It extremely gladdened me and all of us here that you are taking on *Prosveshcheniye*.

And I – I confess – thought to myself: as soon as I write about our little journal, or little journalette, A. M.’s keenness will vanish. I confess, I confess to such thoughts.

It will indeed be splendid if we gradually attract fiction writers and get *Prosveshcheniye* moving! Splendid! A new, proletarian readership – we shall make the journal cheap – you will publish only democratic fiction, without whining, without renegadism. We’ll bond the workers together. And the workers have turned out fine. Our six curial deputies in the Duma have now started to turn themselves around for extra-Duma work so well that it’s a delight. That’s where people will really consolidate the workers’ party, a genuine one! Never in the Third Duma could they achieve this. Did you see the letter from four deputies about withdrawal in *Luch* (No. 24)? 182 It’s a good letter, isn’t it?

And have you seen *Pravda*? Alexinsky writes solidly and so far isn’t stirring up scandal! Amazing!

He sent some “manifesto” (why it got into *Pravda*). They didn’t publish it. And yet, so far, he isn’t stirring up scandal. A-m-a-z-i-n-g! But Bogdanov is stirring scandal: an utter stupidity in *Pravda* No. 24.

No, you can’t get anywhere with him! I read his *Engineer Menni*. The same Machism = idealism, hidden so that neither the workers nor the foolish editors at *Pravda* understood. No, this Machist is hopeless, as is Lunacharsky (thanks for his article). If only Lunacharsky could be separated from Bogdanov on aesthetics, just as Alexinsky has begun to separate from him on politics… if only, if only…

Regarding the doctrine of matter and its structure, I completely agree with you that we must write about this and that it is a good antidote to the “poison that the formless Russian soul imbibes.” Only you are wrong to call this poison “metaphysics.” It should be called idealism and agnosticism.

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

On nationalism I fully agree with you that we need to tackle it more seriously. We have a wonderful Georgian here who has sat down and is writing for *Prosveshcheniye* a major article, having gathered all the Austrian and other materials.* We will press on with this. But that our resolutions (I am sending them in print) are “a mere formality, red tape” – you are wrong to curse them. No. It is not a formality. In the Caucasus too, Social-Democratic Georgians + Armenians + Tatars + Russians worked together in a single Social-Democratic organisation for over ten years. That is not a phrase, but a proletarian solution of the national question. The only solution. The same was true in Riga: Russians + Latvians + Lithuanians; only the separatists – the Bund – stood apart. Similarly in Vilna.

There are two good Social-Democratic brochures on the national question: by Strasser and Pannekoek. Would you like me to send them? If you can find someone to translate them from German for you?

No, that abomination that exists in Austria we shall not have here. We will not allow it! And there are more of our own kind, Great Russians, here. With the workers we will not allow the “Austrian spirit.”

On Pyatnitsky 183 I am for legal action. There is no need to stand on ceremony. To be sentimental would be unforgivable. Socialists are by no means opposed to making use of the crown court. We are for using legality. Marx and Bebel even appealed to the crown court against their socialist opponents. One must know how to do it, and it must be done.

Pyatnitsky must be taken to court without any hesitation. If you are reproached for this – spit in the faces of those who reproach you. Those who reproach you will be hypocrites. To give in to Pyatnitsky, to let him off, for fear of the court, would be unforgivable.

Well, I’ve talked too much. Write how your health is.

Yours,  
Lenin

* Reference is to I. V. Stalin’s article “