V. I. Lenin

Source: en:CW/CW43; ru:PSS/v48;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

TO CITIZEN HUYSMANS

Krakow, March 7, 1914

Dear Huysmans,

First of all, leaving aside the utterly inadmissible tone of your letter, 302 I will state the facts concerning my report.

On February 2, 1914, I left Brussels; according to my promise the report had already been written. A quarter of an hour before my departure I wrote you a letter (in the presence of Comrade Popov) in a cafe near the Gare du Nord; in this letter I informed you that my report was ready (20 small pages and the resolution* of the Latvian Congress) and that Comrade Popov had undertaken to translate it and hand it to you.**

The envelope of this letter bore the printed address of the cafe, and if this letter has not been delivered to you, I shall lodge a protest with the Brussels Post Office.

If you have received this letter, I am extremely surprised that you do not mention it.

If Comrade Popov has not yet handed you the translation of my report, I understand nothing of this. I have written to him several times, thinking he might be ill, as he has not written to me for several weeks.

Today I am again sending him a registered letter with advice of delivery, in order to clear up this strange affair once and for all. I am also writing to Comrade Carlson (256, Rue Gray, Bruxelles), asking him to call personally on Popov.

Secondly. The expressions you used in your letter (“shirking”, “policy of procrastination”, etc.) are insulting, and you have no right whatever to use them with regard to a comrade. I am therefore compelled to ask you unconditionally to withdraw these expressions. If you do not do so, I am writing to you for the last time.

Yours,
N. Lenin