V. I. Lenin

To Comrade Loriot and all the French Friends Who Adhered to the Third International

October 28, 1919

Dear Friend, I thank you with all my heart for your letter, which is the
more precious because we very rarely receive any from you.

In France, as in England, victorious imperialism has not only
enriched a certain number of small capitalists, but it has also
been able to give alms to the upper grade of workers, the
aristocracy of the working class, by throwing it a few crumbs from
the imperialist exploit, won by the pillage of the colonies, and
so on.

But the crisis caused by the war is so serious that even in the
conquering countries the working masses are inevitably condemned
to appalling misery. From this springs the rapid growth of
communism and the increasing movement of sympathy towards the
Soviet power and towards the Third International.

It follows that you must maintain a long struggle still,
especially with the very refined opportunists of the Longuet type;
in the same way the experimenters and politicians will continue
making effort after effort to make words suffice where it is a
question of revolutionary tactics and of the dictatorship of the
proletariat. In fact, they will continue to deceive the
proletariat by means of new subterfuges, as Longuet, Merrheim and
company did regarding the 21st of July. They will adhere to their
old opportunist policy which consists in hindering the revolution
and in prejudicing it in all ways. In France and in England the
old rotten (pourris) leaders of the workers will make thousands of
such attempts.

But we are sure that the Communists who are working in close
contact with the proletarian masses will succeed in paralysing and
in breaking these attempts. The more the Communists are firm and
energetic in their attitude, the sooner they will gain a complete
victory.

With communist greetings,

N. Lenin