V. I.

Lenin

To:   THE BOLSHEVIK DEPUTIES OF THE FOURTH DUMA [1]

We have received a stupid and insolent letter from the editors. We are
not replying. They should be kicked out.

We have not received Luck No. 4. Will you please send it!! [2]

The absence of news about the plan for reorganising the Editorial Board
is causing us great concern. What has been done for this
reorganisation? [3] Why don’t Vera, Fram, Andrei or Alexei write a
single word? We earnestly ask them to write as quickly as
possible. Reorganisation, or better still the complete expulsion of all the
old ones, is absolutely essential. Absurdly conducted. They lavish praise
on the Bund and Zeit: it’s simply disgusting. They can’t take the
right line against Luck . Disgraceful the way they handle
articles. Sheer stupidity about Rabochy Golos . [4] Simply exasperating.... We are waiting impatiently for
news about all this....

What has been done about the control of funds? Who has received the
subscription money? In whose hands is it? How much is it?

---
Notes:
[1]
This letter was added to that of G. Y. Zinoviev and was addressed to N. I. Podvoisky.— Ed .

[2]
What apparently interested Lenin in No. 4 of Luck for
January 5, 1913, was a paragraph “Representation on the International
Bureau” written in reply to a paragraph under the same heading in

Pravda No. 201 for December 23, 1942. The liquidators declared in
Luch that they considered representation of the R.S.D.L.P. on the
I.S.B. (Lenin and Plekhanov) to be one-sided and raised the question of the
absence on the I.S.B. of a representative of the Menshevik Organising
Committee.

[3]
This refers to the reorganisation of the Editorial Board of
Pravda on the basis of the decisions of the Cracow meeting of the
C.C., R.S.D.L.P. with Party functionaries. The absence of news about the
beginning of this reorganisation caused Lenin grave concern, since in
January 1913 Pravda again made a number of mistakes in its
work. On January 15 and 23 the newspaper published letters to the editor
from deputy Y. I. Jagiello, Polish Socialist Party member, in which he
advertised himself as a representative of the Polish working class; on
January 17 and 24 Pravda published front-page advertisements
announcing the current issues of the liquidators’ newspaper Zeit ,
the organ of the Bund; Pravda displayed indecision in the fight
against the liquidators; despite the recommendations of the Cracow meeting,
it did not publish certain articles forwarded to it by the C.C. Bureau
Abroad, etc.

On January 22 (O.S.) a joint meeting of members of the Bureau of the
C.C., R.S.D.L.P., in Russia with Pravda editorial staff was held,
attended by 12 persons, among them C.C. members Y. M. Sverdlov,
G. I. Petrovsky, F. I. Goloshchokin, Secretary of the C.C. Bureau Vera
Lobova and others. A report was made at the meeting on the decisions of the
C.C. and the Cracow meeting concerning the reorganisation of the Editorial
Board; Y. M. Sverdlov was endorsed as editor of the newspaper with the
right of veto and censorship of all articles; a member of the
St. Petersburg Committee was elected to the Board for the purpose of closer
contact with the St. Petersburg Bolshevik organisation, and Konkordia
Samoilova was endorsed as secretary of the Editorial Board.

As a result of these measures, the general level of the newspaper
rose. From February 10 (0. S.) a Sunday supplement was issued in the form
of loose sheets. The paper’s circulation increased. In a number of
subsequent letters Lenin noted a considerable improvement in the work of
the Editorial Board.

Zeit —a weekly, organ of the Bund, published in Yiddish in
St. Petersburg from December 20, 1912 (January 2, 1913), to May 5 (18),
1914.

[4]
Lenin is referring apparently to the paragraph “A Quibble” published
in Pravda No. 6, January 8, 1913, in which Pravda denounced the improper conduct of the newspaper Luch , but made a
mistake in quarrelling with the editors of the journal Rabochy Golos over minor questions not involving principles.

The journal Rabochy Golos (Worker’s Voice), organ of the
Textile Workers Trade Union, was being prepared for the press, but did not
appear.