V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:LS/v10; en:CW/CW34;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

V. I. LENIN ON BEHALF OF THE THREE MEMBERS OF THE C.C.
ABROAD—TO THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE*
March 13, 1904 [Geneva]

Comrades, Having received the communication of your collective decision of the majority of the C.C. against the congress** and of the desirability of putting an end to the “squabbling”, and having discussed this communication among the three of us (Kurtz, Zver and Lenin), we unanimously adopted the following decision:

1) Kurtz and Lenin temporarily resign their posts as members of the Council (remaining members of the C.C.) pending the clarification of the true nature of our differences with the majority of the C.C. (We stated in the Council that we absolutely see no honest way out of the squabbling except a congress, and we voted for a congress.) We emphasise that we are resigning temporarily and conditionally, by no means renouncing altogether and being very desirous of a comradely clarification of our differences and misunderstandings.

* Published from the draft written in V. I. Lenin’s hand. Ed.
** The text printed here and below in small capitals is underlined in the manuscript with a wavy line for encoding. Ed.

2) In view of (a) the necessity of having members of the Council from the C.C. abroad; (b) the necessity of a personal conference with the Russian members of the C.C.; (c) the necessity of having a member of the C.C. abroad after the departure of Kurtz, Zver and Lenin (Kurtz and Zver are leaving for Russia, Lenin is taking a formal and complete leave of absence for at least two months)¹; (d) the necessity of arranging matters so that the local affairs which give rise to the “squabbling” should be conducted by those members of the C.C. who disagree with us, because we are unable to combat the squabbling otherwise than we are doing—in view of all this we most insistently request the C.C. to send here immediately and without fail at least one of the Russian members.²

We request you to inform us at once of the receipt of this letter and of your reply.

P.S. To avoid gossip and premature misinterpretations, we informed the Council of our resignation in the following form: (full copy).³

¹ F. V. Lengnik did indeed leave for Russia soon after. M. M. Essen did not leave for Russia in the immediate future and remained abroad until the second half of June. V. I. Lenin apparently used his two-month leave, of which he speaks here, for the final preparation of his pamphlet *One Step Forward, Two Steps Back*.
² In response to this urgent call, the C.C. sent one of its Russian members abroad only two months later: V. A. Noskov arrived abroad only in May.
³ For the text of the statement to the Party Council on the temporary resignation of Lenin and Lengnik, see the following document, 192.