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Special pages :
Letter to Camille Huysmans, Earlier than March 28, 1912
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1976, Moscow, Volume 35, pages 31-32
Huysmans, Camille (b. 1871)âveternan = of the Belgian working-class movement; professor of philology and journalist. From 1904 to 1919 he was Secretary of the International Socialist Bureau of the Second International. During the imperialist world war of 1914â18 he adopted a Centrist position.
Dear Comrade Huysmans,
I thank you for sending me the Paris âresolutionâ.[1]
As I have already written to you, the Conference of the RSDLP condemned the liquidators and various groups abroad[2] which are introducing disorganisation into our Party and represent nothing in Russia. On the one hand, in Paris at the present time it is groups of this kind that have voted for the above-mentioned resolution. An old custom has it that all condemned persons have the right to inveigh against their judges for 24 hours. The persons who have signed the resolution have made excessive use of this right, and perhaps even abused it.
On the other hand, there are groups who were invited to the Conference but refused to take part in it. Now they are âprotestingâ and attempting to call another conference, appealing to the gods to witness that they stand for unity. A very original way to get unity! We shall see whether they will make any headway in Russia. It is just as difficult to carry out anything real in Russia as it is easy to vote for abusive resolutions in Paris. And, of course, Paris, Vienna, etc., do not possess the right to speak in the name of Russia.
In any case, the persons who signed the Paris resolution are in too much of a hurry when they begin to talk about a âsplitâ. In order to establish that a split exists, it must be established that there exist at least two Central Committees in Russia. So far this is not so.
As for Citizen Plekhanov, the CC informed him more than a month ago of the Conference resolutions. He has not vouchsafed a reply. Consequently, at the present time I am quite ignorant of whether Citizen Plekhanov has (and from which CC) any powers as a member of the International Socialist Bureau.
If you, dear comrade, are luckier than I, i.e., if you get any reply from Citizen Plekhanov, I hope you will be good enough to inform me.
With fraternal greetings,
Yours to command,
N. Lenin
- â Lenin refers to the slanderous resolution passed by the meeting of anti-Party groups in Paris on March 12, 1912 (see Note 19).
- â Reference is to the resolutions of the Prague Party Conference of 1912 on âLiquidationism and the Group of Liquidatorsâ and âThe Party Organisation Abroadâ (see present edition, Vol. 17 pp. 480â81, 484).