying itself with the bourgeoisie and without concealing its socialist goals.
We will have to insert a note on this topic. Or, perhaps, you will manage to send the continuation at least by 6 . X .? It is also necessary to provide the text of the resolution on the recognition by the Finnish Workers' Party of the Social Democratic program in its entirety, for the part of the program translated by you is only a program-mini mum, and is not Social Democratic in and of itself.
If the matter here is censorship, then this must be stipulated once again.
We would be very grateful to you for an article for "Zarya."
The deadline is approximately 15. X I. The publication date of No. 5 of "Zarya" is not yet known; some of the articles are being typeset 6.
A brochure about the "Finnish rout" would be very useful, especially a popular brochure, not very large, but thoroughly recounting the entire course of the struggle. We would widely disseminate such a brochure among the masses. In my opinion, it is worth writing about the 1st period of the struggle, up to the present summer. We will write about the further events specially at some time 7.
In conclusion, I cannot but express to you, dear comrade, the gratitude of the editors of "Iskra" for your regular collaboration. It is extremely important and valuable for us to correctly inform the Russian working class about events in Finland and thus prepare, gradually and systematically, the rapprochement and merger of the Russian and Finnish Social Democratic Labor Parties.
With social-democratic greetings for the editors of "Iskra"
N. Lenin
(V. Ulyanov)
P. S. Here is the address to which you could directly contact the editors and send articles from abroad:
Mr. Wladimir Oulianoff
10. Chemin privé du Foyer. 10.
Sécheron. Genève. Suisse.

I have already informed the expedition about the correct dispatch of "Iskra" to you.
We are counting, therefore, as before, on correspondence from you for each issue of "Iskra," i.e., desirably by the 7th and 21st (new style) of each month, no later. It is also desirable that the manuscript be written as loosely as possible (double-spaced, with wide margins, in addition to being on one side of the sheet), because we do not have time to rewrite it in clean copy, and corrections to the style are necessary.
1 V. M. Smirnov (Paulson, Paulssen) - party member since 1900. Fulfilling assignments of the St. Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP, he was engaged in transporting illegal literature from abroad through Sweden to Finland. From 1903 he lived permanently in Helsinki, and his apartment was an illegal party meeting place. In 1905-1907, V. I. Lenin stayed with him. In 1917 and early 1918 he collaborated in the Bolshevik newspapers "Volna" and "Priboy," published in Helsinki. From the end of 1918 - in Soviet and diplomatic work.
The letter was found in 1975 by the TASS correspondent in Finland, Yu. F. Dashkov.
2 V. M. Smirnov's article "The Regular Congress of the Finnish Social Democratic Party" was published in No. 49 of the newspaper "Iskra" on October 1, 1903.
The II Congress was held from August 17 to 20, 1903, in the town of Forssa. 96 representatives from 48 workers' unions took part in it. The congress adopted the party program, its name - the Social Democratic Party of Finland, and elected the Central Party Board.
3 V. M. Smirnov's article "Events in Finland" was published in No. 50 of the newspaper "Iskra" on October 15, 1903.
4 The continuation of V. M. Smirnov's article on the Congress of the Social Democratic Party of Finland was not published in "Iskra."
5 V. I. Lenin has in mind the passage from V. M. Smirnov's article "The Regular Congress of the Finnish Social Democratic Party," where it was said that the authors of the resolution on suffrage, adopted by the congress, made "some careless expressions" in their criticism of the Sejm.
6 "Zarya" - a Marxist scientific-political journal, was published in 1901-1902 in Stuttgart by the editors of "Iskra." A total of four issues (three books) were published.
7 This refers to the law of the tsarist government on military conscription, which caused unrest in Finland.