If we have a solid core, then we shall soon compel unification with us.

If we do not have a core, then it will not be another core that triumphs (there is none), but the muddlers, and then, I assure you, there will be a new squabble, a new inevitable split and embittered conflict a hundred times worse than before.

Let us prepare real unification by increasing our strength and developing clear projects for statutory and tactical norms. But empty chatterers about unification, who tangle the relations between the parts of the party, should in my view be ruthlessly eliminated from our midst.

I shake your hand. Your N. Lenin

Sent from Geneva to Russia

First published in 1926 in Lenin Miscellany V

Printed from the manuscript