V. I.

Lenin

464

To:   G. Y. ZINOVIEV

I am sending an addition (O. Rühle and Liebknecht)—I think it
must be squeezed in, to mark the historical words of
Liebknecht.

I am sending a draft of cuts covering 37 lines. I trust you will find
where to make more cuts in order to squeeze in Rühle and
Liebknecht. [1] “ Strekoza” in any case must be thrown out, as 1) it is not
the thing; 2) we must wait (since it is not only a matter of Trotsky, but
plus La Vie Ouvrière : for them it may be progress). [2]

3) We had better deal with Trotsky in Sbornik Sotsial Demokrata; he has to be dealt with at greater length.

Salut, Lenin

Be sure to send the theses to Grimm personally (it would be a good idea to invite him for a talk on this).

I am considering another insertion to the theses. Let me know in good time when they are made up.

APPENDIX TO LETTER

Otto Rühle and Karl Liebknecht

Rühle in Vorwärts of 12/I. 1916 openly declared for a split in the party. Liebknecht, in his speech of 16/III. 1916 in
the Prussian Landtag, openly called on “those fighting in the trenches”
to “ lower their rifles and turn against the common enemy ”, for
which he was not allowed to finish his speech. Which Russian
Social-Democrats, then, displayed “factionalism”—those who stood for
the Bolshevik slogans—the only consistent slogans—of civil war and a
split with opportunism? Or those who denied the obvious correctness of these slogans, to which the course of events is leading the
internationalists in all countries?

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Notes:
[1]
See appendix to letter.— Ed .

[2]
Probably this refers to an article criticising the draft Manifesto for
the Second International Socialist Conference submitted to the I.S.C. on
behalf of persons grouped around the journal La Vie Ouvrière and the newspaper Nashe Slovo . The draft was
published on February 29, 1916, in the I.S.C. Bulletin No. 3.