V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:PSS/v46;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

As a representative of the Central Committee, I consider it necessary to point out to the Editorial Board that there are no grounds whatever for raising the question of legality, etc., on the basis of heated speeches at lectures or on the basis of literary polemics. The Central Committee, as such, has not the slightest doubt—

* — Congratulations! Ed.

** — This letter is an insertion in the draft of a letter from F. V. Lengnik, sent by him in reply to a letter from
Yu. O. Martov. Ed.

TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE PARTY COUNCIL, G. V. PLEKHANOV. JANUARY 23, 1904

—and never has doubted the legality of the Editorial Board, which was co-opted, as is quite rightly stated in No. 53 of *Iskra*, in full accordance with Paragraph 12 of the Party Rules. The Central Committee would be prepared to state this publicly, if necessary. If the Editorial Board sees in the polemics an attack upon itself, it has full and complete opportunity to reply. Is it reasonable to get excited over certain sharp expressions (from the Editorial Board’s standpoint) in the polemics, when nowhere is there any mention either of a boycott or of any other disloyal (from the Central Committee’s standpoint) mode of action? Let us remind the Editorial Board that the Central Committee has repeatedly expressed its complete readiness, and has directly proposed, to publish immediately both Dan’s letter and Martov’s “Once Again in the Minority,” without being in the least disconcerted by the sharpest attacks contained in these works. In the opinion of the Central Committee, it is necessary to grant all Party members the fullest possible freedom to criticise the centres and to attack the centres: the Central Committee sees nothing terrible in such attacks, provided they are not accompanied by a boycott, by withdrawal from positive work, and by the cutting off of funds. The Central Committee declares even now that it would publish criticism directed against itself, seeing in the free exchange...*

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Written on January 8, 1904
in Geneva (local time)

First published in 1929
in the *Lenin Miscellany* X

Printed from the manuscript