V. I. Lenin

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

FROM THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE R.S.D.L.P.

To Odessa
From the foreign member of the C.C. and member of the Council, Lenin

Comrades, We have been informed privately that the majority of the Nikolayev Committee is accused of improper actions. 266 I should very much like to get a clear picture of what happened. Please reply to me immediately yourselves (and ask the comrades who are now on the Nikolayev Committee to reply to me immediately as well, by forwarding this letter of mine to them), answering the following questions:

1) Who exactly were the members of the Nikolayev Committee before the arrests of March 8-9? A complete list of conspiratorial names is necessary. What was the total number of members?

How many were of the minority and how many of the majority?

2) Were all the members of the Nikolayev Committee arrested on March 8-9? If not, how many remained? How many of the majority, how many of the minority?

3) Was there any formal decision of the Nikolayev Committee (before the arrests of March 8-9) concerning the appointment of candidates? If so, when was it adopted and

how many, and which, candidates were appointed?

4) Were there any arrests in the Nikolayev Committee after March 8-9? How did each of these arrests change the composition of the Nikolayev Committee?

5) Were Comrades S. and O. (members of the minority, with whom there was a conflict) members of the Nikolayev Committee before the arrests? Had they worked in Nikolayev previously?

If so, when, for how long, and in what capacity, in what group, on what work, etc.? When exactly did Comrades S. and O. arrive in Nikolayev?

6) How many days after the complete arrest (March 8-9) did Comrade N. arrive in Nikolayev?

7) What right did Comrade N. have to declare Comrades S. and O. members of the Nikolayev Committee, without the consent and without consulting the members of the Nikolayev Committee, Comrades V. and A.?

8) Did Comrades S. and O. make any claim to being members of the Nikolayev Committee without any appointment or co-optation? If they did, state in detail on what grounds?

9) What contacts were Comrades S. and O. supposed to hand over to Comrades V., N. and A.? Where did Comrades S. and O. get their contacts? Who gave them these contacts, and when?

10) Why did S. and O. not recognise Comrades V. and A. as the committee?

11) What official bodies of the Nikolayev Committee existed at the time of the arrests of March 8-9? i.e., what groups of agitators? organisers? propagandists? etc.? How many such groups? List them all without fail and state

how many members there were in each? How many of the minority and how many of the majority?

12) When was the group of agitators formed, whose meeting of 10 members adopted the resolution of April 20 in favour of the majority? before or after the arrests? Did its composition change after the arrests, and how exactly did it change? Did this group (or other groups) have a formal or tacitly recognised right to nominate candidates for membership of the local committee?

TO YE. D. STASOVA AND F. V. LENGNIK. JUNE 19, 1904

13) Do you know from where and with whose assistance (money, etc.) S. and O. were sent?