V. I.

Lenin

215

To:   THE EDITORIAL BOARD OF SOTSIAL-DEMOKRAT [1]

I propose:

1) printing in the Central Organ a translation of this letter at once
(perhaps with some slight cuts);

2) approaching the trade unions (and also trade union committees in the different towns) of transport workers, shipbuilders,
workers employed at factories making fire arms, ammunition, guns, military
supplies, etc. (and where there are no trade unions, groups of
workers), and asking them to send the Central Organ written contributions,
information, descriptions of past strikes , etc.;

3) publishing at once in brief our opinion (α) that what
is in question is not an isolated act of “preventing war” (averting), but
revolutionary pressure by the masses of the proletariat in
general, and (β) that with the present state of affairs in Russia we
attach the greatest importance to studying the course and conditions of the
strikes of 1905 .

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Notes:
[1]
On December 17, 1910, Lenin received a circular letter dated
December 15, 1910, from the International Socialist Bureau to the parties
affiliated with the Second International asking them to consider an
amendment to the Copenhagen Congress (1910) resolution on arbitration and
disarmament which the Congress had referred to the I.S.B. Since the
amendment dealt with strikes of war industry workers as an expedient means
of preventing the outbreak of war, the I.S.B. proposed that the parties
approach the trade unions concerned and report back to the I.S.B. Lenin
made marginal notes on the circular (see Lenin Miscellany XXV ,
pp. 260 and 261). He sent it to the Editorial Board of Sotsial Demokrat for publication, together with the present letter. Neither
the circular nor Lenin’s letter were published in
Sotsial-Demokrat .