V. I.

Lenin

July 25, 1916

Dear A. M., I was long in answering your letter because, owing to
Nadya’s illness, we’d had to move into the mountains. I quite
agree with you that the role of Left-winger at the conference
with Huysmans will, in the main, be one of collecting information. [1] This is more important than anything else.
The most important thing is to make notes on the spot , and
about everything. Collect each and every kind of document;
and do not forget for a single minute the need for full
information. The only way is to write down everything (even if
briefly) at once, on the spot, in a special notebook. Grimm
is not going: they didn’t give him a passport. That means
there is to be only one Left-winger. This makes his responsibility all the greater. It will take great resolution and full
political clarity to carry on the line alone: you are the best
judge of whether these qualities are there. If they are, it
would be a good thing to “put” a couple of questions to
the vote: approve Zimmerwald; ditto Kienthal; condemn the social-patriots, Hyndman and Co., Sembat and Co.,
Legien and Co., Plekhanov and Co. The same thing can also
be done in the form of questions. It’ll be up to you to decide
whether this can be done.

Please drop me a couple of words about the receipt of this postcard.

Alexander must have taken all the addresses with him, and will try and find out whether anything has been printed
in America about the Zimmerwald Left and get it, and contact the Socialist Propaganda League, the Socialist
Labour Party, International Socialist Review and Appeal to

Reason . If you get this postcard and reply, we may perhaps
have time to write each other about what precisely it is
convenient to ask him to do there.

One personal request: have you any publishing connections? I have none. By way of earnings, I should like to have
either a translation , or an article on education for Nadya
(her illness requires a prolonged stay in the mountains, and
that is expensive).

Best greetings and good wishes. Nadya sends her regards.

Yours,
V. Ulyanov