V. I. Lenin

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

Dear A. M.,

What is this, my dear fellow, you are behaving badly? You have overworked, you are tired, your nerves are on edge. This is quite irregular. On Capri, of all places, and in winter at that, when there are probably fewer visitors, you ought to lead a regular life. Have you let yourself go for want of supervision? Upon my word, it is not good. Pull yourself together and adopt a stricter “regime”, really! To be ill nowadays is quite impermissible. Have you started working at night? When I was on Capri, they said that I was the only one who introduced disorder, and that before I came they used to go to bed in time. You must have a rest and adopt a regime, by all means.

I shall write to Troyanovsky and his wife about your wish to see them. That would really be a good thing. They are fine people. We have not yet seen much of them at work; but everything we know about them so far is in their favour. They have means, too. They could develop their activities and do a great deal for the magazine. Troyanovskaya is leaving for Russia soon.

We were all extremely glad to hear that you are undertaking work for *Prosveshcheniye*.

I must confess—I had thought: as soon as I write about our little magazine, A. M. will lose all desire to work for it. I am ashamed, ashamed of such thoughts.

It will really be splendid if we gradually gather a group of fiction writers and push *Prosveshcheniye* ahead! Splendid! The reader is new, proletarian—we shall make the magazine cheap—and you will publish only democratic fiction, without whining, without renegacy. We shall rally the workers. And the workers are good. Our six curial deputies in the Duma have now begun to turn their hands to work outside the Duma in a way that is simply delightful. That is where people will build a real workers’ party! We never managed to achieve this in the Third Duma. Did you see the letter of the four deputies about their resignation in *Luch* (No. 24)?¹⁸² It is a good letter, isn’t it?

And have you seen *Pravda*? Alexinsky is writing decently and so far is not making a scandal! Amazing!

I sent a “manifesto” (why he got into *Pravda*). It was not published. And still he is not making a scandal. A-ma-zing! But Bogdanov is making a scandal: in No. 24 of *Pravda* there is a piece of arrant stupidity.

No, you can’t make a decent job of it with him! I read his *Engineer Menni*. It is the same old Machism = idealism, so disguised that neither the workers nor the stupid editors of *Pravda* understood it. No, this Machist is hopeless, and so is Lunacharsky (thanks for his article). If only Lunacharsky could be separated from Bogdanov on aesthetics, as Alexinsky has begun to separate himself from him on politics... if only...

I fully agree with you about the theory of matter and its structure, that it is necessary to write about it and that it is a good remedy against “the poison that the Russian formless soul sucks in”. Only you are wrong in calling this poison “metaphysics”. It should be called idealism and agnosticism.

For the Machists call materialism metaphysics! And precisely a host of the most prominent modern physicists, on the occasion of the “miracles” of radium, electrons, etc., are smuggling in a god—both the crudest and the most subtle, in the form of philosophical idealism.

I fully agree with you about nationalism, that we must tackle it more seriously.

We have a splendid Georgian who has settled down to write a big article for *Prosveshcheniye*, after collecting all the Austrian and other data.* We shall press this. But that our resolutions (I am sending them in print) are “a mere formality, red tape”—that is a wrong thing for you to say. No. They are not a mere formality. In the Caucasus, too, we have had Social-Democrats—Georgians + Armenians + Tatars + Russians—working together in a single Social-Democratic organisation for over ten years. That is not a phrase, but a proletarian solution of the national problem. The only solution. It was the same in Riga: Russians + Letts + Lithuanians; only the separatists—the Bund—seceded. The same in Vilna.

There are two good Social-Democratic pamphlets on the national question: Strasser’s and Pannekoek’s. Would you like me to send them? If you have someone to translate them from German for you?

No, we shall not have the filthy mess they have in Austria. We won’t allow it! And there are more of us, Great Russians, here. We shall not allow the “Austrian spirit” among the workers.

As for Piatnitsky,¹⁸³ I am for a trial. There is no need to stand on ceremony. It would be unpardonable to be sentimental. Socialists are not at all against using the crown court. We are for using legality. Marx and Bebel appealed to the crown court even against their socialist opponents. One must know how to do it, but it must be done.

Piatnitsky must be prosecuted and that’s that. If you are reproached for this—spit in the face of those who reproach you. Those who reproach you will be hypocrites. To give in to Piatnitsky, to let him off, for fear of a trial, would be unpardonable.

Well, I have been chattering too much. Write about your health.

Yours,
Lenin

* This refers to J. V. Stalin’s article “The National Question and Social-Democracy”. *Ed.*