*298
LENIN MISCELLANY
The Editorial Board of the Central Organ considers your withdrawal from collaboration to be extremely detrimental to the cause and in no way caused by its side. Personal irritation cannot, of course, be an obstacle to party work, which is collaboration in *Iskra* and *Zarya*.
If your withdrawal is caused by some disagreement in views between you and us, we would consider it extremely useful in the interests of the party to give a detailed account of such disagreements. Moreover. We would consider it extremely desirable that the nature and depth of these disagreements be clarified as soon as possible before the entire party and precisely on the pages of the publications we edit.
Finally, we remind you that you have been co-opted as a member of the Editorial Board and have every opportunity to defend all your views in the highest party institution.
Another version of the draft letter to Martov from the Editorial Board of *Iskra*, written in Lenin's own hand and furnished with his own corrections, is closer to the final text of the letter than the above draft, and therefore, undoubtedly, later. Like the previous one, this draft was written between October 4 and 6.
V. I. Lenin.
b.
* DRAFT LETTER FROM THE EDITORIAL BOARD OF THE CENTRAL ORGAN TO Yu. O. MARTOV.
SECOND VARIANT.
To Comrade Martov.
Editorial Board of the Central Organ of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party.
[reports] considers it a duty
To officially express its regret regarding your withdrawal from participation in *Iskra* and *Zarya* (issue No. 5 is being prepared). Despite repeated invitations to collaborate,—which we made immediately after the Second Party Congress, before Issue
46 of *Iskra*, and repeated several times after that,—we have not received a single line from you.
What is more. Even the publication of the second edition of your pamphlet *The Red Banner* has been delayed for many weeks due to the non-submission of the end of the manuscript. The Editorial Board of the Central Organ [believes that this] declares to you that for it, your withdrawal from [party work] -collaboration is [completely undesirable declares that]

LETTER FROM THE EDITORIAL BOARD OF THE CENTRAL ORGAN TO YU. O. MARTOV
extremely regrettable and appears to it in no way caused by its side. If this withdrawal [is caused by] dictated by personal irritation, then the Editorial Board of the Central Organ believes that [it should be] this should in no way serve as an obstacle to party work; for its part, the Editorial Board of the Central Organ considers it its direct duty to be guided solely by the benefit of certain literary works for the party.
If your withdrawal is caused by [any] some disagreement in views between you and us, then we would consider it extremely useful in the interests of the party to give a detailed account of such disagreements. [In any case] Moreover. We would consider it extremely desirable that the nature and depth of these disagreements be clarified as soon as possible before the entire party and precisely on the pages of the publications we edit.
Finally, we [fully agree] in the interests of the cause we once again point out to you that we are ready at the present time [,even after your repeated and public expressions of your hostility towards the new Editorial Board of *Iskra*,] to co-opt you as a member of the Editorial Board [in order to] in order to give you every opportunity to defend all your views in the highest party institution.
The following document is a copy of the letter from the Editorial Board of the Central Organ, sent to Martov and others. This copy, written, according to Vladimir Ilyich, personally for him, is completely identical to another copy, preserved in Lenin's papers and made by N. K. Krupskaya, apparently, for the archive of the Editorial Board.
V. I. Lenin, G. V. Plekhanov.
c.
* LETTER FROM THE EDITORIAL BOARD OF THE CENTRAL ORGAN TO Yu. O. MARTOV, OTHER FORMER MEMBERS OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD AND L. D. TROTSKY.
Copy. *)
To Comrade Martov from the Editorial Board of the Central Organ of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party.
Dear Comrade! The Editorial Board of the Central Organ considers it its duty to officially express its regret regarding your withdrawal from participation in *Iskra* and *Zarya* ("No. 5 of *Zarya* is currently being prepared for printing") 1). Despite repeated invitations
*) The inscription: "Copy" is made in Vladimir Ilyich's handwriting.
Ed.

to collaborate,—which we made immediately after the Second Party Congress, before Issue
46 of *Iskra*, and repeated repeatedly after that,—we have not received a single literary work from you. 2)
||What is more. Even the publication of the second edition of your pamphlet *The Red Banner* has been delayed for many weeks, due to the non-submission of the end of the manuscript. ||
The Editorial Board of the Central Organ declares that it considers your withdrawal from collaboration in no way caused by its side.
Any personal irritation should not, of course, serve as an obstacle to work in the central organ of the party.
If your withdrawal is caused by some [irritation] disagreement in views between you and us, then we would consider it extremely useful in the interests of the party to give a detailed account of such disagreements. Moreover. We would consider it extremely desirable that the nature and depth of these disagreements be clarified as soon as possible before the entire party precisely on the pages of the publications we edit.
|| Finally, in the interests of the cause, we once again point out to you that we are ready at the present time to co-opt you as a member of the Editorial Board of the Central Organ in order to give you full opportunity to officially declare and defend all your views in the highest party institution3). |
Geneva, October 6, 1903.
Lenin.
Plekhanov. *)
A registered letter was sent to Potresov's address in one envelope, two sheets.
6. X 03. 1) To Martov
2) To Axelrod, Zasulich, Starover and Trotsky,
the same text without
|
|| [brackets]. 4)
*) The signatures: "Lenin.
Plekhanov" and the subsequent remark about sending the letter are written in Lenin's handwriting.
Ed.

LETTER FROM THE EDITORIAL BOARD OF THE CENTRAL ORGAN TO YU. O. MARTOV
This copy was written, at my request, by Lebedev [S. I. Gusev] *).
*) The text in brackets about No. 5 of *Zarya* was omitted when this letter was published by Lenin in the pamphlet *One Step Forward, Two Steps Back* (Collected Works, Vol. V, p. 430).
2) No. 46 of *Iskra* was published on August 28 Old Style. This is the first issue of *Iskra* published under the new editorship of Lenin and Plekhanov. The mention of this issue here indicates that the first offer of collaboration was made with the aim of ensuring the uninterrupted work of Martov and his group in *Iskra*. This offer was made back in London on August 24 through a member of the Central Committee, V. A. Noskov. Subsequent offers of joint work in the Central Organ were made:
1) By Lenin to Martov during a personal meeting with him already in Geneva at the end of August, 2) To Martov also through I. Kh. Lalayants on August 30, 3) By Lenin in a letter to Potresov on September 13. All these invitations are detailed in the aforementioned letter to Potresov and our preliminary remarks to it (see above, pp. 213-218).
The words about No. 46 of *Iskra* were omitted when published in the pamphlet *One Step Forward, Two Steps Back* (see there, as in note 1).
3) By "highest party institution" here, apparently, is meant the Party Council, in which Martov, upon joining the Editorial Board, as one of its representatives, could declare and defend all his views. This is indicated by the following words in Martov's reply below: "the offer you repeat to take a place in the Editorial Board and in the Council."
4) This record, beginning with the words: "Sent registered," in the manuscript represents a registration mark for the archive. It indicates that a letter with the same text, with the exception of the passages relating personally to Martov, enclosed in double square brackets, was simultaneously sent to the remaining former editors and prominent collaborators of *Iskra* from among the opposition. The passages enclosed in double square brackets, when the letter was published in the pamphlet *One Step Forward, Two Steps Back*, were omitted in the main text, but the first of them is mentioned, and the second is quoted verbatim in a footnote (Collected Works, Vol. V, "p. 431).
*) The last remark about the origin of this copy of the letter is written in pencil in Vladimir Ilyich's handwriting on the third (blank) side of the sheet, on the first two pages of which the copy of the letter itself is written.
Ed.

The letter to the editorial board of the Central Organ to the remaining (besides Martov) members of the former editorial board and L.D. Trotsky was forwarded together with the letter to Martov to the address of Potresov in Geneva. One of the former editors, P. B. Axelrod, lived in Zurich. L. D. Trotsky sent him a copy of the letter from the editorial board of the Central Organ, accompanying it with a personal letter in which he spoke of the official address of the editorial board in the following way:
«...This clerical Pharisaism will play the role of an exculpatory document in the hands of the powers that be. It is extremely indelicate, not to say more, this appeal to four at once — as if we constitute some kind of secret society. If this is not to be assumed, then it is not customary to contract employees wholesale. The mention of 'multiple' invitations is curious, whereas I, for example, have not been invited even once. The indication that we will be given freedom of opinion and conscience is also not bad — this after Plekhanov's indication that debates on controversial issues can be opened no earlier than a year from now, when 'the Party will grow stronger.'» [This important indication of Plekhanov's position is not found in other documents available to us. Ed.]
«We think to answer in 'Iskra' with a few lines that with the transition of 'Iskra' to the new editorial board, we are resigning from its staff.» (Quoted from "Letters of P. B. Axelrod and Yu. O. Martov," Berlin, 1924, pp. 89-90.) The Martov group answered the editorial board's appeal not even with "a few lines," but with only a couple of lines, which we print below.

Vladimir Ilyich, along with the letter from the editorial board, reproduced this laconic answer of the Martovites in his brochure "One Step Forward, Two Steps Back" (Collected Works, Vol. V, p. 434).
L. D. Trotsky's letter to Axelrod quoted above was written on October 7. In view of this, the Martov group's answer to the editorial board of the Central Organ should be attributed to a date later than this. Judging by the fact that Vladimir Ilyich in "One Step Forward, Two Steps Back" first mentions this collective answer of the Martovites, and then speaks of Martov's separate personal answer (dated October 9), one can think that the collective answer was written by the authors and received by the editorial board earlier, and in any case, no later than Martov's answer. Thus, the date of the Martov group's answer should be attributed to October 8-9.

statement of the martovites
39.
STATEMENT OF THE MARTOVITES. *)
[October 8-9, 1903, Geneva.]
The undersigned take no part in [Iskra] since its transfer to the hands of the new editorial board.
Zasulich, Akselrod, Starover, Martov, Trotsky, Koltsov.
*) This title in the manuscript is not distinguished from the rest of the text in any way. This record of the Martov group's answer is reproduced twice in Vladimir Ilyich's papers: 1) inscribed by himself at the end of the first draft of the letter to Martov from the editorial board, recorded in N. K. Krupskaya's hand (above, pp. 297-298, document 38 a), 2) recorded by N. K. Krupskaya along with other copies for the editorial board's archive after her own copy of the letter to Martov. Ed.