V. I.

Lenin

670

To:   Y. S. VARGA [2]

8/III.

Dear Comrade Varga:

I am ill. I am quite incapable of undertaking any work at all.

If you compile a collection (of quotations from my works
or parts of them) I do not, of course, object to this, but
you must state that you are responsible for the selection.

Here is my request:

1) quote as fully as possible my works of the spring
of 1918 against the “Leftists”, about “state capitalism”
and the difficulties of administration , as a specific task;

2) ( quote more fully) my pamphlet against “Infantile
Disorder” (general rules of tactics and strategy) [1]

;

NB
3) never quote my speeches (their text is always bad,
always imprecisely conveyed); quote only my works .

Best regards, Yours, Lenin

P.S. Nor can I promise an afterword. You will declare yourself responsible for the selection of the
quotations. [3]

---
Notes:
[1]
A reference to the book, “ Left-Wing” Communism—an Infantile Disorder (see present edition, Vol. 31, pp. 17–118).— Ed.

[2]
Written in reply to Y. S. Varga’s request for an article in the

Comintern’s Jahrbuch für Wirtschaft, Politik und Arbeiter- bewegung .

At the top of Varga’s letter is this note by Lenin: “To the archives. Replied 9/III.1922.”

[3]
See also this volume, Document 693.

On Lenin’s proposal, Y. S. Varga made a selection of extracts from Lenin’s works which was published in German under the title. Die neue ökonomische Politik , under the name N. Lenin , in Jahrbuch fur Wirtschaft, Politik und Arbeiterbewegung 1922/23 , Hamburg, S. 328–344. In his introduction, Varga wrote that he was guided by Lenin’s directives as set out in letters addressed to

Varga.