V. I.

Lenin

To:   M. LEIBOVICH [1]

Private, to Yevsei (Malyutkin) from Lenin

20/IX.

Dear Comrade, Your letter written in the Gritsko code received; we deciphered it with
much difficulty since you went by another edition. We are using the same
code.

The conciliators here are engaged in liquidating the Majority. When it
informed the committees of the peace re stored in the Party, the
C.C. forgot to add that it had itself gone over to the Minority and begun
to hound the Majority. Besides the points made public in C.C. resolutions,
there are also some which are not to be publicised, not because of any
considerations of secrecy, but just to avoid temptation. The C.C. has
decided: to dissolve the Southern Bureau for agitation in favour of the
congress, to disband the forwarding office, to apologise to the
book-stitchers, not to publish the minutes of the Council
[[BOX-ENDS: for they discredit the Minority and show that before beginning
agitation for the congress the Majority (firm) proposed honest peace and
insisted on the boycott being ended on both sides while the Central Organ
replied to this proposal with ridicule]], to institute a special censorship of writings by the Majority—a special
censor has been named from among the conciliators to decide whether one or
another piece written by Lenin can be printed, and Lenin has been deprived
of

all the rights of a representative abroad. More, the C.C. is arranging a
conference with the Minority, completely ignoring the Majority. The
Minority of course is rejoicing and lauding the C.C. The composition of the C.C. has changed, two members have been arrested, two have resigned, and one member has been expelled completely unlawfully. The C.C.,
which in April took the Majority viewpoint, now finds that the C.O. is up
to the mark. Yet, if in the beginning there were no differences of
principle, now there are plenty. To justify itself, the Minority is
smearing the old Iskra . It claims (Dan’s report to the
international congress, and Trotsky’s pamphlet) that the old Iskra
was not so much a Social-Democratic as a democratic organ, that it was
concerned not with organising the working class but with organising the
intelligentsia, that Axelrod did not take part in it because it was not
really a Social-Democratic organ. Only the new Iskra has put
forward the slogan “to the masses”, and so on and so forth. It is
difficult to recount all the nonsense they are now spouting, speculating on
the ignorance of the public, on its lack of knowledge of the history of the
movement. The C.C. is not in the least perturbed by all this and is vastly
tickled at having won the forgiveness of the C.O. by its
declaration [2]

....

On the pretext of preserving the peace in the Party the C.O. does not print
resolutions passed by committees in favour of the congress, for example,
the Yekaterinoslav, Petersburg, Moscow, Nizhni-Novgorod and Kazan
resolutions.

Of the 20 committees in Russia (those with a vote), 12 (the
St. Petersburg, Tver, Tula, Moscow, Siberian, Tiflis, Baku, Batum,
Yekaterinoslav, Nikolayev, Odessa and Nizhni2Novgorod committees) have
already declared for the congress, besides which the Riga and Kazan
committees are for it. But the new C.C. has announced that the Samara,
Orel-Bryansk and Smolensk committees are now also included among those with
a vote. These committees take a conciliatory stand and conduct negligible
work....

In view of the aforesaid, the Majority has decided not to allow itself
to be silenced and is printing its writings independently, the publishing
having been undertaken by

Bonch-Bruyevich. [3] The Council, which said nothing when Ryazanov and
Akimov were putting out their pamphlets, has made a fuss and is insisting
that the line “Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party” should not figure
on the pamphlets. Bonch-Bruyevich editions of the pamphlet Down with Bonapartism ! by Galyorka and a collection of articles by Galyorka and
Ryadovoi, Our Misunderstandings , have already come out. The
pamphlet The Fight for a Congress , containing resolutions adopted
by the committees, including the Riga resolution, will be published
shortly. The Riga people say that they want to see the Party institutions
in the hands of the Majority as the Congress decided, and will press for
this at the coming congress too, but that they find it necessary that
certain rights be guaranteed to the Minority. The Riga resolution has
already been subscribed by the Petersburg and Moscow committees.

That’s how things stand.

Bear in mind that we have already been dissolved, [4] and therefore if you want your letters to reach the right
address, write on top: private, for Sharko. I am sending you new postal
addresses.

We hope you will give every support to the Majority publications. It
would be a good thing if a special resolution were adopted on this
question. Send us letters and materials of all kinds.

Your previous letter still remains undeciphered. Let us know what key
you used, for although it is old by now, it interests us nevertheless. Do
you know what is happening in Yekaterinoslav and Odessa? The Minority is
spreading a rumour that the Odessa Committee has withdrawn its resolution
on the congress. We haven’t heard from the spot for a long time, but the
report does not ring true. Let us know bow things are with
Gritsko. Greetings.

P.S. We shall send you all new publications shortly.