8.
Dear Friend!
Received your letter with the news of your departure (on Sunday], today is Friday) to Copenhagen.
Write (1) where your news and rumors are coming from, what did you transmit? From what sources? By whom transmitted?
(2) Do you now have your own sources? At least one address in St. Petersburg? Or not? Is there Shihor and chemistry with anyone, or with no one right now?
If there are no connections, can you establish them?
If not, let's think of how and through whom to connect.
Furthermore, did you correspond with Litvinov in London?
Belenin's speech at the
Swedish Congress turned out wonderfully 1).
Regarding the speech in Copenhagen (at the January 1915
conference), let's start corresponding right away 2).
Yours, Lenin 3).
1) At the congress of the Swedish Social-Democratic party, Shliapnikov, under his party pseudonym (Belenin), spoke on behalf of the Bolsheviks. The speech is given in his book "Eve of '17", Part I, Chapter X. See V. I. Lenin's letter No. 5 of 14/XI for his upcoming speech.
2) This refers to the socialist conference of neutral countries, held on January 17-18, 1915 in Copenhagen, in which only the Social-Democratic parties of Switzerland, Denmark and Holland participated. Vladimir Ilyich returns to this issue in letters 9, 10 and 11, decisively speaking out against participation in it.
3) Following the signature is the sender's address: Uljanow, Distelweg, 11. Bern e Suisse), written in Vladimir Ilyich's hand.
To A. Shliapnikov.
16/XII-1914]

9.
Dear Friend!
Received your two letters with news of your departure.
Those arguments that you gave against my suggestion (about the possibility of not going to Copenhagen, not leaving Stockholm) - fully convinced me.
I see that I did not take into account something really important.
If you were offended by me, then I am ready to offer all sorts of apologies and I ask you very much not to
be offended.
In fact, the village is now even more dangerous (and more inconvenient for
the cause) than the city.
In general, the situation is such that the struggle against Tsarism
now requires utmost caution - especially in terms of preserving
reserves.
To expend even greater forces immediately (after our immense
losses) means to exhaust ourselves completely for the moment of more decisive actions against Tsarism. Therefore
I very, very much ask you to double and triple the secrecy
and 1) either not go beyond writing out someone to Sweden,
2) or limit yourself to the briefest visit.
I would most of all ask you to limit yourself to the first and not do (if there is even a slight
possibility of that) the second.
It is better not to GO to the conference (16-I) of Scandinavians 1): right now we
with Gr. 2) have again and again discussed this.
The Swiss did not go.
So, an obvious intrigue of the Germans and Troelstra + Branting.
They will confuse as much as possible and will not allow your Swedish speech
to be said 3).
If there is not an absolute guarantee that you will be allowed
to say such a speech, it is better not to go at all.
To A. Shliapnikov.
Jan. 3, 1915.