V. I.

Lenin

138

To:   A. A. JOFFE

3/VIII.

Comrade Joffe

Everything you write in your recent letters is the height
of absurdity.

To pursue the “former” policy of not breaking with the
Entente after the Onega events is ludicrous. [1] You can’t
restore chastity to a dame with a baby.

It is also absurd to apply the term intervention or aid
to the fact that we are continuing to manoeuvre, allowing
the Germans to take what the Entente has already taken ,
thereby making more difficult and delaying the
Anglo-American-Japanese throttling of Russia.

Without knowing the facts and without reflecting on them, you have fallen into error with the memorandum
and the rest. If you wish to insist on it, hand in your
resignation to the C.C. Until you do so, until the C.C. has accepted
your resignation, until a substitute has been sent to you,
and until his arrival, you, of course, as a Party member
(as you yourself write) will do your duty.

Gruss, Lenin