V. I.

Lenin

To:   INESSA ARMAND

No. 2.

... [1]
Just now (at 2 p.m.) I received further mail by extra post. Again nothing
from you....

I received a letter from Bukharin in Vienna. He has seen Buryanov, who was on his way from Plekhanov. Apparently, the
Plekhanovites and other non-factionists intend to undertake some sort of
joint “action”: I believe Plekhanov wants to publish a newspaper. Trotsky
and the local crowd are very shortly putting out a journal of their own,
Borba . They have effected a reconciliation with Luch ; a
correspondence was conducted on this subject. The “pure” liquidators will
remain in Nasha Zarya —that’s what that crowd “hopes” for.

That is what Bukharin writes. This news is very important. There’s no
smoke without fire, and we are probably witnessing a new, wave of idiotic
conciliationist activity, which the I.S.B. is sure to take advantage of to
stage a comic act in the spirit of the 1910 January plenary session. Well,
we’re standing on our own legs now and we’ll show up this riffraff.

We must try our hardest (extremely tactfully, of course) to
collect and keep collecting all the information we can in Paris. That fool
Antonov cannot collect gossip from Steklov, but Steklov can get money out
of him. And we haven’t a penny. Kamenev and his family are living on
nothing . See to it, therefore, that the C.O.A. does not give a
single kopek away to anybody but us. We shall shortly be in desperate need of money for putting out the C.O., a
special pamphlet and one very important publication (absolument
entre nous: we will publish a special bulletin of the Central Committee [3] —for Russia we’ve got a special transport
possibility [2]

).

The conciliators of all shades are out to “catch” us! Bon! We’ll
catch those scoundrels, those ridiculous mountebanks. They’re getting stuck
in the mud of blocs with the liquidators? Don! Our tactic is: if the enemy
makes a false move, give him time to sink deeper into the mud. That’s where
we shall catch the scoundrels. Meantime, we’ve got to gather strength and
money—we’ve got to exercise restraint (to the utmost!)—to learn as much
as we can. Paris is a convenient centre for finding out things and for
“diversions”. It is most desirable that the section adopt a sledge-hammer resolution against Kautsky (calling his
statement about the death of the Party shameless, insolent, monstrous, ignorant ). As for the few “near-conciliators” of our section, let
them get information from the Plekhanovites, the conciliators (Makar,
Lyova, Lozovsky & Co. ) and the Trotskyites—as well as the
Bundists and the Letts.

Raise the question of lambasting Kautsky in the C.O.A. nd vote it: if
the majority turn it down, I’ll come and give that majority a leathering
they’ll remember for a long time. But I must know who that majority is
going to be, and who I have to deal with. So go full ahead!

Nik. Vas. may receive at his address communications of great importance
to us (from the I.S.B. or from the Letts). It is very important that he
should hand them to you immediately —you may open them in order to
wire their contents to me briefly: if it is not embarrassing ,
arrange this, because just these days (while Malinovsky is here) a delay of
a day or two (=difference between a letter and a telegram) may be of
extremely vital significance. I think you could mention N. K., but
decide yourself, you know best.

Let the C.O.A. consider who, in Paris, could help the six to write
their speeches. The need is great since the arrest of Krylenko. We shall
send the list of speeches. Assistance from all the vacillating
elements of the different groups is more convenient and more possible here.