Note: of 9 VII 1901

49.
9-VII-01 [Munich].
Dear P. B.! I am sending you Nevzorov's [Steklov's] article *), rejected by us.
Take a look at this Fructik (I heard you were interested in him) and, after reading it, please send it immediately to Georgii Valentinovich [Plekhanov], who is also interested in the Parisians.
We think that keeping a copy, as a document, is necessary.
We are assembling No. 6 of *Iskra* -- it will probably be in 6 ppages, because there is quite a lot of material on social] chronicle and on the labor] movement.
The following were sent for the 2nd issue of *Zarya*: 1) G. V. [Plekhanov]'s editorial "What Next?" and 2) L. I. [Axelrod]'s article "Why Don't We Want to Go Back?"
Orthodox. Then Arseniev [Potresov] and Velika Dm[itrievna - V. I. Zasulich] are writing, there is a review by Alexei [Martov] 2) (how did it seem to you? Velika Dm[itrievna - Zasulich] was unhappy).
I wrote a little article about Witte's memorandum 3) and the preface to it, of course, scolded Mr. P. R. S. [Struve] – Velika Dm[itrievna – Zasulich] is very unhappy, and I will have to send the article to G. V. [Plekhanov], etc.: this Mr. N. R. S. [Struve] is a sore point!
How are your works going and how is your health? How long is your vacation this year and where do you plan to rest?
I would very, very much like you to look in here and talk about various things, - I'm just afraid to invite you, so that instead of rest you don't cause yourself new frayed nerves.
If this doesn't scare you, come visit, really.
We have been written to from Russia that talk about a congress has intensified 5).
This again and again makes us think about the program.
Publication of the draft program is extremely necessary, and would be of great importance.
But besides you and G. V. [Plekhanov], there is no one to take it on: the matter requires calm concentration and deliberation.

V. I. LENIN — P. B. AXELROD.

P. B. AXELROD.

Please come to our aid, if only business and health allow. Or maybe be you will see G. V. [Plekhanov] and spend some time with him together - so you could take advantage of this time 5)?
Kautsky was here in transit (he left to rest in Tyrol), but we forgot to talk to him about the Erfurter Programm (now being reviewed by Alexei [Martov]) 6).
Did he promise a special preface?
What books did you tell Alexei's [Martov's] sister [L. O. Kaptsel] that they were sent?
Regarding the foreign] review for *Zarya* we are unreliable: Parvus wants to write everything about the organization, Luxemburg and Danevich [Gurevich] will give (maybe be) about France, but nothing more, neither about Germany nor about Austria. . . Schwach!
Well, goodbye! Sorry I rarely write: there is no time left in this bustle. The Londoners are here now 7), I like them. And you?
I shake your hand tightly and send greetings to all your friends. Yours.
Leiteisen's address: 52, Faubourg du Temple. Mr. Gouman. Paris.
On the inner] envelope: pour Mr. Basile.
(Regarding the re-printing of No. 1 of *Iskra*, we will have to wait a little: the question of the surviving, as it turned out, one thousand copies of it and the current attempt to transport this thousand will soon be clarified) 8).
A note about Adler will still be in time for No. 6 of *Iskra* 9), if it comes no later than in a week.
I'm not writing about the draft agreement with the Union: there is nothing new, and you, of course, know the old from Alexei's [Martov's] sister [L. O. Kaptsel].

*) Yu. M. Steklov's article, "So, Where to Begin?", directed against V. I. Lenin's article, printed in No. 4 of *Iskra* - "Where to Begin?". Steklov sent his article for publication in *Iskra*.
*) Martov's essay, subsequently processed for printing and published in Nos. 2-3 of *Zarya* under the title: "Always in the Minority."
3) Witte's memorandum is "Autocracy and Zemstvo. Confidential memorandum of the Minister of Finance S. Yu. Witte with a preface and notes by R. N. S. In the publication of *Zarya* in Stuttgart, 1901." R. N. S. - P. B. Struve. V. I. Lenin's article, "Persecutors of the Zemstvo and Hannibal of Liberalism," was published in No. 2-3 of *Zarya* in December 1901. It was written, as can now be established, at the end of June - beginning of July 1901. G. V. Plekhanov wrote about the manuscript of this article to Lenin and Axelrod already on 14/VII from Geneva.

LENIN COLLECTION.
Lenin Collection, III.
Lenin's article caused a lively discussion in the editorial staff of *Iskra*, serving as the first reason for the manifestation of a different attitude towards liberals on the part of Lenin, on the one hand, and Plekhanov, on the other. Letters MLNS 53, 54, 55, 58 are devoted to this article.
4) The idea of a party congress repeatedly arose in Russian organizations since 1900. A. M. Ginsburg-Naumov, for example, talks about one such attempt in 1900 ("History of the Yekaterinoslav Social Democratic Organization", p. 158): this idea arose in Yekaterinoslav at the beginning of 1900, the congress was scheduled in Smolensk in May; nothing came of this attempt. In the summer of the same 1900, the Rabocheye Delo organization of Voronezh (Yu. Makhnovets) also considered the idea of convening an all-Russian conference, as O. A. Varentsova tells about in "Proletarian Revolution" (No. 9 for 1922, p. 12).
During 1901, party organizations in Russia hotly discussed the issue of getting out of the critical situation that had arisen locally due to artisanal methods. The "Economists", after the June meeting, also thought about a congress, not hoping to be victorious at the upcoming congress of the Union. As is known, at the beginning of 1902 there was an attempt at a congress in Bialystok. It was indeed necessary to hurry with the development of the program, since attempts were already being made in Russia to formulate the program; thus, the Northern Workers' Union, the second congress of which took place in January 1901, adopted a program, although not of the party, but of the Union, but already the fact of creating such a program testified to the enormous need of Russian social democratic organizations to have something more developed than the "Manifesto" and the "Resolutions of the Congress" of 1898.
5) This is the first of the known indications to us of the posing of the question of developing a draft party program in the editorial office of *Iskra*. Further indications up to the January 1902 meeting in Munich are found in letters Nos. 50, 51, 60, 61, 65, 75.
6) The Erfurt Program. Kautsky wrote a special preface to the Russian translation of the "Erfurt Program." Its translation in the publication of *Zarya* was released in March 1903, but due to accidental circumstances, Kautsky's preface did not appear in this edition. Only in 1905 this preface appeared in an illegal publication of the Central Committee of the RSDLP, released by the Baku Printing House of the Central Committee. (See "Proletarian Revolution" No. 12, 1923, p. 151.)
7) The Londoners - V. P. Nogin and S. V. Andropov.
8) The first transport of *Iskra*, as it was indicated, failed (see letter 17, note 5), but the first issue reached Russia, albeit in small quantities. V. D. Bonch-Bruevich talks about one such small transport (see "Technique of the Bolshevik Underground". Istrakt, Moscow. Collection of articles and memoirs. Issue I, p. 202). According to Martov (see his "History of Russian Social Democracy," published by "Kniga", p. 58). The first issue of *Iskra* went to Russia in the suitcases of N. Blumenfeld and N. E. Bauman.
9) In No. 6 of *Iskra* a note by P. Axelrod "The Last Electoral Victory of Austrian Workers" is placed. (About the election of Viktor Adler to the Austrian Landtag.)