To I. F. Armand
И. Ф. АРМАНД. 22 ЯНВАРЯ 1917 г.
Date: 1917-01-22
Source: ru:PSS/v49
Translated by: AI (Claude)

"At the mere thought that I am defending Engels' point of view on war and on the position of the Germans of that time, your blood boils and you cannot translate it..."

Oh my! I did not expect it! After all, we, both I and Gr., have referred to this passage - more than a passage: a statement, an appearance, a declaration - of Engels many times, directly and indirectly, in 1914 and 1915.

After all, this was written by Engels initially for the French socialists and printed in their "Almanach du Parti Ouvrier." And then the French did not protest, feeling - if not understanding clearly - that a war of Boulanger + Alexander III against the Germany of that time would have been anti-democratic only on their part, while on the part of Germany (of whose imperialism there could be no question then!!) it would indeed have been only "defense," indeed a war for national existence.

And now what the French themselves recognized as correct in 1891, you suddenly denounce, and how! And on the eve, at the meeting of the Swiss lefts, they (semi-pacifists, nothing can be done with them) with incredible frivolity peculiar to them alone, brushed aside my reference to this statement of Engels.

And you said nothing about my article in response to the Kiev man.

My work with the Swiss lefts, as well as reflection on the absurdities that Radek has talked himself into, convinces me more and more that on the most important question of the motives for rejection of defense of the fatherland, only our position is correct. Have you seen No. 6 of "Jugend-Internationale," about which I wrote in Miscellany No. 2 (did you receive it?) "Arbeiterpolitik" No. 25?

I have a postcard from Kamenev. I will send it to you. Olga writes that the affairs of the lefts are improving, that an organization has been founded of Frenchmen + Italians (!! this particularly gladdens me) + Russians - Zimmerwald lefts - and that Guilbeaux will write to me about it (I'll forward it to you, if you want). I try to follow "Avanti!" and am convinced that Souvarine is right: Turati is fully a Kautskyite and is putting the whole socialist faction of the Italian chamber on these rails. His last speech (17.I) is clever: a clever fellow of bourgeois pacifism, not a socialist at all.

I shake your hand firmly, firmly. Your Lenin to Clarens (Switzerland)

Written January 22, 1917
Sent from Zurich
First published from the manuscript