V. I.

Lenin

47

To:   YELENA STASOVA

We have received (from somewhere abroad) a new Bouncer document, dated October
1902, a programme and principles of organisation—muddled and
pernicious. We are devilishly vexed and offended at your failure to send us
immediately and directly (in two copies to different addresses) all the
St. Petersburg productions. It is Simply outrageous that up to now we have not
had the first leaflet of the Bouncer people (the July “protest”
against the recognition of Iskra ) and only learnt about it from
Otkliki ! [1] Surely it is not difficult to send leaflets when
all letters arrive quite all right! More outrageous still is the fact that you
hold up your replies so long. Ignat has told us that his leaflet replying to the
Bouncer drivel was written a long time ago, but that you held it up and
substituted another one, longer, feebler and more watered-down, only in the end
to publish none at all! If it couldn’t be published, surely it could have
been sent here in a letter!

For Christ’s sake, explain what is the matter; is it due to sheer bungling
oversight on the part of someone in the Committee (or of the whole Committee?)
or to deliberate opposition and intrigue within the Committee?

We cannot rid ourselves of the impression inevitably created by all this:
namely, that the Bouncers are steadily ousting you, deceiving you and before
long will kick you out altogether.

We would strongly advise electing Bogdan in place of the missing member of the Organising Commmittee from

St. Petersburg [2] he fully deserves it. And in general, apparently,
things will never advance an inch without professional revolutionaries.

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Notes:
[1]
Lenin refers to the two leaflets (that of September and October) of the
Workers’ Organisation Committee quoted in the article “The
St. Petersburg Split” published in Iskra No. 30, for
December 15, 1902.

The September leaflet was previously published in the “Supplement” to Otkliki (Comments) No. 1, December
1902, issued by the Svoboda group in Geneva.

[2]
Krasnukha V. P., the St. Petersburg member of the O.C., was arrested in
November 1902.