TOWARD A BIOGRAPHY OF STEPHAN BORN
* TOWARD A BIOGRAPHY OF STEPHAN BORN
AUGUST, AFTER 26, 1905. GENEVA.
In the first edition of the pamphlet "Two Tactics of Social-Democracy
in the Democratic Revolution," Lenin made an error.
He mistook Born's real surname — Buttermilch — for a nickname. B. Koltsov dedicated an entire feuilleton to this minor error in
"Iskra" of August 26 (43), under the heading "How Lenin Deepened Engels." In the 1908 edition of the pamphlet
(Works, vol. F ///, p. 426), Lenin acknowledged his error
and ridiculed Koltsov. Apparently, in connection with this incident,
Lenin collected a significant portion of the biographical
information about Born available in the literature. The documents b,
v, and g printed below contain biographical notes about Born, and the appendix —
excerpts from a letter by O. G. Lifshitz from Berlin, signed
by her. Gnedich — concerns, among other things, the same question.
a.
* EXCERPTS AND NOTES ON THE BOOK "ERINNERUNGEN EINES
ACHTUNDVIERZIGERS
VON
STEPHAN
BORN.
DRITTE
AUFLAGE.
LEIPZIG. 1898" (((MEMOIRS OF A FORTY-EIGHTER
BY STEPHAN BORN. THIRD EDITION. LEIPZIG 1898").
P. 32. Born had two older brothers. Of these, the younger
was a doctor in the province, the older lived in Berlin. What is the
older brother's profession?
43 ff.** Friendship (very close) with Engels.
51. Born — never was Knecht einer Parteipolitik/***
Vulgarity against equality — equal rights in a b[our- geois]-democratic spirit. People, they say, are not equal, etc.
Engels, they say, was a rich bourgeois son.
63 — 4. Born in Switzerland (47) wrote and typeset himself
a pamphlet (he even forgot its title) in defense of communism against
Karl Heinzen.
P. 67: Marx paid him a compliment about this
pamphlet.

* — page. Ed.
** — and following. Ed.
*** — slave of party politics. Ed.

Lenin Miscellany XVI.