LETTER TO Y.A. BERZIN1

October 18, 1918

October 18, 1918.

Dear Comrade Berzin!

I have heard out Chernykh and see that your affairs are in a bad state.

Firstly, you need to take your treatment seriously.

NB If the doctors said to stay in bed, do not take a single step out of the sanatorium.

NB If the doctors said "2 hours of work," do not work a minute longer.

You can freely refuse to receive visitors, allocate 1/4 hour for reports on "matters" and discussions about "matters," and 1 3/4 hours for directing agitation.

Appoint responsible persons:

Peluso2

+ an Italian

+ a German (Has Axelrod not been to see you? He should be beaten!! You should have invited Kasher or Schneier from Zürich, found leftists through them, and appointed one of [them]).

Hold them accountable: 2-3 leaflets and1* pamphlets per week.

Provide them with topics and materials for compilation.

Distribute the work among the Russian fools: send us clippings, not random issues (as these idiots have been doing so far). Appoint specific individuals responsible for this (Leiteizen and others) and we will keep them in line. Otherwise, you do not have any responsible people.

Articles from Volksrecht3 and other newspapers, which wrote that Soviets are not for Europe (according to Chernykh), have not been sent here. Who is to be flogged for this? You must appoint responsible persons.

People like Guilbeaux, Hubacher, etc., from Geneva, Italians from Lugano, and Germans from Zürich (not like Platten, but better: workers from the Zürich left) should visit you 2-3 times a week. Appoint agents from among them, pay generously for their trips and work.

Spend minimal attention on official matters.

Give maximum attention to publications and illegal trips. I am sending you pamphlets: immediately order (and urgently) translations into all languages.

Publish. Publish. Publish.

Greetings!

Yours, Lenin.

Partially published — Pravda, No. 17, January 21, 1925.

Fund 2, op. 1, file 27144 — autograph.

1* Corrected from: "or."

1 The published letter supplements the recommendations given by V.I. Lenin to Y.A. Berzin on October 15, 1918 (see: Lenin, V.I. Collected Works, Vol. 50, pp. 192-193).

2 In the letter to Y.A. Berzin dated October 15, 1918, V.I. Lenin proposed: "Peluso may (and should) write 3 pamphlets per week (on all topics, compilations based on our newspapers — you provide the topics and a list of articles to be compiled)" (Lenin, V.I. Collected Works, Vol. 50, p. 193).

3 "Volksrecht" ("The People's Right") — a daily newspaper, the organ of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland, published in Zürich since 1898.