2

LETTER TO O. V. KUUSINEN
AND COMMENTS ON THE DRAFT “THESES ON THE ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF COMMUNIST PARTIES, ON THE METHODS AND CONTENT OF THEIR WORK”
To Comrade Kuusinen—Urgent.
Address: Among the Finnish Communists or at the Comintern. 10/VI.
Comrade Kuusinen!
I have read your article (three chapters) and your theses with great pleasure. I am enclosing my comments on the theses.
I advise you: immediately find a German comrade—truly German—who can revise the German text of both the article and the theses. Perhaps this comrade could also, at your request, deliver your article as a report to the Third Congress (it would be far more convenient for the German delegates to hear a German speaker).9
My recommendation: strike out the concluding section of the theses.
Much more detailed discussion is needed regarding propaganda and agitation—especially concerning the press, but also concerning oral propaganda.
In my view, you must absolutely take on the task of delivering a report at this Congress. I will write to Zinoviev about this today.
Best regards!
Yours, Lenin

Theses (Thesis 6 or) §6, paragraph 2: the final sentence should read:
“…inevitably inherits this tendency, to a certain extent, from… the milieu…”
And the following sentence should read:
“…The Communist Party must overcome this tendency through systematic, tenacious organizational work—and through repeated improvements and corrections…”
(Thesis 7 or) §7:
It is necessary to elaborate more fully on the fact that, in most legal parties in the West, this very thing is precisely lacking: there is no day‑to‑day work—no revolutionary work—on the part of every party member.
This is the fundamental evil.
To change this—that is the greatest difficulty.
And yet, this is the most important task.
§10.
Much more thoroughly.
More details.
Examples.
The role of the newspaper.
“Our” newspaper, in comparison with the ordinary capitalist newspaper.
The work required for “our” newspaper.
Example: Russian newspapers of 1912–1913.
The struggle against bourgeois newspapers; the exposure of their venality, their lies, and so forth.
The distribution of leaflets.
Agitation in the home.
Sunday outings, and so on.
Far, far more detailed treatment is needed.
§11—again, much, much more detailed.
§13. The presentation of reports and the discussion of reports within “cells.”

III CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL
Reports on hostile organizations—and especially on petty-bourgeois organizations (the Labour Party*, socialist parties, etc.).
A more detailed examination of the duties incumbent upon the proletariat—and upon non-proletarian strata of the working people—both among the unorganized masses and among those organized within yellow unions (including the Second and Second-and-a-Half Internationals).
§§26 and 27.
This does not belong here.
This is not an “organizational question.”
It would be better to develop this topic into a separate article for the “Communist International”—perhaps entitled “Organizational Questions in Revolutionary Periods,” or something along those lines.
Or: “On the Question of the Impending Revolution and Our Corresponding Tasks” (drawing on both Russian and Finnish experience).
Written June 10, 1921.
First published in 1958 in the journal Problems of Peace and Socialism, No. 3.

Printed from manuscript.

Translated from German.

* – The Labour Party. Ed.