V. I.

Lenin

August 31, 1912

Dear Comrade, I have received from you Circular No. 15 (July 1912) in which the
Executive Committee of the Social-Democracy of Poland and Lithuania gives
notice of a split in that organisation.

In my quality of representative of the R.S.D.L.P. in the International
Socialist Bureau, I must emphatically pro test against the notice for the
following reasons:

1. The Executive of the S.D.P. and L. declares that the Warsaw
Committee “is not affiliated to the R.S.D.L.P., of which the
S.D.P. and L. is an autonomous section”.

But the Executive of the S.D.P. and L. has no authority whatsoever
either to decide or to declare who is affiliated to the R.S.D.L.P., which I
represent.

Today the Executive of the S.D.P. and L. itself is not affiliated to
our Party, for it maintains no organisational relations either with the
Central Committee I represent, which was elected at the Conference in
January 1912, or with the opposed liquidationist centre (the so-called
“Organising Committee”).

2. The assertion of the Executive of the S.D.P. and L. that the split
occurred “unexpectedly just before the Duma elections” is not in accord
with the facts.

I happen to know that the very same Executive of the S.D.P. and L. must
have foreseen a split as early as two years ago, when it provoked a sharp
conflict with its former members, Malecki and Hanecki, and removed Hanecki
from the Board.

3. It is hypocritical of the Executive to declare:

firstly, that agents provocateurs have made their way into the
Warsaw organisation “as into all the other revolutionary organisations in
tsarist Russia”; secondly, that the split came about with “the active co-operation of
the secret police”, although the Executive cannot give a single name, and
does not dare to express any specific suspicion!

How very hypocritical one has to be to make in public the dishonest
accusation of “co-operation of the secret police”, with the aim of
morally destroying one’s political opponents, even while lacking the
courage to give a single name or express any specific suspicion!

I am confident that every member of the International will indignantly
reject these unheard-of methods of struggle.

I have for a number of years known the two former members of the
Executive of the S.D.P. and L., Malecki and Hanecki, who openly march
shoulder to shoulder with the Warsaw Committee. I have received, precisely
from the Warsaw Committee, an official notification confirming this fact.

In the present situation I consider it my duty to convey to the
International Socialist Bureau the enclosed protest from the Warsaw
Committee of the S.D.P. and L.

As the statement of the Executive Committee has been circulated to all
members of the International Socialist Bureau, I must ask you, dear
comrade, to circulate also this statement of mine, together with the
protest of the Warsaw Committee, to the representatives of all the parties
affiliated to the International.

With Party greetings, N. Lenin