V. I. LENIN— TO K. RADEK.
[Before August 20, 1915, Zörenberg.]
Dear Comrade Radek!
I have received your letter to W[ynkoop] and am forwarding it by the first mail. I add that you must immediately set to work—if you wish to prepare a declaration (not to mention a new “Communist Manifesto”).
We have already produced: 1) a manifesto, 2) a resolution, 3) a draft declaration.1 Let us quickly submit amendments or counter-drafts. Hurry up!!
We will be too late!!
I am, in principle, opposed to participation in Our Word,2 though I would not turn this into an ultimatum. Why am I opposed? 1) It is a form of corruption, since Our Word itself has never declared itself an independent third party—or a separate group—dedicated to working within Russia; 2) Within Our Word there are Okists in an unknown number. Double representation!! (OK + Our Word). 3) Our Word stands for the Cheidze Faction (for them and for OK as well), while Plekhanov—and Alexinsky—stand for the same faction. Isn’t that corruption???
To treat Lichtstrahlen as a group and regard it as more important than the Zetkin faction is nothing short of absurd.
In
this group there is
Borchardt + Badek + the staff member
Lichtstrahlen. That’s quite enough.
This group even has its own little journal. (But Zetkin and Co. do not.)
Borchardt was the first to publicly declare: Die S[ozial]d[emokratie] abgedankt. *3 This is not mere propaganda—it is a momentous political act.
This is action, not empty promise.
For us (that is, for all the Left), what matters most is a clear, complete, and precise
Principles Declaration/*
Without this, all so‑called “action programs” are but a single phrase, a mere slogan. What came of the Zetkin-led “Action Resolution” in Bern? Nothing in terms of actual action! Nothing in terms of principles! 4
If Borchardt’s group—whether acting together with us or independently—as an anonymous group (“Stern” or “Pfeil,”* or whatever you like)—were to issue a precise Principles Declaration accompanied by a call to revolutionary action, it would play a role of historic significance.
But Zetkin and Co., despite having at their disposal everything—newspapers, journals, connections with the Berner Tagwacht, the ability to travel to Switzerland, and more—did nothing in ten months to unite the international Left. What a disgrace.
All the best! Yours, Lenin.
P.S. And I wouldn’t advise you to join the army. It’s absurd to aid the enemy.
You’d only be doing Shaideman a favor. Better to emigrate—indeed, far better.
The Left-wing workers are needed now more than ever.
“The opposition in Germany is a product of fermenting discontent among the masses, while the Bolsheviks represent the orientation of a small group of revolutionaries.”
That is not Marxist.
It is either Kautskyism—or a clever evasion.
What was the Communist Manifesto of 1847 and its accompanying group?? A product of mass ferment? Or the orientation of a small group of revolutionaries?? Or perhaps both?
And we—what about the Central Committee? Or the RSDLP Fraction—has it been proven that we maintain ties with the masses? What about Petrograd’s Proletarsky Golos? 5 Or is there no “fermenting discontent among the masses” in Russia?
The Left in Germany will make a historic mistake if, under the pretext that “the opposition is a product of fermenting discontent among the masses” (they = Zetkin, Laufenberg, Borchardt, Thalheimer, Dunker!!! Ha-ha!), they decide to stage a public appearance—perhaps anonymously, under the banner of the “Stern” group or some other such grouping—only to have the workers later join in and begin to ponder the matter themselves, ultimately adopting a Principles Declaration.
To foster “fermenting discontent among the masses,” we need a left-wing declaration and program. In light of such ferment, it is essential. To transform “ferment” into “movement,” it is essential. To develop “ferment” into a full-fledged International, it is essential.
And we need it now—immediately!!!
You are wrong a thousand times over.
* — “Star” or “Arrow.” Ed.


P.S. You wrote unclearly in your letter to Weinkon: Was it scheduled for August 20th, or merely proposed? Please jot down a few words on this for me and Grigory (if you’re in a hurry).
Rakovskii (see his pamphlet)(i jci defending the fatherland. In my view, we have no common path with such people.
1 The drafts of the manifesto and declaration have still not been found. For the draft resolution, see <*. 165.
2 “Our Word” was a daily newspaper published in Paris from January 1915 to October 1916, serving as the organ of the Trotskyists. See V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, vol. XIX, note 34, p. 453.
3 In January 1915, Jürgen Borchardt published the pamphlet: “Vor und nach dem 4. August 1914. Hat die deutsche Sozialdemokratie abgedankt?” Published by Lichtstrahlen, Berlin, 1915 (“Before and After August 4, 1914: Has German Social Democracy Abdicated?”). In this work, Borchardt delivered the first sharp critique of the treacherous conduct of the German Social Democrats at the outbreak of the First World War (see Lenin’s article “How Police and Reactionaries Guard the Unity of German Social Democracy,” in Collected Works, vol. XVIII, p. 117).
4 At the International Socialist Women’s Conference in Bern, convened under the leadership of Clara Zetkin, the principled resolution proposed by the delegation of the Central Committee of the RSDLP was rejected, and instead a resolution was adopted that sidestepped the question of condemning social-chauvinism.
5 Proletarsky Golos was an illegal organ of the Petrograd Bolsheviks, published in 1915 and 1916. Only four issues were released.
6 We are speaking here of X. Rakovskii’s pamphlet “Les socialistes et la guerre” (Bucharest, 1915) (“Socialists and the War”). A Russian translation appeared in Petrograd in 1919.
27090-
V. I. LENIN— TO E. A. BERZIN AND LONDON. *
[August 20, 1915, Zörenberg.]
Dear Berzin!
Many thanks for the mandate you sent me.1 Please don’t hesitate—send me one just as soon as possible, in French or German, complete with official seals and all the formalities, and be sure to add to the text of the mandate that your party has always been
*
The letter was written on a postcard, bearing the sender’s address:
Uljanow in Sorenberg (K[ant]on | Luzern), Switzerland; and the return address:
Mr. Jean Berzine. 33 South Hill Park, 33 Hampstead, London, N.W. England, England. The date was determined based on the postal stamp. Ed.