V. I.

Lenin

325

To:   L. B. KAMENEV

Dear Friend, 1 st. [1]

Bogdanov’s departure is said to have caused displeasure (among the
intellectualist riffraff, apparently). That “good soul” of ours,
Galyorka, is moping, I believe. The Priboi people [2] voted for Bogdanov.

They argue (an old trick of these intellectualist mischief-makers) that
there are workers supporting Vperyod every where (why weren’t they
seen anywhere?...). That’s all bosh, of course. The story of the
Vperyod group’s adventurism will have to be given in
Prosveshcheniye . But now it is necessary that you should
(1) take action. The thing has to be explained, the stupid defenders of
Vperyodism and Bogdanov (Dansky is one of them, apparently) must be
challenged and warned.
(2) You must get your letter about An Introduction to Political Economy [3] published for certain. Write immediately. If yours
doesn’t go, I’ll send in mine.

2 nd. How about the collection of articles? Drop me a line ( Marxism and Liquidationism ). [4]

3 rd. What a scandal in the committees of the Literary Society (the
campaign against the Press
Bill) [5] .... Bloc of the liberals+liquidators (Kheisin, Stiva Novich,
Guliko). And N. D. Sokolov there too.... Take action. Kick him out. Most
important of all—launch a campaign against the liquidators for this. Let
me know.

4 th. What about the speeches? The budget will be before the Duma only
on 20.III, old style. Am I right? Drop me a line about this.

---
Notes:
[1]
Erroneously given as “2nd” in the typewritten copy.— Ed .

[2]
Priboi people —contributors to and members of the staff of
the legal Bolshevik publishing house Priboi. This publishing business was
founded in St. Petersburg at the beginning of 1913 and was controlled by
the C.C. of the Party. Owing to increased persecution of the labour press
by the tsarist government following the outbreak of the war Priboi had to
close down and did not resume publishing activities until March 1917. In
1918 Priboi merged with the publishing house Kommunist, which was formed as
a result of the merger of various publishing houses (Volna, Zhizn i Znaniye
and others).

[3]
Kamenev’s article on A. Bogdanov’s book An Introduction to

Political Economy issued by the Priboi publishing House appeared
in the journal Prosveshcheniye No. 3 for March 1914.

[4]
Marxism and Liquidationism . A Symposium of Articles on the Fundamental Issues of the Modern Labour Movement . Part II was
published in July 1914 by Priboi, the Party’s publishing house. The
collection was to have been in two parts, whose contents were announced in
the newspaper Put Pravdy No. 42, March 21, 1914.

Part I of the collection did not appear. Several dozen copies of
Part II, which the publishers were late in taking delivery of from the
printers, were confiscated. The bulk of the edition, how ever, was
distributed. Part II contained fourteen articles by Lenin besides the
preface and the conclusion, which were also written by him.

[5]
This refers to a meeting called by the All-Russia Literary Society in
January 1914 in connection with the increased persecution of the press and
the reactionary bill on the press which the government was preparing. The
decisive role at this meeting was played by the representatives of the
liberals and liquidators a liberal resolution was adopted.