V. I.

Lenin

From the New-Iskra Camp

Inthe leading article of Iskra , No. 87, Plekhanov, deferring suavely
to Martov, successfully applies, the tactics of killing with kindness [1]

.

Though playing up to the author of the leading article in issue No. 85,
Plekhanov, in substance, wholly refutes him and subscribes to the very
views which Vperyod has always maintained. Congratulations! Only bear
in mind your kinship with Martynov, most honourable dialectician. Get him to
tell you about the awful and disastrous fate that lies in store for you, if,
upon having “prepared the victory” (slogan in issue
No. 87), you achieved it! Get him to tell you of the grave danger involved in
“the seizure of power”, in “participation in the provisional
government”, and in “the revolutionary dictatorship”. Poor
Plekhanov, it will take him a long time to extricate himself from the mess in
which the pamphlets of Trotsky, Martynov, “A Worker”, and Axelrod,
approved by the entire (?) Editorial Board have entangled him! In the supplement
to Iskra, No. 86, Popov admits to being the author of the letter published in Lenin’s “Statement”. Which but
needed proof! The systematic deception of the Party by the gentlemen of the
Minority has been proved. As we predicted, these gentlemen are trying to get
out of it by drawing a red herring across the reader’s track in the form of the
question whether Lenin had the right to confiscate a letter that exposed the
Bonapartists. Martov and Popov, so distinguished for their moral sensitivity,
are yelling about theft, spying, and so on. Scold away, gentlemen, to your
hearts’ content. Lacking arguments, what else is left for you to do?

---
Notes:
[1]
The words “kill with kindness” are in English in the original.—Ed.