V. I. LENIN — TO N. A. RUBAKIN
11 CLARAN (SWITZERLAND).
January 25, 1913. [Kraków.]
Dear Comrade,
In response to your request, I am sending you an “exposé” * as brief as I could manage. If you had not added that “the history of the polemic” in your manuscript was not ruled out, then a presentation of Bolshevism would have been entirely impossible.
Moreover, your remark—“I intend to make no changes whatsoever in your characterization”—raised certain doubts in my mind. I must stipulate, as a condition for publication, that there be no alterations whatsoever. (As for purely censorship-related matters, we could, of course, discuss them separately.)
If it does not suit you, please return the manuscript.
With comradely greetings,
N. Lenin.
My address: Wl. Uljanow.
47 Lubomirskiego, Kraków, Austria.

In his letter dated January 10, 1913 (see file JV3 21741 in the Lenin Institute archives), Rubakin had asked Lenin to provide “a concise (yet no longer than one page of postal paper) exposition of the very essence of Bolshevism, together with an indication of those works in which this essence is set forth,” for Volume II of his book, Among Books. Lenin’s article on Bolshevism (see Collected Works, vol. XVI, p. 250) was published without any changes—but with the following note: “(Expounded at our request by N. Lenin. Lenin’s letter is printed without any alterations, and certain polemical qualifications made by Mr. Lenin remain the author’s own responsibility)” (Rubakin, Among Books, vol. II, 2nd edition, Section B, “Scientific Socialism, Social-Democratic Trends,” p. 172).
— Exposition. Ed.

11THE PERIOD OF THE SECOND EMIGRATION