V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:PSS/v48; en:CW/CW35; en:CW/CW43;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

Dear Citizen Huysmans,

I fully agree with you and, like you, think that the Bureau cannot serve as an intermediary for the transmission of polemics. I also think that the best and only means to prevent this is to forward only those documents which you receive from the higher institutions of the parties represented in the Bureau and which concern these parties. I could not refrain from informing you of the decisions of our Party Conference, which re-established the Party’s Central Committee, which it did not have at that moment, and I, of course, would not protest against the communication of news from another Central Committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party, but I considered it my duty to protest against the transmission of polemics by groups abroad.

You also ask my opinion regarding your draft appeal demanding the convocation of a general conference. I think that at the present moment this would not be expedient, and since I do not claim to be impartial, I will permit myself to refer to the opinion of the Poles (see *Vorwärts*). The Poles refused to take part in our conference, but they also refused to take part in the conference which the Bund wants to convene, declaring that it is a conference of liquidators. It is better to wait: let us see whether the conference of liquidators will take place and what it will do.

In a few days I shall send you several rather interesting documents which will acquaint you better with the state of affairs in the R.S.D.L.P.

Yours, N. Lenin

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Written in April, before the 19th,

Sent from Paris to Brussels

First published

in French in 1963

in the journal *Cahiers du Monde

Russe et Sovietique* No. 1-2

Printed in Russian

for the first time, from a typewritten copy

Translated from the French

TO THE EDITORIAL BOARD OF THE NEWSPAPER *ZVEZDA*

Dear Colleague! I am sending today new material for the *Sputnik Izbiratelya*.

There is almost everything here; still

TO THE EDITORIAL BOARD OF THE NEWSPAPER *ZVEZDA*. APRIL 1912

in two days there will be one or two articles from here, and then from Tver you are to receive an article on the budget.

1) I strongly advise you to reprint from *Zvezda* No. 34 (17. XII. 11) Frey’s article: “The Role of Workers’ Electors in the Election Campaign” (it would also be good to reprint his article from No. 36 (31. XII. 11) on the role of peasant electors* as well). Do not be too anxious to cut down the size. It is better to publish a full, substantial work which will be useful, giving sound guidance in the elections. Do not strive for cheapness and brevity—it is better to publish a solid work.

If in an extreme case it is absolutely impossible to publish all the articles, be sure to return the unpublished ones.

2) It is urgently necessary here to take care of accurate correspondence. Let your secretary write to me directly here, and not via Arcachon, so that there will be no delay.

Give a better address for letters to you.

3) You are wrong not to reply to the liquidators. This is a great mistake. You can and must reply, without saying a word about the conference, printing a brief answer to every lie in *Zhivoye Dyelo*: “*Zhivoye Dyelo* in issue such-and-such lies, like all the liquidators.” It is necessary to reply, otherwise you are losing ground.

4) If Plekhanov is to write, his articles must be sent here in galley proofs. Otherwise it becomes a “privilege” which is unacceptable to us. Be careful. You will force us to leave if Plekhanov is given the privilege of writing against the conference when we cannot write for it. It would be mean to allow abuse when praise is not permitted.

5) Be sure to send us, in a separate small package wrapped in *Novoye Vremya*, 80, the issues of *Zvezda*: Nos. 24 and 25 of summer 1911, No. 18 (54), No. 19 (55), No. 22 (58), No. 23 (59)—we do not have them, and *Zhivoye Dyelo* Nos. 11 and 42. Please send confiscated issues separately, wrapping them in right-wing newspapers.

* See V. I. Lenin, *Collected Works*, 5th ed., Vol. 21, pp. 41-52. Ed.

6) Inform us soon about the daily newspaper. What will be its format? What size articles can be sent?

7) Try to buy cheaply the Verbatim Reports of the Third Duma, especially the 1911-12 session. Write.

Written on April 22, 1912

Sent from Paris to St. Petersburg

First published in 1923

in the book: *From the Era of “Zvezda” and

“Pravda” (1911-1914)*.

Issue III

Printed from a typewritten

copy (perlustration)