V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:PSS/v46;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

4. VIII. 02.

Dear B. N., I have received both your letters and was very glad to learn and see from them
that the imaginary “misunderstandings” really prove to be a storm in a teacup, as I already wrote to Povar (I wrote to him that I was sure of this).

Now you complain about our “agents”. And I felt like having a talk with you on this subject—it is a subject that is very much on my mind too. “Agents were recruited too lightly”... I know, I know it only too well, I never forget it, but the tragedy of our position (by God, it is a tragedy, that is not too strong a word!) lies precisely in the fact that we are compelled to act in this way, that we are powerless to overcome the whole mass of mismanagement that prevails in our work. I know perfectly well that there was no reproach to us in your words. But try to put yourself fully in our place and so adjust your attitude as to speak not of “your agents” but of “our agents”. You can adopt that attitude and (in my opinion) you must do so—only then will every possibility of misunderstanding be removed once and for all. Replace the second person by the first, keep an eye yourself on “our” agents, help to find, remove and replace them—and then you will speak not of the “repulsiveness” of our agents (such talk cannot but be misunderstood: it is taken as an expression of estrangement, it is taken in general, it is taken by members of our editorial board who have not had an opportunity to clear the matter up with you)—but of the shortcomings of our common cause. There is a mass of these shortcomings and they weigh upon me more and more heavily. The time is now approaching (I feel it) when the question will be posed bluntly: either Russia will produce her own people, will bring forward people who will come to our aid and put things right, or... And although I know and see that such people are already coming forward and their number is growing, the process is so slow and with such interruptions, and the “creaking” of the machine is so nerve-racking that... at times things become very hard.

“Agents were recruited too lightly.” Yes, but we do not create “human material” for ourselves, we take, and cannot but take, what is offered. Without that we cannot live. A man goes to Russia, says he wants to work for Iskra—an honest and devoted man. Well, of course he goes and becomes an “agent”, although none of us has ever handed out that title. And what means have we of checking up on “agents”, directing them, putting them in other places? Why, in the majority of cases we cannot even get letters from them—and in nine cases out of ten (I speak from experience) all our plans here regarding the future activity of an “agent” go to the devil the day after he crosses the frontier, and the agent works as God inspires him. Believe me, I literally lose all faith in plans, itineraries, projects, etc., made here, because I know beforehand that they will come to nothing. We are “compelled” to struggle like a fish against the ice, doing (for lack of other people) work that is not our own. Why, to appoint agents, to look after them, to be responsible for them, to unite and direct them in practice, one would have to be everywhere, to travel all over the place, to see everybody actually at work. For that we need a team of practical organisers and leaders, and we haven’t got them, i.e., of course we have them, but too few, too few, too few... That is the whole of our trouble. Why, when you look at our practical mismanagement, you often get so angry that you lose the capacity for work, and the only consolation is: that means it must be a vital cause, since it is growing and obviously growing despite all this chaos. That means it will ferment—and the wine will be good.

Do you now understand why a single remark by an Iskra-ist: “Your agents are a light-weight lot” is enough to drive us almost to despair? “Then replace the ‘light-weight’ lot yourselves as quickly as possible”—we want to say. Why, we say, we keep repeating, we even write in books, that the whole trouble is: “there are plenty of people and no people”, and yet we are constantly being twitted with this same lack of people. There is only one way out, a way out that is most urgently necessary, imperative in the most literal, not in the least exaggerated sense of the word—for time does not wait and the enemies are also growing, both Osvobozhdeniye, 190 and the Socialist-Revolutionaries, and all sorts of new Social-Democratic groups, from the frivolous whirly-gig Zhizn to the intriguing “Borba”* people. This way out is for the Russian Iskra-ists at last to get together, find people and take the affairs of Iskra into their own hands, for in truth: our land is great and abundant, but there is no order in it. They must find people, for people exist—but they must be guarded like the apple of one’s eye, not only in the direct sense, from the police, but also guarded for this urgent work, not allowed to be carried away by other tasks, useful in general but untimely. When we are compelled, owing to the complete lack of people, to clutch even at the “lightest-weight” people, it is not surprising that we cannot calmly look on while others put off our work “till later”.

If all the present, available Iskra-ists were to set to work at once, without delay, on the affairs of Iskra, on independently organising its transport, distribution, supply of material, etc., then we would already have a de facto Central Committee, a C.C. that would de facto direct the “agents” (for it is the C.C. and not the editorial board that should direct the agents) and manage the whole practical work.

It is said: if there are no people, where is the C.C. to come from? But we do find people, even if they are only light-weight. One weighty man among ten light-weight ones does not lead, but still the experience is not wasted. People learn by working: some drop out, others replace them, and once the work is started, others will be attracted ten times more easily to this well-organised work. If we were to form a C.C. now (not a formal one)—tomorrow it would become formal and would be drawing capable people out of every local organisation ten times more energetically than now. And it is only this “drawing out of local organisations” that can lead to such a state of affairs that these local organisations will be properly served.

That is why I am jealous, devilishly jealous, of Semyon Semyonovich, 191 and am agitated by every look (even a look) at an “outside person”. And I cannot feel otherwise, for if the Iskra-ists do not say: this is my affair, do not say it loudly, do not tackle this affair tenaciously, with hands and teeth, do not begin to abuse the others for lack of tenacity—if the Iskra-ists do not do this, it means they want to leave us “only with the light-weight people”, and that would be the beginning of the end.

You once said to me: abuse the Iskra-ists! and I replied: that is not for me but for you to do, for only those who take a practical part in the work itself and know its ins and outs have the right to abuse—if the Iskra-ists do not do this, it means they want to leave us “only with the light-weight people”, and that would be the beginning of the end.

Time to finish. I should very much like you and Povar to picture our position as concretely as possible and to enter into it, and to speak not of you but of we. In any case it is essential that Povar should write to us very often and write directly, and link us more closely with Semyon Semyonovich and Semyon Semyonovich with us.

As for your coming, if you have to stay on in Zurich a little longer, that is another matter. Why do you feel out of sorts? Are you quite well? Don’t you need a rest?

I keep on being slightly unwell, so that I cannot even think of travelling.

Write and tell me your opinion of Zernova and Sanin. About the latter I have heard something from various people and have gained the impression that he is not a worker, that he is too wild. And about Zernova, is it true that she is a bad person, i.e., not only that she is fond of “adventures” (that in itself is no great harm), but that she is unreliable as a person?*

I press your hand firmly. Yours, Lenin

* Members of the Borba group. Ed.