V. I.

Lenin

149

To:   THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE R.S.D.L.P.

From Lenin to members of the C.C.

September 7, 1905

Dear friends, Today I received news of your agreement to a conference on the Duma with the
Bund, the Letts, etc. [2] Only today, although the thing happened a
month ago! It is left for me to write you another “protest” (an
occupation which, it seems, is becoming my profession)....

Definitely, I shall accuse you formally before the Fourth Congress of the crime
called “restoration of duocentrism in defiance of the Rules and will of
the Party”. Really, I shall. Just think—is it not duocentrism that
you have introduced! I am obliged ex officio to run the organ of the
Central Committee. Is that not so? But how can I do that when I do not get a scrap of writing on any question of tactics, and a for-r-r-rmal enquiry
about the “pre-arranged” meeting on September 1 (new style) is left
without reply! Just think what the outcome will be if there is disharmony
between us! Is it so difficult to get someone to write in good time, if only on
matters of “state importance”?

I have written about the Duma in Nos. 12, 14 and 15 of Proletary . I am
also writing in No. 16, which will come out on September 12
(new style) [1]

. In
Posledniye Izvestia (September 1, new style, No. 247) the Bund talked
itself popeyed. We’ll give them a whipping they won’t forget till they’re able to sit up again. These Bundists are such dolts and trumpeters, such
nitwits and idiots, they are the limit! Iskra has got tangled up in
lies, especially Martov in the Wiener Arbeiter-Zeitung (August 24, new
style—translation in Proletary No. 15). For heaven’s sake, don’t rush in with an official resolution and do not give way an
inch to this Bundist-new-Iskrist conference. Is it true that there will be no
minutes? How can one possibly confer with these prostitutes without minutes?

I strongly warn you against the Armenian Social-Democratic
Federation. [3]
If you have agreed to its participation in the conference, you have made a
fatal mistake, which must be rectified at all costs . It is
represented in Geneva by a couple of disrupters who publish sheer trivia here
and have no serious connections with the Caucasus. It is a Bund creatura , nothing more, specially invented to cultivate Caucasian
Bundism. If you allow these people to attend a Russian Conference, that
is, a conference of organisations working in Russia, you will get yourself into
a terrible mess. All the Caucasian comrades are against this gang of disruptive
writers (I know this from many people); and we shall soon trounce them in
Proletary . You will only evoke protests from the Caucasus and a
fresh squabble instead of “peace” and “unity”. For pity’s sake! How can one ignore the Caucasian
Union, which is working so hard in Russia, and hobnob with the dregs of the
Geneva marsh! I beg you most earnestly, don’t do it.

I have received the decision about dividing the money equally with the
Organisation Committee. It will be carried out to the letter.

All the best.

N. Lenin