# Date: 1915-06

V. I. LENIN — TO K. RADEK.
2706Я
[End of June 1915. Sörenberg.]
Werter Genosse!*
Our letters obviously crossed. Simultaneously [iho stem ],
as You were writing to me, I was writing to You (a postcard), sending the Miscellany.1 I hope You received it?
Regarding the left conference:
I have not been a member of the International Socialist Bureau since 1912 (from the Central Committee, a member of the International Socialist Bureau — Maksimovich,2 in London, since 1912). But, of course, on behalf of the Central Committee, Grigorii]3 and I will do everything necessary that is required.
You write that "Grimm macht das ( = bypassing the Central Committee?) ohne Absicht"...**4
Hm, hm! Es scheint mir wenig glaubhaft zu sein. Ist Grimm wirklich ein Kind? Nach zwei Konferenzen in Bern??*** '
But of course, you in Bern see it better, and I would be glad if it turned out that I am mistaken, and You are right.
So, if Grimm macht das ohne Absicht, then the matter is simple: Grimm must write to the Central Committee (official address is printed on our Central Organ .= Bibliothèque russe. 7. Rue Hugo de Senger. 7. Geneve. Für das Kom. Central).
(It is, of course, possible to my address as well; it is more direct).
By not doing this, Grimm will act dishonestly (because writing to Maksimovich in London means wasting time and risking the letter being compromised: the police will intercept it!).
And it is unseemly for us to intrude: we do not want to impose ourselves. We cannot do this!
Now to the substance. You write: "Da wird Grimm und vielleicht (?? sicher mfeinesj Efrachtensj!) auch anderc die Sache
* — Respected Comrade! Ed.
** — "Grimm is doing this (= bypassing the Central Committee?) unintentionally." Ed.
*** — "It seems to me this is hardly believable. Is Grimm really a child? After two conferences in Bern??" Ed.

V. I. LENIN----TO K. RADEK
so abwechseln (nur? richtiger: zertreten und vcrralen!) wollen, dass nur ein Aktionsprogramm (soli heissen: Ermaltungsprogramm, a program of abandoning the struggle, a program of discouraging workers from revolution, a program of pacifying workers with left-wing phrases) fiir die Stundc konimt".*
My opinion is that the "turn" of Kautsky
Bernstein
Ka
(—[— 500 -f- 1,000 — ? ?) is a turn of shit ( = Dreck), which felt that the masses will no longer tolerate it, that it is "necessary" to turn to the left, in order to continue deceiving the masses. *1
This is clear.
and Renaudel in "L'Humanité" is "moving to the left"!!
The shitheads will gather, say that they are "against the politics of
August 4", that they are "for peace," "against annexations," and ... and ... thereby they will help
the bourgeoisie to extinguish the seeds of revolutionary
mood.
From Your letter, I conclude that You also think so.
Ergo,** our program should be:
1) to go, if they call.
2) to unite in advance the "leftists" i.e., supporters of revolution [ionary] actions against their government.
3) to present to the Kautskian shitheads our draft resolution (the Dutch7 -f- us -}- the left Germans
0, and even then it's not a disaster, and later it will be not zero, but everything!).
4) to put forward 2 — 3 speakers at the conference (if You
ensure that You are there, then it is possible).
Is it possible to gather several German leftists against Kautsky & Co? for a similar program?
Write what You think of this program. Its essence = against
the stupid and treacherous slogan of peace.
Come! Yours Lenin
Is it not clear that the Organizing Committee will be with
Drehscheibe-Kautsky
& Co???*** .4?
* — "In that case, Grimm, and maybe (?? in my opinion,
for sure!) also others, will want to turn things around in such a way (only? rather: destroy
and betray!), that at this moment only a program of action (or rather: a program of exhaustion...) will be put forward." Ed.
** — Therefore. Ed.
*** — turntable for locomotives — Kautsky & Co. Ed.

And are You sure that Grey -f- Bethmann Hollweg did not "nod" to
Südekum
Vandervelde: it's time, guys, for peace, or there will be a revolution???
P. S. We have a telephone in the hotel (Hotel Mariental) (No. 111).
If anything urgent, call — I am always home at 8-1/2 a.m.
P.P.S. Please forward the enclosed, after reading it.
1 It has not been established which miscellany is meant.
2 Maksimovich - M. Litvinov.
3 Grigory - G. Zinoviev.
4 It is evident from this that R. Grimm, the organizer of the Zimmerwald Conference, wanted to prepare the convening of the conference without involving the Bolsheviks in this matter. After some time, however, he abandoned this intention, and a representative of the Bolsheviks took part in the preliminary meeting on convening the conference (see p. 161 of the present collection).
5 Two conferences in Bern: 1) International Socialist Women's Conference, held March 26-28, 1915 (see Lenin, vol. XVIII, note 13*5, p. 439); 2) International Socialist Youth Conference, held April 5-6, 1915 (see ibid., note 152, p. 442).
6 On June 20, 1915, Kautsky, Bernstein, and Haase issued a "manifesto" in which they spoke out for peace, condemned annexations, and called for the preservation of unity with the social chauvinists.
7 Refers to the "Tribunists" - A. Pannekoek, G. Gorter, D. Wijnkoop.
We are placing below the Russian translation of G. Zinoviev's German letter - the only surviving document about the preliminary meeting on convening an international conference of socialists. Other reports or any materials about the work of this meeting are unknown to us. The fact that the letter is written in German suggests that it was intended for information primarily to German leftists, whose representative was not present at the meeting. The letter, typed, breaks off on an assessment of the speeches of the participants of the meeting.