# Letter to Shliapnikov (May 1916)

FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF THE WAR ERA
LETTERS OF V. I. LENIN
TO A. G. SHLIAPNIKOV AND A. M. KOLLONTAI
I9 I4 -I9 1 7
BERN - ZURICH
Prepared for publication and commented by
St. KRIVTSOV and K. I. SHUTKO
Foreword by L. KAMENEV

FOREWORD.
The letters of Vladimir Ilyich to comrades A. G. Shliapnikov and A. M. Kollontai cover the period from the first days of the war in 1914 to the first days of the revolution in 1917. In their totality, they provide an irreplaceable, vivid, passionately sketched chronicle of events characterizing the development of our party and the beginnings of the III International during the war period, in the manner inherent in Vladimir Ilyich.
Throughout this period, Vladimir Ilyich resided in Switzerland, in Zurich and Bern, Comrade Kollontai lived in Sweden, Norway, and America, while Comrade Shliapnikov traveled to Russia, returned to Scandinavia, and then went to Russia again. This explains the intensity of the correspondence, with the help of which Vladimir Ilyich tried to keep both comrades informed of the affairs of international socialism, through whom he maintained contact from Switzerland with left-wing groups in Sweden, Norway, America, and Russia.
It is necessary to recall the terrible detachment and isolation that befell Vladimir Ilyich at the beginning of the war. Vladimir Ilyich's closest associates, members of the Central Committee, members of the editorial board, members of the Bolshevik Duma faction (G. I. Petrovsky, A. E. Badaev, M. K. Muranov, F. I. Samoilov, N. R. Shagov, I. V. Stalin, Ya. M. Sverdlov, M. P. Tomsky, Sergo Ordzhonikidze, Timofei Spandaryan, L. B. Kamenev, etc., etc.) were all either in penal servitude or in remote corners of Siberia. Under these conditions, it was natural that Vladimir Ilyich had to value and vigorously "develop" any "connection" that gave even a faint hope of conveying his thoughts and directives to Russia or to foreign groups of "leftists." Comrade Shliapnikov, who left Petrograd at the very beginning of the war, and A. M. Kollontai, who was fluent in foreign languages, could serve as these necessary transmission points for Vladimir Ilyich, and therefore Vladimir Ilyich systematically took care to keep them informed.

LENINIST COLLECTION.
These letters, therefore, represent an essential commentary on Vladimir Ilyich's articles, collected now in the XIII volume of the Collected Works. But, in addition, these letters also expressed such aspects of Vladimir Ilyich's activities that, for various reasons, were not reflected in his public appearances. More than any other material available to us so far, the letters to A. G. Shliapnikov and A. M. Kollontai allow us to trace the breadth of Vladimir Ilyich's international interests, his participation in the formation of "left" groups in various countries, his connection with these groups, and the ways in which he influenced the processes of developing communist ideology in Europe and America. Finally, these letters give us an accurate picture of the external conditions of Vladimir Ilyich's literary and political work in 1914-1917 and lift the veil on the difficult conditions of his material situation (see Vladimir Ilyich's sparse, but shocking words at the end of letter No. 40).
Standing apart from the entire series of letters from the pre-revolutionary era are the last two letters (Nos. 43 and 44)—the first responses of Vladimir Ilyich to the first revolution of 1917, written on March 16 and 17 O.S. (March 3 and 4 N.S.). They already throw onto the scales of history those thoughts and that will that predetermined October.
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Vladimir Ilyich's letters to Comrades A. G. Shliapnikov and A. M. Kollontai were provided to the Institute by the named comrades. All of them were written in Vladimir Ilyich's own hand. Some of them have postscripts by Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya. To these letters, we have added two surviving drafts of his letters to the League for Socialist Propaganda in America and to Comrade G. Roland-Holst, found in Vladimir Ilyich's papers. These excerpts will help to understand the corresponding places in the letters to Shliapnikov and Kollontai.
A group of letters (7 in total) from among those handed over to the Institute by Comrades Shliapnikov and Kollontai is entirely devoted to the conflict associated with the publication of the journal "Communist." So far, this conflict has not yet been reflected in the literature. The editors of the "Collection" are aware that a number of materials relating to this conflict are in the hands of some comrades, primarily Comrade Zinoviev. We have therefore decided to single out this group of Vladimir Ilyich's letters in order to give the reader a comprehensive picture of this not insignificant episode in intra-party relations in one of the following "Collections," supplementing these letters with other materials.

L. B. KAMENEV.----PREFACE TO THE LETTERS.

All published letters have been prepared for publication and provided with notes by Comrade K. I. Shutko under the guidance of Comrade S. S. Krivtsov. For the commentary, Comrade Shliapnikov's response letters to Vladimir Ilyich were used, as well as his book "On the Eve of the Seventeenth Year" (two parts) and A. M. Kollontai's book "From My Life," Odessa, 1921.
L. Kamenev.

1.
Dear friend!
I arrived home yesterday evening from a lecturing trip and found your letter. A huge hello to you, and through you to all Russian friends! I gave Vandervelde's reply 1) for translation yesterday, and I have not yet seen the text. I will write about it as soon as I see it.

In my opinion, the most important thing now is a consistent and organized struggle against chauvinism, which has gripped the entire bourgeoisie and most of the opportunist (and those who reconcile themselves to opportunism—*tel* 2) Mr. Kautsky!) socialists. And in order to fulfill the tasks of this struggle, it is necessary first of all to fight against the chauvinism of one's own country—specifically, in our case, with Messrs. *à la* 3) Maslov 4) and Smirnov 5) (see "Russian Vedomosti" and "Russian Slovo"), whose "works" I have read, or Messrs. Sokolov 6), Meshkovsky 7), Nikitin 8) and others, whom you have seen or heard. Plekhanov, as you have probably already been written to, has become a chauvinist - a Frenchman. Among the liquidators, apparently, there is disarray *). Alexinsky, they say, is a Francophile. Kossovsky (Bundist, right-wing, I heard his report) is a Germanophile **). It seems that the middle line of the entire "Brussels bloc" of the liquidators with Alexinsky and Plekhanov will be an adaptation to Kautsky, who is now more harmful than anyone 9). His *sophie* is so dangerous and vile.

*) Our Parisian intellectuals (majoritized in the section by workers) have volunteered (Nikolai Vasilievich], Antonov, etc.) 10) and issued a stupid non-partisan appeal together with the socialist-revolutionaries. You were sent it.

**) Martov is the most decent of all in "Golos" 11). But will Martov stand firm? I do not believe so.
To A. Shliapnikov.
17/X—1914.