December 1, [1]902. Paris].
E. M.’s [Aleksandrova's] plan is to go to Moscow, settle down, see Sonia [G. M. and Z. P. Krzhizhanovskaya] and re-establish the Organizational] Committee.
In view of this, I think
Pero’s [Trotsky’s] main task should be to strengthen Petersburg.
I learned that Rerikh is still working there, that Peterburger who escaped from exile, about whom, I remember,
Grazhdan[in – Krasnukha] wrote that they got along well. Petrash-
kevich [Strumilin-Dneprovich], who provided us with information about the Shigger-
sky split, says that Rerikh maintains a conciliatory position in the local struggle. 2)
If Pero [Trotsky] succeeds in getting along with him, then perhaps things will be easier.
Here another female worker of my acquaintance is asking to go to Petersburg, quite
decisive and quite "sparkling". I promised her help with a passport
(by the way, since she is Jewish, is it possible to get a paper for her in Whitechapel
from the wife of some runaway worker; features - brunette, medium height, age indefinite);
now she is raising the question of financial support.
(She is really starving.)
I instructed Ek. M. [Aleksandrova] to meet her and take a closer look: I do not rely on my own judgment - I
do not like her, but Lyuba 3), I remember, defended her and was ready to use her.
If E. M. [Aleksandrova] decides that she can be useful to Pero [Trotsky]
in Petersburg], then fine. — So, Pero’s [Trotsky’s] business is
Petersburg.
Let him better concentrate on this, and the Orga- nizational] Committee will entirely fall on E. M. [Aleksandrova],
Kurts [Lengnik] and Sonia [G. M. and Z. P. Krzhizhanovskaya], who
must necessarily be removed from her current
31 126).
YU. O. MARTON—TO THE LONDON PART OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD»).

place.
Acquaint Pero [Trotsky] with Vladimir’s [Il’ich’s] letter to Ereme 4) and explain in more detail how
the business in Piter should be conducted: he is, after all, very inexperienced. Regarding
Moscow, we think this: with the arrival of Vasily [E. M. Aleksandrova],
Zaichik 5) can be sent either also to Piter, or, as he assumed, to the Financial] sector.
Among other things, among other data, send Vasily
[E. M. Aleksandrova] all those of the notorious "connections" of Boris
Nikolaevich Noskov], which are marked with the word "money".
Probably, these connections are less hopeless than all the others. Regarding
the work of the Organizational] Committee itself, I have
come to the following conclusion: to rush the congress at all costs
is dangerous. Forces are not prepared for victory at the congress,
where all the committees will be. If things go further in such a
"hit or miss" fashion, as they are now, then there will remain such a decisive
step: an agreement (whether through a congress, a conference, or
a tour of all "their" committees: StPetersburg, Moscow, Tver,
Nizhny, Saratov, Kiev, Kharkov, Southern Worker, Northern
Union) that "Iskra" is the central organ, that the given committees are united into one organization, appoint
a Central Committee and invite the groups remaining outside
the agreement to enter into an agreement with the Central] Committee]. 6) Provided that in the aforementioned committees we will
have a majority of our own, this path will remain the only
means to achieve a quick unification without the inevitable - in the event of rushing a general congress - the need to compromise with the Union and the Struggle.
Small Russian groups will easily adhere to the whole formed in this way; committees
like the Odessa and Ekaterinoslavsky ones, of course, will become obstinate,
but then the Central] Committee will direct all forces to them and,
probably, conquer, and if not, then it is not a big scandal if
2-3 committees declare that they do not recognize the legitimacy of the re-
establishment of the party; but with the Bund, of course, then we will have to wage
a real struggle.
This, consequently, is a plan for the worst case; E. M. [Aleksandrova] approves of it; write how you feel about it
(you and Vlad[imir Il’ich]). We did not inform Pero [Trotsky] and Krokhmal]
about it: Pero [Trotsky] because we decided to focus all his attention on Piter; and to Krokhmal -
because, in general, we pursue a policy of not telling him everything -
it is calmer that way.
We did not tell him that Pero [Trotsky] will soon

YU. O. MARTON ----TO THE LONDON PART OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD
is going to Russia and that E. M. [Aleksandrova] will do the same. He is sulking,
feeling that they are not entirely frank with him, but, in the end,
it will be useful to him.
Now one more interesting matter: today a gentleman came to Krokhmal
(with a recommendation) and reported the following:
he is a member of a group of zemstvo employees (mainly,
agronomists) in the Novgorod] gubernia], who conduct systematic
propaganda and agitation among the peasants of their gubernia.
The group was formed from individuals who started working alone;
taking advantage of official congresses of agronomists, they organize
their own congresses and heretofore conduct business without failure (for something
more than a year).
Through Rubakin 7) they contacted some socialists] - revolutionaries, who supplied them with bro-
chures of the "Agrarian League" 8).
The gentleman himself, having come to Krokhmal, having been here for 2 monthss and listened to the debates at the presentation,
was imbued with the desire to have his group approve the agrarian
program of "Iskra", which allegedly better corresponds to those conclusions
that they came to in practice.
(The land, they say, is poor in our area, non-chernozem, what kind of "socialization" is there; we, they say, have decided
to conduct and are conducting agitation, mainly, on political
grounds and set the main task of fighting against the tsarist prejudices of the peasants).
So he wants to connect his group
<with us, promises materials, asks for help with literature, about
publishing agitational brochures and leaflets for the peasants and
about technical assistance for printing their own local
proclamations.
He wishes to convene a congress of his own (in Novgorod) by the zemstvo assembly (around the middle of Russian December), where
our man should appear, who 1) will help him to have the approval
of our agrarian program adopted, he himself, apparently, does not rely on his own strength;
2) will connect the group with the Russian organization for
the aforementioned purposes.
He himself is going there for the congress.
I suggested to him: our man will arrive on December 15 (by this time they will all have gathered), they will constitute themselves into a certain social-democratic group for propaganda among
peasants (they do not consider it conspiratorial to publicly name the area),
which will announce its recognition of our agrarian program;
we will supply them with general literature, common
Russian leaflets, which they can and agree to distribute
in the villages; they will supply materials for brochures for
peasants and look for authors for such brochurs among themselves, at the congress itself for us to outline topics for brochures.
Finally, local proclamations on their order can be executed by the Russian organization.
They have liberal connections, and if they are directed, it seems to me that these connections can be utilized.
So far, they are acting only in their province, but they have connections in others and the group can expand.
I think that for conducting business with them now most
suitable is Ledi 9).
She is still full of "foreign" theoretical discussions and will be able to explain to them what they do not yet understand.
Therefore, I propose that she (or Zaichik [G. I. Okulova], so that he takes care of the possibility of fulfilling obligations of a practical nature) immediately go
to them.
It is necessary to be there on December 15, appear at the provincial
zemstvo assembly and there find the provincial agronomist Alexander
Adamovich Lyu s t; this is a completely pure and sympathetic per-son; ask him to introduce you to the Demyansky agronomist Zaloga
(this is the one I saw) and tell him "I came with a commission from an old friend." You should arrive on the 15th–17th, no later.
If Ledi [Meshcheryakov] cannot, it is necessary that someone else go—someone should be found at Starukha [Moscow].
I believe that under the supervision of Vasily [E. M. Alexandrova]
Ledi [Meshcheryakov] will be able to utilize this group.
I enclose some of the materials sent to vampam me, then a note written by me and a completed letter from Kurtz [Leng-
pik] (I don't know if you still need it).
Hold me tight VJ4-
Until then, write here—I am unlikely to get out before 2 weeks—
it is absolutely necessary to give battle here to Chernov, on whom
the social]-revolutionaries now place all their hopes.
Our shares, it seems, are standing high.
Tell L. Gr. [Deich] that the information I have obtained regarding David 10) is still insufficiently definite. There are
only 2 French printing houses where an unsyndicated worker
can be taken; I will find out soon how to penetrate there.
I also forgot to answer one question for him: voting ballots for votirovanie Lalayants and ) and others should be sent separately—to Leitheisen
in his village and to Krokhmal and Maltzm[an Boris]12) here.
So far, I have only obtained 3 chemical books and of these
2 are terribly thick.

Yu. O. MARTOV ----TO THE LONDON PART OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD
*) The first two paragraphs of the letter, devoted to the technical issue of a passport for E. M. Alexandrova, we omit.
2) Comrade S. G. Strumilin reports: "Rerikh, whom Martov mentions from my words, was a forester and his name was Nikolai Eduardovich, he worked in the "Union of Struggle" in my time. I don't remember what split Martov is talking about. I only remember
that, having fled from exile in the summer of 1902, I abroad told
Yu. O. Martov that in the St. Petersburg "Union of Struggle" as early as the autumn of 1900
a rather sharp turn from "economics" to "politics" was outlined. This turn in our ideology was connected with the Fact of the then-experienced
industrial crisis.
We noted that in conditions of crisis the psychology of the working masses is sharply revolutionized, while the economic struggle
does not give results. Therefore, the most natural way out for the mood of the masses at such moments is the path of political actions
and primarily the path of street demonstrations.
In particular, according to my report, it was decided to turn the then-planned student
strike onto the same path of street demonstrations in order to call
the workers to go out into the street simultaneously with the students and thus, from the very first time, organize a sufficiently impressive mass demonstration.
This program from the Union was put forward among other things
on December 25, 1900 at a party in the Mining Institute, then at a student party in the Forestry Institute, at the end of January 1901 a special
proclamation to the students from the Union was even drawn up, in which they were called
to take their protest from the academic walls to the street and promised the support of the workers.
But the failure of January 30, in which almost all active workers
of
the
Union, including
P. G. Smidovich, N. E. Rerikh and many others, were removed
from circulation, interrupted for a long time the emerging
deviation towards politics, although on March 4, 1901, a fairly large
demonstration took place with the participation of workers."
3) Lyubov Nikolaevna Radchenko.
4) A letter to Yerema (Anatoly Abramovich Shneerson) — the well-known
"Letter to a Comrade on Our Organizational Tasks" by N. Lenin, which at that
time existed only in handwritten copies. First published
after the split—in 1904.
(See collected works, vol. IV, p. 157.)
5) Zaichik—Glafira Ivanovna Okulova-Teodorovich in the era of "Iskra"
was closely associated with the St. Petersburg organization, and at that time, to which
Martov's letter relates, she was supposed to move to Moscow in place of
N. E. Bauman.
See footnote 4 to letter 7.
in)
The following lines of Martov, as well as the considerations developed by him in the two subsequent letters that are related to them, are extremely
interesting from the point of view of assessing Martov's position at the second congress
of the party.
From these lines it is clear that a few months before the congress it was Martov—over Lenin's objections—who went so far as to replace the congress
with an agreement between "his" committees, and this plan was dictated to him by fears
that at the general congress part of the "backward" committees would support the "Union."
As is known, at the congress the tendencies of the "Union" found support precisely
in Martov and his supporters.
Apparently Rubakin N. A., a well-known writer-popularizer,
author of many popular brochures on natural science.

8) The "Agrarian
League" is a foreign organization of socialist-revolution-aries, which aimed to publish books on the agrarian question and to propagandize
in the countryside.
9)
Nikolai Leonidovich Meshcheryakov, party pseudonym "Ledi,"
former Narodovolets, who joined the Soc.-Democrats back
in
the late
90s.
At that time, to which the commented letter relates, Meshcheryakov was already a professional of "Iskra" and worked in Moscow. After
the second congress, Meshcheryakov joined the Bolsheviks.
Now a communist.
10) It has not been possible to establish who is being referred to.
and)
Apparently for the acceptance of I. X. Lalayants into the "Foreign League
of Russian Revolutionary Social-Democracy."
12) Boris Maltzman, Iskraite, Social Democrat since the 90s. In 1902
was arrested in the "Iskra" case in Kiev, and together with nine comrades
escaped from Kiev prison on August 18, 1902.