V. I.

Lenin

59

To:   LYUBOV AXELROD

18.XII. 02

Dear L. I., Just received your letter and am hastening to reply in order to
congratulate you on such a tremendous acquisition as Stavsky. His name was
mentioned in letters we received from Rostov-on-Don, but I deleted it, for
fear of compromising him. [1]

I am enclosing Iskra No. 29 for you and for him , to let him see
without delay our account of the events. I also enclose a letter to him
with a request concerning a pamphlet on the Rostov developments.

Further, as regards “Misha the Compositor”. The pseudonym is unknown
to me, but I know and worked with Vas. Andr. Shelgunov whom he
mentions. Since Shelgunov spoke to him about me, please convey to him
greetings from me personally and ask him to write us in detail about every
thing, i.e., about the work and about himself, who he is and what
his plans are at present, how long he will be abroad, and so on. You will
have to devote some attention to these people: it is very important to win
them over completely. If you haven’t the time to spare, send them to our
people in Zurich or Geneva. We may soon be able to send a young and very energetic and capable comrade from here (pseudonym: “Pero”) to
help you.

By the way, “Misha” is mistaken about Odessa: we have letters from
the “scene of action” there. There are the S.R.L. (Southern Revolutionary
League of Social-Democrats) and the Committee. The latter supports
Borba and opposes Iskra . The former is closer to
Iskra , but not yet altogether “ours”. The Odessa Committee has put out No. 3 of Rabocheye Slovo (a printed paper). The S.R.L. issues leaflets. To which “group” did “Misha” belong? The S.R.L., the Odessa Committee, or some other?

My wife will attend to the Petersburg and Moscow messages, that is, she
will write to the proper people.

Best regards, Yours, Lenin