V. I.

Lenin

179

TELEPHONE MESSAGE TO K. B. RADEK AND G. Y. ZINOVIEV

By phone

Radek

and Zinoviev

7.50  p.m. 28.V.

I have just received a telegram from Berlin signed by
Zetkin , with the following text:

“ Under various pretexts, the Party C.C. has refused permission for the departure of the delegates authorised
by the opposition, Braß and Anna Geyer. That is why
I refuse to go until my associates’ trip is guaranteed.”

I request Radek and Zinoviev to let me know their opinion by telephone: isn’t it better to advise the Central
Committee to agree to the departure of Braß and Anna
Geyer? Or is it better for everyone, including myself, to
say absolutely nothing? [1]

28/ V.

Lenin

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Notes:
[1]
In a reply letter, the same day, May 28, 1921, K. B. Radek and
G. Y. Zinoviev advised Lenin to pass on Clara Zetkin’s
telegram to the Comintern Executive Committee. The latter rejected
Clara Zetkin’s demand. Later, after a conference with delegates
from the United Communist Party of Germany to the Third
Congress of the Comintern (before it opened), the Executive sent
the C.C. of the U.C.P.G. a telegram proposing that Anna Geyer
and Otto Braß should not be prevented from attending the
congress.

However, the two did not attend the congress. The C.C. of the
U.C.P.G. objected to their going to Moscow, apparently because
they approved the stand of Paul Levi, who had repeatedly
violated Party discipline and had been expelled fro:n the Party by
the C.C. on April 15, 1921 (see Note 119).