V. I.

Lenin

Dear Comrade Olga, Many thanks for your letter on affairs in your local party.
You are not alone, to tell the truth, in having bouts of
“pessimism”. [1] The party here is opportunist through and
through, a benevolent society for petty-bourgeois officials.

Even the alleged Left leaders (like Nobs and Flatten) are
no use at all : the said two in particular. [2] You can’t do
anything without access to the masses. But while taking
care not to entertain excessive hopes, we should not fall into
pessimism either: this is an important moment, and if we
helped ever so little (a couple of leaflets or the like), that
would also be something . Even that will not be lost quite
without trace.

I am very glad that you have the intention to help in every possible way in the distribution of the
leaflet. [3]
Please, don’t forget to destroy all our correspondence.

When is your cantonal congress of the Socialist Party?
I sent a draft resolution to Abramovich. Has he sent it on
to you? Do you know anything (apart from what was in
Volksrecht ) about the congress of the Zurich party at
Toss? [4]

Who reported on the Olten meeting on
Feb. 1? [5] Only
Guilbeaux and Co.? They got the jitters, you know! They
failed to understand the task, and got scared!

I cannot lecture in French.

Every good wish of success. Regards to Vyacheslav
Alexeyevich.

Yours, Lenin

And how are things with the referendum? How many signatures? Are they still collecting
them? [6]

---
Notes:
[1]
Sophia Ravich wrote to Lenin about the opportunism of the
Geneva Social-Democratic organisation, among whose members
a handful of Bolsheviks spread internationalist ideas.

[2]
A reference to the attitude adopted by E. Nobs and F. Platten
during the sharpening of the struggle within the Swiss
Social-Democratic Party on the question of militarism and the
behaviour of Social-Democrats in Parliament on the question of
war credits. Thus, for instance, E. Nobs was against the
motivated referendum staged by the Left on an urgent convocation of a
congress. Both took part in a private meeting of Centrists held
on February 3, 1917 (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 283–86).

[3]
A reference to the leaflets published in Zurich by a group of Swiss,
German, Polish and Russian supporters of the Zimmerwald Left.
Lenin took part in editing Bulletin No. 1, organised its
translation into foreign languages and did everything to circulate it.

[4]
The Cantonal Congress of the Zurich Social-Democratic organisation in Toss was held on February 11 and 12, 1917. The Party
organ, Volksrecht No. 36, of February 12, 1917, dealt with it in an
editorial, entitled “Der Parteitag in Töss” (Party Congress at Toss).

Two draft resolutions on the war question were tabled at the
Congress: =

1) that of the minority of the war commission drawn up by
the Right in a spirit of social-chauvinism; and =

2) the Centrist draft
of the majority. The Congress adopted the latter by 93 to 65. To
prevent the social-chauvinist resolution from going through, the
Left voted for the majority resolution but tabled Lenin’s “
Proposed Amendments to the Resolution on-the War Issue”, which
was adopted by the Congress.

[5]
On February 1, 1917, a meeting of some members of the
Zimmerwald Conference was held at Olten with the participation of
organisations invited to attend a conference of socialists from the
Entente countries (March 1917) (see present edition, Vol. 23,
p. 284).

[6]
The referendum on the convocation of an extraordinary congress
of the Swiss Social-Democratic Party to discuss the attitude to
the war was announced by the Swiss Left-wing Social-Democrats
in connection with the Executive’s decision to postpone the
congress indefinitely. Despite the struggle started by the leaders of
the party, R. Grimm, J. Schmid, F. Schneider, H. Greulich and
G. Müller (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 283–86), against the
referendum, it was enthusiastically welcomed by the workers
of German– and French-speaking Switzerland. But the party
congress was held only in June 1917.