LETTER TO G. E. ZINOVIEV
[June 1920, no earlier than the 23rd] Comrade Zinoviev!
1) V. Herzog 1 is requesting that I write letters to the Left Independents in Germany. What is your opinion? I am inclined to comply.
2) He is also asking for funds for the Left-wing newspapers. That is a matter for you to decide. Please share your views with me. He is not seeking these funds for himself; of course, we cannot grant them to him personally.
3) Are there any concrete facts against V. Herzog? Apparently not. The price of independence for the German Independent Party led the Hamburg organization to demand that Herzog’s name be struck from the list of candidates for the Reichstag. The Hamburg organization refused. Right-wing Independents are viciously attacking him, spreading slander—this much is clear. We cannot remain silent and tolerate such behavior; it is a disgrace.
And yet, without presenting any concrete facts—why fear a wave of slander? //He turned out to be right a thousand times over when he opposed Levi 2\\
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Regarding Verscharfiing *
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4) Of the Left Independents within the German Social Democratic Party, only Herzog has remained steadfastly honest. There are, in fact, only five Leftists in the parliamentary group (the Independent Social Democrats in the Reichstag)—Brass, Daum, Stock, plus two others—making a maximum of ten members!!!
5) The Bulgarian, Goldstein, is an honest man. I knew him back in Zurich.
6) A resolution from the Executive Committee is needed: Complaints and petitions submitted to the Executive Committee of the Communist International may be filed by anyone—but they must, without fail, include a copy sent to the local party committee of the Comintern.
Lenin
*
escalation.

1920

1 Wilhelm Herzog was a representative of the left wing of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany. Following the split within the Independent Social Democrats in December 1920, Herzog joined the Communist Party of Germany alongside the left wing of the Independent Social Democrats. By the late 1920s, he had withdrawn from the communist movement. In the 1930s, he produced a number of literary and journalistic works, advocating democratic, anti-war, and anti-fascist positions.
From May to August 1920, as a guest of the Communist International, Herzog visited Soviet Russia and met several times with V. I. Lenin.
2 Paul Levi was a German social democrat.
At the Founding Congress of the Communist Party of Germany, he was elected to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Germany.
A delegate to the Second Congress of the Comintern, he served on the Commission for National and Colonial Questions. In 1920, he was elected to the Reichstag on the Communist Party of Germany ticket.
In February 1921, he resigned from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Germany, and in April he was expelled from the Communist Party for gross violations of party discipline. Later, he returned to the Social Democratic Party.
3 Otto Brass was one of the leading figures of the left wing of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany. At the Unification Congress of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany and the Communist Party of Germany, he was elected to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Germany.
Ernst Daumig was one of the founders of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany and served as its chairman from August 1919. In December 1920, together with the left wing of the Independents, he joined the Communist Party of Germany. He was a delegate to the Second Congress of the Comintern. In 1922, he returned to the Social Democratic Party of Germany.
Walter Stoecker was a leader of the left wing of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany. From 1920 onward, he was a member of the Communist Party of Germany, a delegate to the Second Congress of the Comintern, and repeatedly elected to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Germany. From 1924 to 1929, he served as Chairman of the Communist Parliamentary Group in the Reichstag; from 1929 to 1931, he was Secretary of the Parliamentary Group. In 1933, he was arrested by the Nazis and perished in the Buchenwald concentration camp.
4 Solomon Goldstein was a worker and a member of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party (the “Teshnaks”). Persecuted by the military authorities of Bulgaria, he emigrated to Paris, later moving to Switzerland, to Zurich, where he met with V. I. Lenin. In 1915, he joined the Bolshevik Party. In 1923, he came to Soviet Russia and accepted Soviet citizenship.