V. I.

Lenin

137

To:   S. I. GUSEV

To be handed to Gusev from Lenin, private

April 4, 1905

Dear friend, You wrote yourself that you were now being shadowed. What’s more, I have
gathered information fully confirming this fact from St. Petersburgers who have
recently arrived from the scene of activities. There can be no doubt at all
about it. I know from my own experience and from that of lots of comrades that
one of the, most difficult things for a revolutionary is to leave a danger spot
in good time . Whenever the time comes to drop work in a given locality,
that work becomes particularly interesting and particularly needed ; so
it seems always to the person concerned. I consider it my duty, therefore, to
demand of you most insistently that you abandon St. Petersburg for a
time. This is absolutely essential. No excuses of any kind ,
no considerations for the work, should put off this step. The harm caused by an
inevitable arrest will be enormous. The harm caused by going away will be
insignificant, and merely apparent. Advance young assistants for a time , for a month or two, to fill the top posts, and rest assured that,
with an extremely brief and temporary setback, the cause, on the whole, will
gain by it tremendously. The young people will acquire more experience in key
posts, and any mistakes they may make will be speedily corrected by us. An
arrest, however, would ruin all our major opportunities for organising central
work. Once more, I insistently advise going out immediately to the
provinces for a month. There’s heaps of work to be done everywhere, and
everywhere general guidance is needed. If there is a will to go (and a will there
must be) the thing can always be arranged.

I’m not writing anything about the agreement of March 12,
1905. [1]
Cursing will do no good. I suppose they could not act otherwise. The
thing now is to prepare energetically for the congress and to increase the
number of delegates. Don’t be too free with money, take care of it; it
will be needed more than ever after the congress.