We have just received a letter with the plan of Brother Pakhomiy, Yablochkov, and Bruskov. We cannot hide that we not only cannot agree with any part of this plan (although one can still argue about the first part), but we were simply amazed by it, especially the second part: 1) for everyone to go to Petersburg, 2) to establish a district organ of the Russian organization of "Iskra." We are so shocked that we apologize in advance if in the following exposition a too harsh word slips through.

This is something incredible! After a whole year of desperate efforts, we have only just begun to group the staff of leaders and organizers in Russia for this enormous and most urgent task (this staff is still terribly small, for besides the three mentioned individuals, we have only 2-3 people, and for an all-Russian organ, several dozen such energetic collaborators are required, understanding this word not only in a literary sense), and suddenly to scatter this structure and return to the old artisanal work! I cannot imagine a more suicidal tactic for "Iskra"! A district organ like the existing "Southern Worker" means to once again spend a huge amount of resources and people on the editorial board, technical matters, distribution, and so on, and

* Postscript to the letter by N. K. Krupskaya. Ed.

for what? For five issues in 1.5 years! And even this, it will never achieve in 1.5 years now, because "The Southern Worker" had the advantage that it was created by a Committee at the peak of its development, i.e., a whole organization. You are only three for now.

For the sake of, instead of fighting against the narrow-mindedness that makes a Petersburger forget about Moscow, a Muscovite about Petersburg, a Kievite about everything except Kiev, instead of getting people used to (it takes years to get them used to this if we want to form a political party worthy of the name) conducting an all-Russian affair, - instead of this, to encourage again the artisanal work, local narrow-mindedness, and the development, instead of all-Russian, of some Poshekhonie social-democracy, - this will be nothing but Poshekhonism, it cannot be anything else. From experience, we have seen how few forces we have for forming a truly political organ, how few collaborators, reporters, people with political connections, few practitioners of technology and distribution.

There are few of them for the whole of Russia, and we will still divide them and abandon the already started and needing comprehensive support all-Russian enterprise for the sake of founding a new local one. In the best case, in the case of brilliant success of this new plan, this will lead to the lowering of the type of Russian social democracy, to the lowering of its political significance, because there cannot be a "local" political newspaper, as the general political section will always suffer in a local organ. You write: "mass" organ. We completely refuse to understand what kind of beast this is. Could it be that Brother Pakhomiy has already started thinking that it is necessary to lower the level, from the vanguard to the masses, to write simpler and closer to life?? Is our goal to approach the "masses," rather than to raise this already stirring mass to the level of an organized political movement? Do we lack letters from factories and plants, rather than political exposures, political knowledge, political generalizations? And here, for the expansion and deepening of our political generalizations, let's divide the common cause into district affairs! And in addition to the political lowering, they will inevitably technically lower the cause with the plan of the district organ. By combining all forces on "Iskra," we can set up (this is already proven after a year of experience) a monthly newspaper with genuinely political material, while with a district organ, one cannot think of even 4 issues a year. And if we do not impatiently jump from one plan to another and are not discouraged by temporary failures and the slow growth of the all-Russian enterprise, then it would be entirely possible to achieve a biweekly organ within 0.5-1 year (which we are already persistently considering). Of course, we assume that Brother Pakhomiy, Yablochkov, and Bruskov are on the old path, approving both the direction and the organizational plan of "Iskra," - if, however, they have changed their views on these questions, then, of course, the conversation is quite different. Generally, we are positively puzzled why these individuals have lost faith in this plan and so quickly? (because they cannot fail to see that the new plan destroys the old one). Because of transportation? But attempts to arrange their own way have been made only once so far, and this attempt has not yet led to complete failure, - and we should not abandon the cause after 2-3 failures. Have these individuals become more sympathetic to publishing in Russia rather than abroad? But they know that for the former, everything has been done and up to 1000 rubles spent, and there are no results yet. We must say that we consider any plan for the publication of any district or local organ by the Russian organization of "Iskra" absolutely incorrect and harmful. The "Iskra" organization exists to support and develop the latter and to unite the party, not to divide the forces, of which there is already more than enough without this organization. Regarding the trip of all to Petersburg, we will only say that we have very few workers like P., B., and Brother Pakhomiy, and they need to be preserved. And the danger of a general fiasco when living in one place is a hundred times greater. If they find that one person there is not enough (they can judge this better), then let them add to him the one who becomes free in the autumn (Brother Pakhomiy), but not both. And then, for the sake of their safety and for the sake of unifying work, let them not forget the extreme desirability of changing their place of residence from time to time. If, finally, it were possible to win the Committee in Petersburg, then, of course, it must be made to take "Iskra" with both hands, and to increase its frequency, and to fight against all kinds of new artisanal enterprises.

Artisanal work is a much more evil enemy than "economism," for the deepest roots of economism, according to our deepest conviction, lie precisely in artisanal work. And there will never be a political (not only in words but in practice, i.e., directly influencing the government and preparing for a general assault) movement until we overcome this artisanal work and undermine all credit to it.

If St. Petersburg bought 400 copies of "The Southern Worker," the "Socialist" group undertook to distribute 1000 copies of "Iskra." Let them arrange for the distribution of such a quantity, let them arrange for it to have a detailed Petersburg section (if necessary, it will make a special supplement), and then the same goal will be achieved, which has overshadowed all other tasks of conquering Petersburg for you. We consider it necessary to remind you that all "practitioners" agree that "The Southern Worker" does not have an advantage over "Iskra" in terms of accessibility to workers, so this argument also falls away. It is absurd and criminal to divide forces and means, - "Iskra" is sitting without money, not a single Russian agent brings it a penny, and yet each one starts a new enterprise, requiring new means. All this testifies to a lack of perseverance. One must be more patient: through our plan, we will achieve our goal, even if not soon, but what can be expected from the implementation of the proposed plan is evident from the deplorable memory of the experience of "The Workers' Banner." Our acquaintances took up their plan so hastily that Yablochkov, contrary to the agreement, went to St. Petersburg, abandoning Odessa, where the presence of our agent is necessary. We demand that the new plan be abandoned. If our arguments seem unconvincing, let them postpone any new plans until our congress, which we will convene if necessary, when things somehow get on track. As for popular literature, the idea is to expand the publication of popular brochures. This letter expresses the opinion not only of our group but also of the "Emancipation of Labor" group.