V. I.

Lenin

TO V. P. NOGIN

November 2, 1900

Please forgive me, dear Novosyolov, that I am so disgracefully late with my reply to your letter of October
17. I was constantly distracted by “petty” matters and
chores here, and was also waiting for a reply from Alexei.
It was essential to wait for a reply, in order to clear up
the question of our editorial statement. Alexei has decided
not to circulate it at present. Therefore, in sending you
a copy, I beg you to keep it secret for the time being, and
not to show it to anyone (apart perhaps from that close
friend of yours who has authority from the St. Petersburg
group, and about whom you write [1] ) and, in any,case,
not let it pass into anyone else’s hands. In general, we
have decided not to circulate this thing abroad until it
has been distributed in Russia, and since Alexei is holding
it back over there, it is particularly important for us to
see that it does not spread out here. Counting on your close
participation in our undertaking, I decided to make an exception and to acquaint you with the statement. When
reading it please bear in mind that the intention is to
publish both a paper and a journal (or a miscellany ); but the
statement says nothing about the latter for certain special
reasons connected with the plan for publishing the journal. [2] Therefore, some passages of the statement should
be read as applying not only to the paper.

Please write and tell me what impression the statement has made on you and your friend.

What type of “agitation journal” do the members of the
Rabocheye Znamya group propose to publish (it was about
them you wrote, wasn’t it?)? What kind of journal is it
to be, and who is to work on it?

As regards shipment across the frontier into Russia, I think this will always be easily done: we have connections
with several groups who carry on such transport, and in
addition a member of our group was recently given a promise
(a solid one, judging by everything) that they would be
able to take anyone across the frontier into Russia without
a passport. This, I think, is easily arranged.

The Russian passport business is much worse. So far there is nothing, and the “prospects” are still very
indefinite. Perhaps this too will be arranged by the spring.

I shall probably be staying on here for a fairly long time,
and our correspondence can therefore continue without inconvenience.

You ask what work we should like to request you to take
on. I think that (by the spring or by the autumn, whenever
you intend to move) the following work will be of especial
importance for us:
(1) transport of literature across the frontier; (2) delivery throughout Russia;
(3) organisation of workers’ groups to circulate the paper and collect
information, etc., i.e., in general, organisation of the
circulation of the paper and of close and proper connections
between it and individual committees and groups. We pin
great hopes on your co-operation, particularly in the business of direct contacts with the workers in various
places. Does such work appeal to you? Have you anything
against travelling? It would probably require constant travels.

Is the St. Petersburg group, from which your friend has
authority, still in existence? If so, could he provide addresses for contacts in St. Petersburg and a password, in
order to transmit our statement to them? Have they any connections with the workers in general, and the St.
Petersburg Workers’ Organisation in particular [3] ?

All the best, and I wish you the speediest and easiest emergence from quarantine abroad.

Yours, Petroff

P.S. Have I written the address correctly?

Please confirm receipt of this letter.