To the Caucasian Bureau

Dear comrades! We have received your statement. We do not know what the Bureau wrote. We will tell you what we know. At the time, we forwarded to you the resolutions of the conference of the southern committees and the reply from the participants of the conference of the 22. Let us make a small correction to your indication that the southern committees proposed to appoint for the group of 22

* The salutation and the last sentence are published for the first time. Ed.

from among its members the composition of the Bureau of the Majority Committees. They proposed to name comrades in general who, in the opinion of the participants of the conference of the 22, were suitable for the Bureau. From the reply of the participants of the conference of the 22 it is clear that they in no way considered themselves entitled to undertake the “appointment” and, in proposing a list, asked the committees to alter or supplement it at their own discretion. Surely you received that letter? This is also how the southern comrades saw the matter, as they did not agree with the proposed composition, and proposed Ryadovoi and Zemlyachka for the Bureau (a small remark: all the proposed candidates, except for 2, are in Russia, and one of them has just returned from Russia and is going there again). As far as we know, their choice coincided with the choice of the Caucasian Bureau.

But these persons did not consider themselves entitled to take any steps before the conference of the northern committees, which has already taken place. Here is its resolution*. Thus, (4 Caucasian committees + 3 southern + 6 northern), that is, 13 committees, have declared themselves in favour of a congress and the formation of a Bureau of the Majority Committees. As you see, everything is being done to make it possible for the Russian committees to come to an understanding. Besides these 13, other committees have also declared for a congress; the Central Committee itself admits that 16 committees have already declared for a congress, but states that now 19 committees are needed for a congress (this was stated to the Odessa Committee).

In any case, the Majority Committees must hasten to get organised. In a few days you will receive documents from which you will see what the beginning of the Central Committee's negotiations with the minority was like and how these negotiations ended: with the minority retaining autonomy of the technical bodies and the co-optation (as yet unofficial) onto the Central Committee of the three most rabid Mensheviks, whose co-optation onto the Central Committee the minority had been demanding from the very beginning. The Mensheviks have begun to run the show. The proof of this is the St. Petersburg affair.

The workers were straining to go straight to a demonstration, the Committee scheduled a demonstration for the 28th, but in many districts the organisers were Mensheviks (the St. Petersburg Committee considered it impos-

* The text of the resolution is not provided. Ed.

sible to remove the Mensheviks from the work) and they carried on an intense agitation against the Committee the whole time, the Central Committee gave the Committee no literature, the Mensheviks had literature, but they, of course, gave none to the Committee, and the Mensheviks made no preparations for the demonstration in their districts. Three days before the demonstration the Mensheviks wreck a meeting of the Committee and, taking advantage of the absence of 3 Bolsheviks, cause the demonstration to fail; 15,000 leaflets are burned; when the Bolsheviks in horror convene a new meeting, it is already too late, nothing can be done in time and the workers are almost absent from the demonstration. The indignation against the Committee is terrible, and so the Mensheviks, who arranged this whole foul business, are splitting away, drawing almost all the districts after them, and are receiving reinforcements in the form of literature, connections, and money. Now there are 2 committees in St. Petersburg. The same will undoubtedly be done in other cities as well. The Mensheviks are not scrupulous about the means they use and, taking advantage of the fact that they have seized control of the Central Committee, the Central Organ, and the Soviet, they will pursue a line that will not leave a trace of the majority. What a struggle of principles this is! The most brazen mockery of both the Party and principles. That is why we have begun to publish our own organ. There is a complete split in the Party and there can be no delay, unless one wants to reconcile oneself to the fact that Party spirit will be sacrificed to circle-spirit, that lack of principle will long reign in the Party or that it will be thrown back to Economism and *Rabocheye Dyelo*-ism.

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Written in December, not earlier than the 25th, Sent from Geneva

Published for the first time, from a copy handwritten by N. K. Krupskaya