V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:PSS/v22; en:CW/CW18;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

It is very late for me to come out with a refutation of what L. Martov wrote in *Luch* (No. 37, October 28, 1912). But what is to be done? It is easy to tell an untruth. But to get at the truth it is sometimes necessary to spend a great deal of time.

L. Martov showered me in No. 37 of *Luch* with the choicest abuse, accompanied by the “dark” insinuations customary with that writer. Being accustomed to these methods of struggle of L. Martov’s for the past ten years, I did not even read his article to the end. But my colleagues pointed out to me that L. Martov attributes to Comrade Haase, a member of the German Social-Democratic Central Committee, the words that “Lenin is deceiving the International”.

To get at the truth, it was necessary to trace the source of Martov’s words. He referred to some *Bergarbeiter-Zeitung*, No. 225. I could not find it. In *Vorwärts* (the central organ of the German Social-Democratic Party){141} there are no such words. I found them only in the *Bremer Bürger-Zeitung* (the Bremen Social-Democratic organ).{142}

I had to make inquiries of Haase himself, so as not to imitate L. Martov’s frivolity.

A written inquiry was sent to the Central Committee of the German Social-Democrats.

Here is Haase’s reply:

Central Committee
of the German Social-Democratic Party

Berlin, December 31, 1912

Dear Comrades, In reply to your inquiry I inform you that the account which, according to you, is given in *Luch* concerning my statement in the International Socialist Bureau does not correspond to the truth. At the meeting the question was discussed whether the Organising Committee could claim representation in the International Socialist Bureau. I declared that this was inadmissible, because, even according to its own statement, the Organising Committee is not an organisation, but only wishes to be a union of groups for the purpose of re-establishing organisational unity. In this connection I raised the question as to who actually has the right to represent the Russian Party in its present state, and remarked that if the assertion that the Central Committee acts in its relations with the International Bureau as the “R.S.D.L.P.” is correct, then this name may give rise to misunderstandings.

Thus, there was no attack on Lenin here, and generally the remark was by no means of an offensive character. I wanted exclusively to clarify the state of affairs in connection with the above-mentioned assertion, and primarily to raise the question whether the moment had not arrived to take steps for the unification of all the Russian-Polish groups. I very much regretted that Lenin was absent.

Only for the sake of completeness I will point out that the word “deception” never passed my lips.

With comradely greetings, Haase.

Thus, in order to shower abuse on me for the thousandth time, L. Martov repeated (after someone) an untruth about Haase.

Haase was against representation for the O.C.; Haase did not dispute the representation of the C.C.

Haase does not consider the C.C. the representative of the whole R.S.D.L.P., including the “nationals” and the liquidators, but the C.C. itself, as far as I know, never claimed to represent either the one or the other.

The “nationals” (the Poles, the Bund, the Letts) have their own special representatives.

I confine myself to this factual refutation…

January 19 (n.s.), 1913

N. Lenin