...it is obvious to everyone in the party what you are trying to deny, namely: the special factional character of the Capri school. Shortly before the last meeting of the expanded editorial board of *Proletariat*,¹⁹⁹ comrade Maximov in Paris approached Trotsky, inviting him as a lecturer to the Capri school. Trotsky told this to comrade Innocenty and declared to him: if this is a party matter, I would gladly take part; if this is a special undertaking of the Capri literati—Maximov, Lunacharsky, and Co.—then I will not participate.

Innocenty replied: wait for the decisions of the *Proletariat* editorial board; I will send you these decisions. Thus even the non-factional comrade Trotsky immediately understood (as any somewhat experienced party worker would understand) that to organize a school on the island of Capri means to hide the school from the party, means to bind the school in advance to one particular group and precisely to a new faction.

Now I shall turn to the question of Paris. I wrote to you that if you are genuinely interested in lectures by myself and my like-minded comrades, then you should come to Paris. You answer me: "a trip to Paris, taking into account expenses, would be altogether inexpedient."

Let us see, then, who of us is saying something truly inexpedient.

You came to the island of Capri via Vienna. If you return by the same route, you would have to turn from northern Italy to Paris, and from there go directly to Vienna. This would increase the cost of your journey, certainly by no more than 60 francs per person (I judge this from the fact that from Geneva, where I lived for a long time, a ticket to Paris costs 30 francs). Your letter is signed by 8 names, with 1 declaring that he "refrains from further correspondence," that is, obviously, does not even wish to listen to my talks. Seven comrades remain.

Expense = 7 × 60 = 420 francs.

You invited four lecturers from Paris (Lévy, myself, Gregory, and Innocenty).

The expense for traveling from Paris to Capri and back is around 140 francs. Total: 4 × 140 = 560 francs.

For eight students to stop in Paris is cheaper than to send four lecturers to Capri.

But the financial question, as I already wrote to you in my previous letter,* is far from the most important. Think about it—is it easier for students who have come from abroad or for lecturers who are here to choose a location? You came abroad specifically for studies at a school. Consequently, you cannot have any obstacles to coming to a place where there is a large number of lecturers, where a genuinely party organization of affairs is possible.

But lecturers cannot leave the party center to go to the island of Capri. I shall speak about myself. I cannot abandon the editorial office of *Proletariat*—I cannot abandon the editorial office of the Central Organ—I cannot abandon the commission for assistance to the Duma social-democratic faction founded in Paris—I must appear at the *Proletariat* club in the working-class districts of Paris, where hundreds and thousands of Russian workers live, and so forth. A trip by party literati from Paris to the island of Capri is an absolutely impossible thing.

But for a school, as for a party matter, what is important is not only Bolshevik lecturers. Paris is the largest émigré center, where public reports by all factions are constantly being delivered, where discussions take place, where diverse study circles are conducted, where there are 2 or 3 decent Russian libraries, where there are dozens of social-democratic organizers who have long worked in the party, and so forth. In Paris there are published 3 Russian social-democratic newspapers. In short, for anyone even slightly acquainted with affairs abroad, it is clear as clear as day: whoever goes to Paris to study social-democracy goes to study genuine social-democracy. Whoever goes to study on Capri goes to study a special factional "science."

Whoever organizes a school in Paris organizes a genuinely party school.

Whoever organizes a school on the island of Capri hides the school from the party.

* See the present volume, pp. 183–184. Ed.