V. I.

Lenin

To:   THE EDITOR OF BREMER BÜRGER-ZEITUNG

Dear Comrade, I would be much obliged if you could send me the two issues of
Bremer Bürger-Zeitung in which you published a review on Rosa
Luxemburg’s book. [1]

I enclose a reply coupon for 20 pfennigs.

I am very pleased to see that on the main point you come to the same
conclusion as I did in the polemic with Tugan-Baranovsky and
Volkstümler 14 years ago, namely, that the realisation of
surplus-value is possible also in a “ purely capitalist”
society. [2]

I have not yet seen Rosa Luxemburg’s book, but theoretically you
are quite correct on this point. It seems to me, though, that you have
placed in sufficient emphasis on a very important passage in Marx
( Capital , Vol. II,
p. 442), [4] namely, where Marx says that in analysing annually produced
value, foreign trade should be entirely discarded (I am quoting
from the Russian translation). The “dialectics” of Luxemburg seem to me
(judging also from the article in Leipziger Volkszeitung ) to be
eclecticism . Has any other organ of the press reviewed Rosa
Luxemburg’s book? Hamburger Echo ? [5] Bourgeois organs?

One more question. Bremer Bürger-Zeitung (1912 , No. 256)
incorrectly reported the meeting of the International Socialist Bureau in
October. Either the Luxemburg clique, or a liquidator, or a scoundrel
sympathising with the liquidators, misled the editors and attributed to
Haase the words: “Lenin has simply misled the International.”

The liquidators, naturally, repeated this lie in their newspaper
( Luch in St. Petersburg) and added a vicious comment. The Central
Committee of our Party (the Social-Democratic Labour Party of Russia) wrote
to Haase. Haase replied that his statement was misinterpreted. Haase’s letter has now been
published in our newspaper ( Pravda in
St. Petersburg). [3]

At the moment I would like to know whether the editors of Bremer Bürger-Zeitung intend to withdraw or rectify the erroneous statement
they have published. In this case I could send you a copy of
Haase’s letter.

With Party greetings,

N. Lenin

My address is: Wl. Ulijanow. 47. Lubomirskiego . Krakau.

---
Notes:
[1]
A reference to Rosa Luxemburg’s hook Die Akkumulation des Kapitals. Ein Beitrag zur ökonomischen Erklärung des Imperialismus , Berlin, 1913.— Ed .

[2]
See V. I. Lenin, “A Note on the Question of Market Theory (Apropos of
the Polemic of Messrs. Tugan-Baranovsky and Bulgakov)” (present edition,
Vol. 4, pp. 55–64).— Ed .

[3]
See Lenin’s article “Better Late Than Never” (present edition,
Vol. 18, pp. 469–70).— Ed .

[4]
See Karl Marx, Capital , Vol. II, Moscow, 1967, p. 474.

[5]
Hamburger Echo—a daily, organ of the Hamburg organisation of
the German Social-Democratic Party; founded in 1875 as Hamburg-Altonaer Volksblatt . From 1887 to the present day has appeared under the name
of Hamburger Echo . The paper was closed down by the nazi
government in March 1933 and resumed publication in April 1946.