Letter to Avrom Merezhin, Between June 21 and July 26, 1920

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The letter to Merezhin, a member of the Central Bureau of Jewish Sections under the CC, RCP(b), was written by Lenin in connection with the preparation of draft theses on the national and colonial questions for the Second Congress of the Communist International.

The “information of Rafes” refers apparently to a letter of M. G. Rafes, “Defence of the rights of national minorities in regions with a mixed population (an assessment of the experience of Ukrainian-Jewish and Polish-Jewish relations)”, = sent by him to Lenin on June 21, 1920.

Comrade Merezhin

I think an additional point should be formulated (on the basis of the information of Rafes and others) roughly as follows:

The experience of proletarian dictatorship in the Ukraine, especially in those parts of it where there is a mixed population, and also in Byelorussia (and+? +? Hungary?), has shown that national strife not only in the form of pogroms, of which not even the most democratic bourgeois republic is free, but also in the form of petty but all– pervading squabbling is practically disappearing. The reasons for this: 1) the interest, attention, and-all the intellectual powers of the workers and working peasants are wholly engrossed in the great struggle with the bourgeoisie, a struggle that unites the working people of all nations; 2) the dictatorship of the proletariat suppresses the “freedom” of action of the bourgeoisie, petty bourgeoisie and bourgeois intelligentsia, which freedom signifies the use of their forces, influence and knowledge by the bourgeoisie to inflame the class struggle.

Cannot 2 or more concrete facts be added?