V. I.

Lenin

527

To:   INESSA ARMAND

Dear Friend, Entre nous—privately!—I don’t advise you to send such a
letter. [1] You can talk with such straightforwardness only
with absolutely reliable and absolutely friendly Left wingers.

Where are they? Who are they?

“ We wish to take into our hands”—why, this will get into the press
and you will be made a laughingstock!!

My advice: you can write like this only to absolute friends
(through Radek, for instance, if he undertakes on his responsibility to send it to friends and to no one else).

For the S.D. public at large , it should be redrafted with the
greatest care.

Best regards, Lenin

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Notes:
[1]
This refers to the draft of a letter to “A Woman Social-Democrat of
Germany” (probably Clara Zetkin) in which Armand, on be half of the
editors of the journal Rabotnitsa , invited an exchange of views on
questions relating to the women’s labour movement and suggested calling an
unofficial conference of Left women socialists.

The words quoted by Lenin are from the following text of Armand’s
letter: “It seems to us that during the war this movement (i.e., the
women’s movement.— Ed .) could play a very important role for
socialism. When most of the proletariat—the men—are at the fronts, the
other part of the proletariat—the women—should take our socialist cause
into their own hands.”