Letter to Alexander Shliapnikov, October 10, 1915

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October 10, 1915

Dear Friend,

Tomorrow we are publishing two issues of the Central Organ at the same time—No. 45–46 (devoted to the Zimmerwald Conference) and No. 47, containing news from Russia and the “theses” on tactics. These theses consist partly of replies to the questions which we touched on in our correspondence, and you in your talks with N. I., etc. I shall await your comments.

Have you received the Russian text of the pamphlet Socialism and War?

(In parenthesis: A. M. has sent in a criticism of the German text, and I replied to her in a detailed letter to America. If you are interested, ask her to send it to you. About her leaflet I wrote to her at Bergen, asking permission to make corrections. There is no reply. I am afraid I shall have to write to America, and that means a big delay.)

News from Russia testifies to the growing revolutionary mood and movement, though to all appearances this is not yet the beginning of revolution.

The most important thing for us now is to establish contacts and make them regular (this is quite possible by correspondence; consider whether one copy of the paper and manifestos cannot be sent in a thin binding). Let us hope that Belenin will succeed in organising this. Otherwise one cannot dream of any systematic, connected work.

Pay special attention to the thesis about the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies. One must be careful with this thing: 200 or 300 leaders might be arrested!! Except in connection with an insurrection, the “strength” of a Soviet of Workers’ Deputies is an illusion. One should not give way to it. All the best.

Yours,

Lenin

Could not one organise the transcribing of such articles in the Central Organ as “Eleven Theses” in chemical ink, for rapid delivery to Petersburg? Think it over well.