V. I.

Lenin

97

To:   THE IMERETIA-MINGRELIA COMMITTEE OF THE R.S.D.L.P. [1]

To Mingrelia-Imeretia Committee

28/XI.

Dear Comrades, Both your letters, of the 23rd and the 28th, received; the first (with
the statistics and addresses) got into the hands of the Minority and was
delivered to us only today. We have made out the addresses, the address for
literature will be used at once. Your resolution in favour of the congress
was received and forwarded to the Central Organ. We have not heard of any
recount of votes, and there hardly will be one.

The resolution of the Nikolayev Committee was received recently and
forwarded to the Central Organ. Martov re turned it with gross abuse,
saying that the Central Organ and the C.C. knew for certain that there was
no committee in Nikolayev (a downright lie, for the C.C. went with its
declaration to the Nikolayev Committee and knows very well that the persons
who signed the resolution are in the Nikolayev Committee), that the
resolution had been sent by some impostors and frauds who had forged
it.... The resolution of the Caucasian Union Committee in favour of the
congress was not printed, but another ... against the congress was
printed. Iskra said that the Saratov, Samara, Urals and Astrakhan
committees had endorsed the C.C. policy (the resolutions were not given),
but the very same day the issue came out we received a letter from the
Urals saying they had not heard from the C.C. for several months and that
they did not know in general whether the Party existed at all. Plekhanov is
openly saying that there is not going to be any congress.... As for the
C.C., it hypocritically declares that now it is not against the congress,
but that it is necessary to make sure that the congress will really
represent the opinion of the Party.... The C.C. is pigeon- holing the committees’ resolutions, and in its letter to Party comrades it
says: “now that the Party has declared for us”....

The committees have asked the C.C. for Majority literature but the
C.C. has refused to ship it, claiming firstly that it is not Party
literature, and secondly, that it cannot contribute in any way to
developing the class-consciousness of the proletariat. What hypocrisy! I
suppose Trotsky’s new pamphlet issued by the new Iskra and
therefore to some ex tent representing its “Credo” does contribute a
great deal to the development of the class-consciousness of the
proletariat.... The pamphlet declares that there is a wide gulf between the
old and the new Iskra , that the Congress was a reactionary attempt
to perpetuate sectarian methods of struggle, that the old Iskra
did not care about the proletariat, that the Iskra supporters call
the proletariat block-heads, etc., etc. No wonder Struve praised the
Minority tendencies as vital... (see Lenin’s leaflet “An Obliging
Liberal” [2]

).

Did you get the Iskra letter to all Party organisations on the
Zemstvo campaign? In its striving for a new, “higher” type of propaganda
and agitation, Iskra talks a lot of nonsense, going so far as to
say that demonstrations should be organised with caution so as not to cause
a panic among the Zemstvo people. Lenin has replied to this letter in his
pamphlet The Zemstvo Campaign and “Iskra’s” Plan . [3]

Now that the C.C. has made a deal with the Central Organ not to allow
the congress to be held, it will be postponed indefinitely. Nevertheless
the Majority has resolved to fight for it, but it can succeed only if it is
fully united and properly organised.

Well, that’s all for the time being.

All the best, Lenin