V. I.

Lenin

86

To:   A. G. SHLYAPNIKOV

February 11

Dear Friend, I have received your two letters, of February 4 and 5. Many thanks. As
regards sending Sotsial-Demokrat , we have given your letter to the
secretary of the dispatch committee to read. Tomorrow I shall remind him
personally, and I hope that they will do everything.

The Parisians promised to send you Plekhanov’s little pamphlet, and we
are very surprised that you have not received it. We shall order it once
more, and get one our selves to send you. [2]

The two Plekhanovites of whom you wrote were here. We chatted with
them. Take notice of the little fair one (they are going back the same
way): apparently Plekhanov repelled him even more than the little dark
one. The latter, I think, is a hopeless chatterbox. But the former keeps
very quiet, and you can’t find out what is going on in his head.

From Nashe Slovo (which is appearing in Paris in place of
Golos ) we have had a letter today with a plan for a common protest
against “official social-patriotism” (on the subject of the scheme for a
London conference of socialists de la Triple
Entente [3] ). Whether the conference will take place, we don’t know; we
had the other day from Litvinov a letter he transmitted from Huysmans, who
is planning something strange, calling together the Executive Committee of
the International Socialist Bureau on February 20 at The Hague, and on
February 20–25 organising in the same place personal negotiations (!!)
with the delegates from

Britain, France and Russia!! Astonishing!! It looks like preparations of
some kind for something Francophil and patriotic (by the way, you are
absolutely right that there are now many “phils” and few socialists. For
us both Francophils and Germanophils are one and the same = patriots,
bourgeois or their lackeys, and not socialists. The Bundists, for example,
are for the most part Germanophils and glad of the defeat of Russia. But in
what way are they any better than Plekhanov? Both are opportunists,
social-chauvinists, only of different colours. And Axelrod too).

We have replied to Nashe Slovo that we are glad of their
proposal, and have sent them our draft declaration. [1]

Hopes of an agreement with them are not great, because Axelrod, it is said,
is in Paris—and Axelrod (see Nos. 86 and 87 of Golos and No. 37
of Sotsial-Demokrat ) is a social-chauvinist, who wants to
reconcile Francophils and Germanophils on the basis of social-chauvinism. Let us see what is dearer to Nashe Slovo —anti-chauvinism or the good will of Axelrod.

I think that both in Russia and throughout the world a new basic
grouping is coming into existence within Social-Democracy: the chauvinists
(“social-patriots”) and their friends, their defenders—and the
anti-chauvinists. In the main, this division corresponds to the division
between the opportunists and the revolutionary Social-Democrats. But it
plus précis represents, so to speak, a higher stage of development, nearer to the socialist revolution. And among us the old
grouping (liquidators and Pravdists) is becoming out of date, and being
replaced by a new, more sensible division: social-patriots and
anti-patriots. By the way. They say that
Dan [4] ==a German “social-patriot”, i.e., a Germanophil,
i.e., for Kautsky . Is this true? It looks very much like the
truth. It’s an odd thing that in the Organising
Committee [5] the split is along bourgeois lines: Francophils
(Plekhanov+Alexinsky+Maslov+ Nasha Zarya ) and Germanophils
(Bund+Axelrod+Dan?? etc.).

If you don’t get any money from the Swedes, let us know:
we shall send you 100 francs. Think over very thoroughly where it is best (i.e., most useful for the cause and safest
for you: this is very important: you must protect yourself!!) to lie low, in London or in Norway, etc. It is of the
greatest importance to organise transport, even little by
little. You ought to have an interview with the
Plekhanovites who in two or three weeks will be in your place, and
come to an arrangement about all this.

All the best; I wish you courage and all good things.

Yours, Lenin

---
Notes:
[1]
See “To the Editors of Nashe Slovo ” (present edition, Vol. 21, pp. 125–28).— Ed .

[2]
Reference is to Plekhanov’s pamphlet The War. A Reply to Comrade Z. P. , Paris, 1914.

[3]
The Conference of the Socialists of the Triple Entente was
held in London on February 14, 1915. See Lenin’s articles “The London
Conference” and “On the London Conference” (present edition, Vol. 21,
pp. 132–34, 178–80).

[4]
Dan ( Gurevich ), F. I. (1871–1947)—a
Menshevik leader. During the years of reaction and the subsequent
revolutionary revival he headed a group of liquidators abroad. His position
during the world war was that of a social-chauvinist. After the October
Socialist Revolution he fought against Soviet power.

[5]
Organising Committee —the Mensheviks’ leading centre, was
formed in 1912 at the August Conference of Menshevik liquidators,
Trotskyists and other anti-Party groups and trends.