V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:PSS/v47; en:CW/CW34;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

From Lenin to a Poor Peasant

Dear Comrade,

I read your letter No. 33 (No. 6) about the lower unit of organisation among handicraftsmen with interest. In factories and plants such a unit should be the factory committee, but what about handicrafts? You stand for trade union circles, and your opponents—? I did not understand what they stand for. Unfortunately, I also do not know what those old trade union “councils” were; when they existed; how they were formed; how they combined Social-Democratic and trade union work. Not being familiar with the practical side of this practical question, I do not venture to express an opinion for the time being. Perhaps further letters will acquaint me more closely—then we shall see. It is necessary to know the experience and to be cautious in making changes, that is true. But what economism has to do with it is not clear to me. Do they not also speak in factory committees predominantly about factory (also trade union) interests? Yet nobody objected to the factory committee being the lower unit of the Social-Democratic organisation. What is important are the conditions of life, the conditions of meetings, the conditions of interviews, the conditions of joint work, for the lower unit must function with particular liveliness, frequency and regularity. Finally, is one type of structure obligatory here? Would it not be better to have various types in order to adapt to different conditions and to gather richer experience?

Thank you for your letters. Continue writing, for we rarely receive news about the routine side of the work (the most interesting).

Lenin