**LETTER TO I.F. ARMAND**

30 December 1916 (12 January 1917)1*

Dear friend! Your last letters were so full of sorrow and such sad thoughts they aroused in me, and such pangs of conscience, that I cannot come to myself. I want to say at least something friendly and strongly urge you not to sit almost alone, in a place where there is no public life, but to go somewhere where you can find new and old friends, and shake off your gloom.

Yesterday we had a meeting of the left-wing Germans1. Most of them are workers, and there is some youth. Our work has not yet been properly organized: my impression is dual and uncertain. Nobs is good: one worker sent him a left-wing article about the despicable act of postponing the congress2. Nobs published the article with a signature and on the next day, in another direction, and he spoiled the left-wing article, cutting it up, which I accidentally uncovered at the meeting, criticizing the article precisely in the parts that Nobs had disfigured!3

Well, and "left-wingers"!

Incidentally: at the meeting, it became clear that there are connections with the leftists in Neuchâtel, who had earlier spoken out against the opportunists. It would be quite good to go there with addresses (respective2* letters of recommendation, which I could obtain here) and instruct them, give a little lecture, make contacts, etc.

Did I write to you that Naine, at the Parteivorstand meeting (7.1), had the honesty to speak against Grimm, reproaching him precisely as an "international secretary"!

Olga writes to me today that Guilbeau gave a report on the French congress, severely criticizing the Longuetists ("worse than yours," she writes), standing for a split. This is good, but Guilbeau has no base, he is a man of moods, without foundation, without theory. This is dangerous. He is waiting for his wife from Paris, who is agitating there. Guilbeau and Brillant agreed to adopt a resolution protesting the postponement of the congress. On the 22nd, they will have a meeting of delegates to vote on this resolution.

Here, the day after tomorrow, on Sunday, we (Grigory, Radek, and I) will have a meeting of the left-wing bureau on the question of protesting against Grimm4. We shall see!

I firmly, firmly shake your hand and once again urge you to go somewhere, even if only for a while, even with lectures or otherwise, to shake off your gloom and get involved in something absorbing and useful for new and fresh ideas. Truly, work among the French is extremely necessary and extremely useful.

I received the book and catalogs. Merci.

Yours3*.

P.S. Regarding Troyanovsky. Entre nous4*: I would like this stuffed fool to finally come out in print or in a "written statement." I am tired of this damned squabble dragging on for years!! I would teach him a lesson and put him off for a long time!! To "believe" the scoundrel Markov-2—think how stupid this is!!5

Published (without the first paragraph and postscript) — Lenin V.I. Collected Works, Vol. 49, pp. 362-363.

Fund 2, op. 1, file 4365 — autograph.

1* The letter bears a note by I.F. Armand: "12 January 1917," based on which the letter is dated.

2* Or - (French).

3* Followed by Lenin's signature—a flourish.

4* Between us (French).

1 On 29 December 1916 (11 January 1917), V.I. Lenin participated in a meeting of the left-wing Swiss Social Democrats in Zurich, which adopted a resolution protesting the postponement of the Congress of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland.

2 This refers to the decision of the Executive Committee of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland on 25 December 1916 (7 January 1917), taken under pressure from R. Grimm, to postpone the party congress indefinitely. The announcement was published on 27 December 1916 (9 January 1917) in the newspaper "Volksrecht" No. 7.

For a description of this meeting of the Executive Committee, see V.I. Lenin's letter to V.A. Karpinsky on 26 December 1916 (8 January 1917) — Lenin V.I. Collected Works, Vol. 49, pp. 358-360.

3 The articles were published in "Volksrecht" Nos. 7 and 8, 9 and 10 January 1917 (New Style).

4 The meeting of the Zimmerwald Left Bureau, 1-2 (14-15) January 1917, adopted a draft statement demanding the removal of R. Grimm from the International Socialist Commission.

5 This refers to A.A. Troyanovsky's disagreement with the conclusions of the Central Committee of the RSDLP commission on the case of R.V. Malinovsky. In December 1916, at a session of the State Duma, Deputy N.E. Markov made a statement about Malinovsky's collaboration with the security organs. The editorial board of the newspaper "Sotsial-Demokrat" in No. 58, 31 January 1917, published a rebuttal of Markov's statement.