V. I.

Lenin

119

To:   M. M. LITVINOV

To Papasha from Lenin

Dear friend, I hasten to reply to your letter, which pleased me very, very much. You are a
thousand times right that we must act vigorously, in a revolutionary way, and
strike the iron while it’s hot. I agree, too, that it is the Majority commit
tees that must be united. The need for a centre in Russia and an organ here is
now clear to all of us. As far as the latter is concerned, we have already done
all we could. Private is working with might and main, he has enlisted
participants, has thrown himself whole-heartedly into the job and is trying his
hardest to find a millionaire, with considerable chance of success. Finally, you
are a thousand times right in that we must act openly. The question at issue
between us touches only on a minor point and should be discussed calmly, viz.:
whether to have a conference of committees or direct formation of a Bureau of
the Majority Committees (we prefer this title to Organising Committee, although
of course it is not a matter of the title) which would be recognised at first by
some, and afterwards by all, of the Majority committees. You are for the former,
we are for the latter. If a conference abroad were possible, I would be wholly
in favour of it. In Russia, however, it would be devilishly dangerous,
bureaucratic and ineffectual. Meanwhile Odessa+Nikolayev+Ekaterinoslav have
already come to terms and authorised the “22” to “appoint an
Organising Committee”. We replied by recommending the title “Bureau
of the Majority Committees” and seven candidates (Mer maid, Felix,
Zemlyachka, Pavlovich, Gusev, Alexeyev, Baron). We are writing to Odessa and
St. Petersburg about this. Alexeyev is already on his way to you. Will it not be best to carry out
the election of candidates through Riga, St. Petersburg+Moscow, and
immediately afterwards make a public statement about this (we are
sending you a draft of the announcement [1]

),

and then rush off to the Northern
Committee, the Caucasus, Saratov, Nizhni-Novgorod, etc., asking them to
subscribe and supplementing the Bureau as liberally as possible by a couple or
so of their candidates (although it is not very likely that the
subscribing commit tees will demand large additions to the members of the
Bureau). I definitely cannot imagine our meeting with difficulties over the
composition of the Bureau.

The advantages of this method are: speed, cheapness, safety. These advantages
are very important, for speed counts above all now. The Bureau will be the
official body for uniting the committees and will in fact completely re place
the C.C. in the event of a split. The membership of the literary group for our
future central organ is already fully designated (a five- or six-man board:
Private, Galyorka, myself, Schwarz Lunacharsky +perhaps Bazarov). Tackle the transportation job yourself and do so energetically. We
have got hold here of a former Bundist who has done a lot of work on two
frontiers; he promises to arrange things for 200-300 rubles monthly. We are only
waiting for the money before putting him in touch with you.

The disadvantage of your method is the red tape. I consider it quite useless to
present ultimatums to the C.C. and Council. The C.C. is playing the hypocrite
and I don’t doubt now for a moment that they have sold themselves
completely to the Minority and are out to falsify the congress. We should not
harbour any illusions. Now, when they control all the central bodies, they have
a thousand means for falsifying the congress and have already begun to do so . We shall prove this in print by analysing the Council’s decisions
( Iskra Nos. 73-74, supplement). We, of course, stand and will continue
to stand for a congress, but we must cry from the house-tops that they are
already falsifying the congress and that we shall expose their falsification. As
a matter of fact, I now put the congress in the ninth place, allotting the first to the organ and the Russian centre. It’s absurd to
speak of disloyalty when they have pushed us into it themselves by making a deal
with the Minority. It is a lie to say that the secret organisation of the
Minority has been dissolved; it has not; three members of the C.C. have entered
this secret organisation, that is all. All three central bodies now constitute a
secret organisation against the Party. Only simpletons can fail to see that. We
must reply by an open organisation and expose their conspiracy.

Please strengthen everyone’s faith in our organisation and in the future
organ. We need only to be patient a little longer, while Private finishes his
job. Collect and send us local correspondence ( always inscribed: for
Lenin) and material, especially from workers. You and I differ on a
minor point, as I would be only too glad to have a conference. But really, the
game is not worth the candle; it will be much better to come out at once with an
announcement from the Bureau, for we shall easily reach agreement on its
membership and conflicts on this score are improbable. And once the Bureau
proclaims itself it will quickly gain recognition and will begin to speak on
behalf of all the committees. Think this over carefully once more and reply
speedily.