V. I. Lenin

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

Dear friends! In our opinion you have made a mistake by getting in touch with Fyodor.* Nothing but a squabble will probably come of it. You should have published your own report.227 But now you must proceed from what has already been done. In the present situation it is necessary above all to insist on complete equality and first of all to move a formal resolution, approximately as follows: “The co-operative resolves that in drawing up the report no majority of one trend over the other shall be permitted, and both trends (the Six and the Seven) shall enjoy

* See present edition, Vol. 19, pp. 393-94. — Ed.

** The letter was sent to N. I. Podvoisky’s address. — Ed.

*** Fyodor (Theodora) was the conventional name for the Menshevik section of the Social-Democratic group in the Fourth Duma. — Ed.

complete equality in every respect, i.e., the commission shall be formed on a parity basis, and disputed passages shall be edited by agreement and not by a majority vote. If the speeches of deputies are to be reprinted at the end of the report, the selection of speeches shall also be made by agreement.” This resolution is essential. Otherwise the commission may be formed on a parity basis, but then the co-operative may, by a majority of one vote, approve what the Liquidator proposes. If Theodora rejects such a resolution, we advise you to state officially that, in view of the refusal to grant equality, you reserve full freedom of action. In that case you may still put forward your candidate.

We enclose a very preliminary draft of theses:

1) The election campaign. Its setting. Results for the Social-Democrats. The Social-Democratic platform: the eight-hour day, confiscation of the landed estates, full democratisation.

2) Composition of the Social-Democratic group. Its constitution. The Yagello case.228 (Statement of the point of view of the Six and the Seven. Reference to protests.)

3) The political platform of the group and its first appearances. The Declaration. Statement that the Six reject cultural-national autonomy. Statement that the broad sections of the workers approved precisely the... slogans of the Declaration. Characterisation of the political position of the Social-Democrats.

The main slogans remained: the eight-hour day, transfer of the land, full democratisation.

4) Interpellations by the group.

5) The group and the budget.

6) The bourgeois groups in the Duma and sharp criticism of them and of the liberals (speeches by Maklakov, the Octobrists, the Black-Hundreds).

7) The workers and the group. Mandates, appeals, responses, material for interpellations, mutual financial aid, etc.

8) Deputies’ immunity (the case of Petrovsky).229

Internal differences; each side states its own point of view, an equal number of pages being allotted to each. The press statements of both sides are reprinted. A list of workers’ resolutions, as many as there are. Appendix. Most important tasks.

We await news. The summer cottages have been rented.*

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Written on June 17, 1913
Sent from Poronin to St. Petersburg
First published in 1924
in the journal Krasnaya Letopis, No. 1
Printed from a typewritten
copy (perlustration)