V. I.

Lenin

21

To:   S. O. TSEDERBAUM [1]

We have just received a letter with the plan of Pakhomy’s
Brother, Yablochkov and Bruskov. We cannot conceal that
not only are we unable to agree with any part of this plan
(though the first part is perhaps debatable), but we were
simply astonished by it, especially by the second part,
namely: 1) that everyone move to St. Petersburg, 2) that
a regional organ of the Iskra organisation in Russia be
established. So astonished that we apologise beforehand
for any too sharp word that may slip into our comments.

It is unbelievable! After a whole year of desperate efforts
we have barely succeeded in starting to form a staff of
leaders arid organisers in Russia for this vast and most urgent
task (this staff is still terribly small, for we have only 2-3
persons in addition to the three mentioned above, whereas
an all-Russia organ requires more than one dozen such energetic collaborators, taking this word not merely in a
literary sense), and suddenly the edifice is to be dismantled
again and we are to return to the old primitive methods!
I cannot imagine more suicidal tactics for Iskra ! A regional
organ like the existing Yuzhny Rabochy [2] means a mass
of money and personnel expended all over again on editorial
offices, technical facilities, delivery arrangements, etc., and
for the sake of what? For the sake of five issues in eighteen
months! Even this it will not be able to do now in eighteen
months, for Yuzhny Rabochy had the advantage of being founded by a full-formed Committee, i.e., by a whole
organisation at the apogee of its development. At present
there are only three of you. If, instead of combating the
narrowness which makes the St. Petersburger forget about
Moscow, the Muscovite about St. Petersburg, the Kiev man about everything except Kiev, if instead of training
people to handle all-Russia affairs (it takes years to train
them for this, if we want to build a political party worthy
of the name), if, instead of this, we shall again encourage
primitive methods, local narrowness and the development
of a Gothamite instead of an all-Russia Social-Democracy,
it will be nothing but Gothamite foolishness, it cannot
be anything else. It has been found out by experience how
unequipped we are for creating a really political organ,
how few contributors and reporters we have, how few people
with political connections, how few practical workers to
handle technical jobs and distribution.

Russia has few of them, as it is, without our splintering
them still further and dropping an all-Russia undertaking
that has already been launched and which needs all-round
support, for the sake of founding a new local enterprise.
At best, in the event of this new plan being a shining success, it will lower the standard of Russian Social-Democracy,
lower its political significance, because there cannot be a
“local” political newspaper, since in a local organ the
general-political section is always bound to suffer. You
write: a “mass” organ. We totally fail to understand what
kind of animal this is. Do you mean to say that Pakhomy’s
Brother, too, has begun to think that we must descend to
a lower level, from the advanced workers to the mass, that we must write more simply and closer to life? Do you
mean to say our aim is to descend closer to the “mass” instead of raising this already stirring mass to the level of
an organised political movement? Is it letters from factories
and workshops that we lack, and not political exposures,
political knowledge and political generalisations ? And
in order to extend and deepen our political generalisations
we are invited to fragment our work as a whole into regional
undertakings! And besides depreciating the cause politically they will inevitably depreciate it technically by the
plan for a regional organ. By combining all forces on Iskra ,
we can set up a monthly newspaper (this has now been proved after a year’s experience) with really political
material, but in the case of a regional organ it is impossible just
now to think even of four issues per annum. If we don’t
skip impatiently from one plan to another, and are not put out by temporary setbacks and the slow growth of an
all-Russia undertaking, it would be quite possible after six
months or a year to achieve, a fortnightly organ (which is
persistently in our thoughts). We assume, of course, that
Pakhomy’s Brother, Yablochkov and Bruskov stand by the previous line, approving both the political trend and the
organisational plan of Iskra , but if they have altered their
views on these matters, that is quite a different question,
of course. We are quite at a loss to understand why these
people have lost confidence in this plan, and so quickly
too (because they cannot fail to see that the new plan destroys the old one). Is it because of shipments? So far we
have attempted only once to arrange a route and this attempt has not yet led to a complete failure—and even after
two or three failures we ought not to throw up the sponge.
Have not these people begun to sympathise with publication in Russia, rather than abroad? Surely they know that
everything was done for the former and about 1,000 rubles
spent, but so far without result. We must say that in general
we consider that any plan for publishing any sort of regional
Or local organ of the Iskra organisation in Russia is decidedly incorrect and harmful. The Iskra organisation exists
to support and develop the paper, and to unite the Party
through it, and not for a dispersion of our forces, of which
there is more than enough without this organisation. As
for everyone going to St. Petersburg, we can only say that
we have very few Party workers like P. B. and Pakhomy’s
Brother and we need to preserve them. Living in one place,
the danger of a general roundup is a hundred times greater.
If they find that one person there is not enough (it’s for
them to decide), let them add to him the one who is being
released in the autumn (Pakhomy’s Brother), but not both.
And then, for the sake of both security and united work, let
them not forget that it is extremely desirable to change
their place of residence from time to time. If, finally,
success were achieved in winning over the Committee in St.
Petersburg, it should, of course, be made to devote itself
heart and soul to Iskra and its more frequent publication,
and to oppose all new primitive undertakings. Primitivism
is a much more dangerous enemy than Economism, for vital roots of Economism, we are profoundly convinced, are deeply buried in primitivism. And there will never
be any political movement (political not in words only,
but in fact, i.e., one directly influencing the government
and preparing a general assault) until we overcome this
primitivism and eradicate all belief in it. If St. Petersburg
has bought 400 copies of Yuzhny Rabochy , the Sotsialist [3]
group has set about distributing 1,000 copies of Iskra
Let them organise the distribution of this number of copies,
let them arrange for it to contain a detailed St. Petersburg
section (if necessary, it will be a special supplement), and
then there will have been accomplished the very task that
has overshadowed for you all other tasks of winning over
St. Petersburg. Let us remind you that all “practical workers” are agreed that Yuzhny Rabochy has no
advantages over Iskra as regards accessibility to workers, so that
this argument, too, falls to the ground. It is absurd and
criminal to disperse forces and funds— Iskra has no money,
not a single Russian agent is obtaining a farthing for it,
and yet everyone is thinking up some new undertaking requiring new funds. All this shows a lack of self-discipline.
We must be more patient; by means of our plan we shall achieve our ends, albeit not so soon, whereas what can be
reckoned on by implementing the proposed plan is clear from the lamentable experience of Rabocheye Znamya . [4]
Our friends began to carry out their plan in such haste
that Yablochkov travelled to St. Petersburg in defiance
of the condition laid down, abandoning Odessa, in which
the presence of our agent was essential. We demand that
the new plan be discarded. If our arguments are thought
unconvincing, let all new plans be put off until our congress, which we shall convene, if necessary, when the
thing has been got going. As far as popular literature is
concerned, the idea is to extend the publication of popular
pamphlets. This letter expresses the opinion not only of
our group but also of the Emancipation of Labour group.

---
Notes:
[1]
Tsederbaum, Sergei Ostpovich (1879-1939)—joined the
Social-Democratic movement in 1898. Worked on the organisation of transport
facilities for Iskra publications. After the Second Congress of
the R.S.D.L.P. became an active Menshevik. After the October Socialist
Revolution retired from political activities. p. 76

[2]
Yuzhny Rabochy (Southern Worker)—a Social-Democratic illegal
newspaper, published from January 1900 to April 1903 by a group of this
name. At the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. the group’s delegates
adopted a “Centre” position (that of “middling opportunists”, as Lenin called the representatives of the
Centre). The Second Congress decided to dissolve the Yuzhny Rabochy group as well as all separate Social-Democratic groups and
organisations. p. 76

[3]
The Sotsialist group was organised in St. Petersburg in the summer
of 1900. It was one of the groups that were dissatisfied with the Economist
tendency of the St. Petersburg League of Struggle, and gave prominence to
the political struggle. In January 1901 it amalgamated with the
Rabocheye Znamya group. The group broke up after the arrests in
the spring of 1901. p. 79

[4]
The Rabocheye Znamya group (Workers’ Banner) came into being
during the second half of 1897. It disapproved of Economism and set itself
the aim of conducting political propaganda among the workers. It published
the newspaper Rabocheye Znamya (three issues were put out) and
several pamphlets and leaflets. In January 1901 the St. Petersburg
Rabocheye Znamya group amalgamated with the Sotsialist group, but in the course of January-April the members of the united group
who were in Russia were arrested. Most of the members of the St. Petersburg
Rabocheye Znamya group joined the Iskra organisation. p. 79