V. I.

Lenin

38

To:   THE EDITORIAL BOARD OF PRAVDA

For IV. Iv.

Dear Comrades, Many thanks for your detailed letter and very valuable
information. Write more often, and give us contacts with
the districts.

It is very important that the liquidators are giving a “hostile” reception to the rapprochement of the pro-Party
Mensheviks with the Party. A resolution about this ought
to be adopted in the districts. This fact proves for the 1,000th
time that the liquidators have finally become a non-Party
and anti-Party element, that unity is possible only against
them (against Luch ) and by no means with them. You are quite right, in my belief, in attributing great
importance to this fact. One can’t in any way talk about unity
with the liquidators: one cannot unite the Party with the
destroyers of the Party. The resolution of the February
Conference of 1913 about unity from below, it seems to me,
should be hectographed (if there are not enough copies),
adding the resolution against Luch with the precise list
of the five points. [1]

Furthermore, I fully share your opinion about the importance of a campaign against the
Seven, [2] and of the workers displaying initiative in this respect. The Seven are
wavering and near-Party, but to a very little extent Party people.
One can enter into agreements with them within the Duma,
in order to direct them and drag them after oneself, but it
would be a crime to gloss over their liquidationism, their
lack of character and principle. We must support and develop the campaign against the Seven. Now that the
liquidators’ Luch is expanding (obviously on liberals’ money,
because its deficit is 1,000 rubles a month, and its circulation is only 12,000) we must strengthen tenfold the
campaign to support the six workers’ deputies, to increase
Pravda ’s readership, to extend Pravda . We must take the
struggle for Pravda direct into the factories, pressing them
to subscribe for more copies, winning away every factory
from Luck , so that there is a competition between the factories for the largest number of subscribers to Pravda . A
victory of Party principles is a victory for Pravda and vice
versa. We should start this kind of campaign: to increase
the circulation of Pravda from 30,000 to 50,000–00,000,
and the number of subscribers from 5,000 to 20,000, and
proceed unfalteringly in this direction. Then we shall extend and improve Pravda .

Your remarks about the lack of intellectuals are very true. And we won’t have them. Pravda and the illegal
publications will replace them. You should publish at least
hectographed resolutions and leaflets until more is technically possible. There should be a weekly publication of 30–00
copies of hectographed resolutions of the Petersburg
Committee by way of directives. We could always come to an
agreement by correspondence about these resolutions. Think
this over. It will strengthen the illegal work, reduce the
number of victims, make the propaganda more general, etc.

The resolution of the Petersburg Committee for the Six against the Seven is
excellent. [3] Haven’t you even hectographed it? This is absolutely essential. Now this is just
the kind of campaign that is necessary. We shall try to
send you articles for
Izvestia . [4] Let us know the dates.
Tell us what the size will be, and what the length of the
articles should be.

L.

---
Notes:
[1]
Lenin refers to the resolution “The Attitude to Liquidationism, and
Unity” passed at the “February” Conference of the C.C. of the
R.S.D.L.P. and Party workers held in Cracow from December 26,
1912 to January 1, 1913 (January 8–14, 1913) (see present edition,
Vol. 18, pp. 463–65).

[2]
The Seven were the seven Menshevik liquidator deputies who
belonged to the Social-Democratic group in the Fourth Duma.

[3]
Reference is to the resolution of the Petersburg Committee of the
R.S.D.L.P. passed in February 1913. The resolution noted the
correctness of the political line maintained by the Bolshevik
deputies in the Fourth Duma and condemned the conduct of the
Menshevik deputies supporting the liquidators’ paper Luch .

[4]
At a meeting in February 1913 the Petersburg Committee took a
decision to publish Izvestia P.K. R.S.D.R.P. (News of the P.C.
of the R.S.D.L.P.) and planned the first issue. The project did
not materialise.