Date: 1910-12-03
Source: ru:PSS/v48

Source: PSS vol 48

I cannot accept your proposal to take on the task of delivering lectures in Bologna—first, for principled reasons, and second, because it is simply impossible for me to travel to Bologna.

I regard both the orientation and the methods employed by the group that established schools on Capri and in Bologna as harmful to the Party and fundamentally un‑social‑democratic in character.

The “Platform” issued by the organizers of the Capri School—and by a portion (albeit a small one) of their students—consists in a defense against deviations from Marxism, both in philosophy and in politics, as well as in the formulation of our Party’s tactical tasks. Moreover, the very establishment of a school in Bologna runs counter to this “Platform” and to the demands of party discipline, since the organizers are acting in a schismatic manner: not only do they fail to lend any assistance—neither in terms of funds, which they certainly possess, nor through personal labor—to the School Commission appointed by the Plenum of the Central Committee in January 1910,** but they actively undermine every initiative undertaken by that very Commission.

* Here and throughout, headings marked with an asterisk are those provided by the source. Ed.

* – A fraternal greeting! Ed.

** See the resolution adopted at the January Plenum of the Central Committee of the RSDLP in 1910, “On the Party School” (“The CPSU in Resolutions and Decisions of Congresses, Conferences, and Plenums of the Central Committee,” Part I, 1954, p. 240). Ed.

It is therefore perfectly clear that I cannot participate in the activities of this anti‑party group, which has broken with social democracy.

However, of course, I would be more than happy to deliver a series of lectures—regardless of the listeners’ views or sympathies—to the students of the Bologna School, covering topics such as tactics, the state of the Party, and the agrarian question. To that end, I would like to extend an invitation to the fellow students to join me on my return journey to Paris, where we could organize a full cycle of lectures. The necessary funds for the trip could be secured as follows: 1) The organizers of the Capri School borrowed 500 francs from the Bolsheviks. Now that they have the money, they will likely repay the debt to the Party—that is, to the Foreign Bureau of the Central Committee. For my part, I am prepared to advocate for the allocation of these funds for the journey from Bologna to Paris, and I am confident that the Bolshevik delegate whom we have sent to the Foreign Bureau of the Central Committee will do everything in his power to facilitate this. 2) If 500 francs proves insufficient (I do not know how many students are enrolled in Bologna, nor how many might wish to travel), there remains another 1,500 francs appropriated by the Plenum of the Central Committee for the School Commission—with which the organizers of the Bologna School have now severed all ties. I believe we can secure the allocation of this sum for a course of lectures in Paris, intended for those students who choose to come from Bologna.

Paris is large enough to allow for a thoroughly clandestine operation (there are neighborhoods where Russians are virtually absent), and moreover, it is possible to arrange accommodations in the surrounding areas outside the city itself.

I conclude by expressing my gratitude to the students of the Bologna School for their fraternal invitation, and by voicing my hope that my proposal to travel to Paris will be accepted.

With fraternal greetings, N. Lenin

in “Report of the Second Higher Social-Democratic Propaganda and Agitation School for Workers.”

verified against a copy handwritten by N. K. Krupskaya

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Written on December 3, 1910, in Paris

First published in 1911

Published by the “Vpered” Group

Printed according to the text of the “Report,”