I received a long letter about Masha, etc.  

not  
from above (more precisely, not only from above), but (mainly) from below, preparing  
one’s own group, a purely French one.  

What  
firm is not important (“International Socialists of France,” “Revolutionary  
Internationalists of France,” etc.). The essence is important: not to fear a split,  
to understand its inevitability, to go against  
Trotsky and Merrheim,^2  
to go with the Zimmerwald Left.^3  
That is the essence. Such a group (even of 2–3 Frenchmen)  
is more important than tens and hundreds of friends of  
Merrheim.  

If you publish “Socialism and War,”^4 a chapter on the French opposition  
is necessary. If you do not write it in Paris, let us  
know the exact deadline and length, we shall try to send it.  

As for the trip “to that country”—in my opinion, it is useful for the cause;  
the main aim is to form one’s own group there too (to arrange  
conspiratorial contacts with it). We did not know about the conference of the Zimmerwaldists  
ourselves earlier. Grimm deliberately informed us  
later than everyone else.  

If Masha turned out to be such, I personally am very glad that this scum refused to join our journal.  
If only it were our own group, we would then propose to her  
to publish a letter to the workers of France.  

It is not worth spending much time on such scum as Merrheim:  
it is clear that he is hopeless.  

In  
all countries, only direct enemies of Kautskyism, only those  
not afraid of a split, are of interest.  

P. S. For Grisha  

Chkheidze and Co.  
Here we must beat the scum “Nashe Slovo” and Trotsky and Co.