Dear L. B.! Before we quarrel (and I hope we won't) — I'm joking — over some "particular and unpleasant" matter, let's chat about something else.

I'm enclosing a letter from MСB. Will КЗО take it on or not? If yes, let them inform me formally. If no, return the letter.

Tell КЗО: a gendarmerie communication has been stolen (or otherwise obtained) to the effect that a certain Polovsky, who left Russia legally, will be arrested upon his return.

If possible, let КЗО inform everyone and try to find Polovsky. I know nothing else about it.

I've written to *Pravda* about Alexinsky and asked them to send his letter*. Regarding Mr. Bogdanov's lies, I've sent an angry letter and an ultimatum to publish it. We'll see. Otherwise I'll go to *Prosveshchenie*. ((I've also written to *Prosveshchenie* about your article: I'm entirely for it — on the matter of the liberals' meeting and *Pravda* with *Luch*)).

I advise you to put the question to Alexinsky honestly and directly, on a comradely basis. You're going to consult against Lunacharsky? Bon! Mais alors de deux choses une**: either you rise up in print against both the philosophical (c'est déjà fait***) and the otzovists wing of *Vpered*, you declare — there was in this group both a philosophically reactionary and a politically anarchist tendency. I (Alexinsky) am glad to be rid of them.

Then we can go into an honest bloc. Without recalling past squabbles, we'll be pleased to have a collaborator (one hundred times less valuable than Plekhanov) in both *Pravda* and *Prosveshchenie*.

* See the present vol., pp. 190-191. Ed.

** — Splendid! But then one of two things. Ed.

*** — this has already been done. Ed.