V. I.

Lenin

To:   A. I. LYUBIMOV

Dear Mark, There is indeed beginning to be quite a to-do over the school and you
are right when you say that we must give thorough thought to the
reply. [1]

I am offering a draft and in the event that it takes time to contact all
members of the E.C. (Executive Commission of the Bolshevik Centre)—this I
believe should be done through one person, i.e., through you—I would
advise the secretary of the B.C. to reply to the “School Council” that
the letter has been received and forwarded to the members of the
Executive Commission and it will take some time before they can answer and
take a decision, since they are all away. The reply, however, should be
rather caustic: to the effect that I am aware that Gr., Inok and Lenin have
already replied on their own behalf to the Executive Commission of
the school, hut that the School Council will have to be answered
by the entire collegium.

I have a request to make of you. Send me a letter to the Editorial Board of Proletary signed Mark or any other pseudonym of
yours. Contents approximately as follows:
“In view of Comrade Domov’s statement in the press accusing the Editorial
Board of Proletary of splitting activities, of not putting out
popular pamphlets, of betraying Bolshevism, of drawing closer to Plekhanov,
of ‘Dumaism’, and so on and so forth, I deem it advisable to acquaint Party
comrades with Comrade Domov’s present views. In the presence of
Comrades Maximov and Lyadov and myself he said: ‘There are now two
pernicious misconceptions: first—that we have a party, and second, that a
revolution is imminent in Russia.’ I made this public in a lecture to Paris
Bolsheviks in the presence of Comrade Maximov, who could not deny the
fact. The comrades should know who it is that is now campaigning against
Proletary .” [2]

It is indeed high time to expose this crew! We’ll print your letter and
answer them properly .

All the best, Yours, Lenin

---
Notes:
[1]
See next document.— Ed .

[2]
Evidently a reference to the stand taken by M. N. Pokrovsky as
reflected in his conditional and partial support of the leaflet “Report of
the Members Removed from the Enlarged Editorial Board of Proletary
to the Bolshevik Comrades” put out by A. A. Bogdanov and L. B. Krasin. A
critique of the leaflet was given by Lenin in his article “The Faction of
Supporters of Otzovism and God-Building” (see present edition, Vol. 16,
pp. 29–61).