V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:LS/v10;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

V. I. LENIN
—
TO THE C.C. BUREAU IN RUSSIA
148.
V. I. LENIN TO THE C.C. BUREAU IN RUSSIA*
30/XII 03 [Geneva]**.
We have received your letter of December 10, old style.² We are
astonished and indignant at your silence on the fighting issues and
your negligence in correspondence. It is impossible to carry on
work like this! Get another secretary if the Bear and the Doe are
unable to write every week. Just think, we have had no detailed
news from the Doe to this day! There has been no reply to our
letter of December 10, new style,³ to this day (after 20 days).
This disgraceful state of affairs must be put an end to at all
costs!
Further.
We emphatically insist on the necessity of fully clarifying your
position in the struggle against the Martovites, of coming to an
understanding among ourselves and adopting a perfectly definite
line.
Why did you not send Boris here, as Hans wanted to do?
If Boris had been here he would not have written us [silly] funny
speeches about peace.⁴ Why did Hans not keep his promise to
write the Old Man exactly about Boris’s mood? If Boris cannot
come, send Mitrofan or the Beast to get the job done.
I repeat again and again: Hans’s fundamental mistake is that
he trusted to the latest impression. [I hope] No. 53 must have
sobered him. The Martovites took over the C.C.O. for war, and
now war is on all along the line: baiting in Iskra, fighting at
public lectures (the other day Martov lectured on the split in
Paris before an audience of 100 and fought with Lebedev⁵), the
most unbridled agitation against the C.C. It would be unpardonably
short-sighted to think that this cannot spread to Russia. Matters
have gone so far here that relations between the C.C.O. and the
C.C. have been broken off (the C.C.O. resolution of December 22,
sent to you⁶), and the C.C.O. has printed a lie (Iskra, No. 55) to
the effect that an agreement had been reached not to publish the
negotiations.⁷
Do, please, give serious thought to the whole political situation,
take a broader view, tear yourselves away from the petty, humdrum
bustle over coppers and passports, and make up your minds,
without hiding your heads under your wings, where you are going
and what you are dragging things out for.
As far as I can see, there are two trends in our C.C. (or
[perhaps] three? What are they?). In my opinion they are as
follows: 1) to drag things out, not to call a congress, to keep as
silent as possible in face of the onslaught and the insolent spitting
in the face, and to strengthen the position in Russia*⁸; 2) to raise
a hullabaloo with resolutions against the C.C.O., to direct a l l
forces towards winning over the wavering committees and to
prepare a congress in two, maximum ** three months.⁹ And I ask,
what does your strengthening of positions consist of? Only in
that you are losing time while the enemy is gathering forces here
(the emigration counts for a great deal!), and are putting off a
decision until you are smashed. A smash is inevitable and quite
soon—it would be sheer childishness to ignore this.
What will you leave us after the smash? The Martovites will
have fresh and increased forces. We shall have broken ranks.
They will have a strengthened C.C.O. We shall have a company
that is doing a poor job of transporting this C.C.O. which is
abusing them. Why, this is the sure road to defeat, it is only a
shameful and stupid putting off of inevitable defeat. You are
simply closing your eyes to this, taking advantage of the fact that
the war abroad is spreading to you slowly. Your tactics literally
amount to this: after us (after the present composition of the
C.C.) the deluge (the deluge for the majority). I think that even
if defeat is inevitable, then it is necessary to go away directly,
honestly and openly, and that is possible only at a congress. But
defeat is by no means inevitable, for the Five are not united,
Plekhanov is not with them, but for peace, and at a congress it
will be possible to catch both Plekhanov and them with their
alleged differences.
The only serious objection to a congress is that it will inevitably
legalise a split. And I reply: 1) even that is better than the present
state of affairs, for then it will be possible to go away honestly,
and not drag out the shameful position of being spat upon; 2) the
Martovites have missed the moment for a split, and their walk-out
from the Third Congress is [quite] improbable, for the present
struggle and the complete publication¹⁰ make a split impossible.
3) If it is possible to bargain with them, the best place to do so is
precisely at a congress.
* There is a slip in the manuscript: “to Russia.”—Ed.
** — at the most.—Ed.

—
 TO THE C.C. BUREAU IN RUSSIA
Discuss the matter thoroughly and at last give us the opinion
of each (absolutely each) member of the C.C.
Don’t pester me about leaflets¹¹: I am not a machine, and in
the present disgraceful state of affairs I cannot work.