V. I.

Lenin

August 18, 1909

Dear Comrades!

I have just received your invitation. The curriculum of the school,
which (curriculum) you say you enclose, I have not received.

My attitude to the school on the Island of Capri is expressed in the
resolution of the extended editorial board of Proletary (Proletary , No. 46, and supplement [1]

).

If you have not seen Proletary and the supplements to
Proletary , and the special letter on the school circulated to
Bolshevik members of the Party in the form of a printed leaflet, the
editorial board will be pleased to send you all these materials. On the
point in question, I must inform you that my opinion of the school on
Capri, as the enterprise of a new faction in our Party—a faction
with which I do not sympathise—does not, of course, imply any refusal to
deliver lectures to comrades who have been sent from Russia by local
organisations. Whatever the views of these comrades, I shall always be glad
to give them a series of lectures on questions of interest to
Social-Democrats. Of course I shall not go to Capri to lecture, but shall
willingly do so in Paris. If only from the financial point of view it would
be cheaper for the nine comrades from Russia (I take the figure
communicated by Comrade Leva, whose name is not unknown to you) to come to
Paris than for three lecturers (I have heard about your proposal to Leva
and

Innokenty [2] ) to travel from

Paris to Capri. Apart from financial considerations there are quite a
number of reasons incomparably more important, which you undoubtedly
understand, why Paris is the place for a real Party school abroad. In any
case, I can assure you that the editorial board of Proletary would
do everything in its power to organise the lectures you desire in Paris.

With Social-Democratic greetings, N. Lenin

P. S. You forgot to send the official address of the
school.

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Notes:
[1]
See pp. 450–51 and 452–60 of this volume.— Ed .

[2]
Leva —M. K. Vladimirov; Innokenty —I. F. Dubrovinsky.