Letter to Eugen Varga, March 8, 1922

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Author(s) Lenin
Written 8 March 1922


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First published in part in 1923 in German in Jahrbuch für Wirtschaft, Politik und Arbeiterbewegung 1922–23, Hamburg. Published in full in 1945 in Lenin Miscellany XXXV. Printed from the original. Translated from the German.
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1976, Moscow, Volume 45, page 504b.
Keywords : Eugen Varga, Letter

Written in reply to Y. S. Varga’s request for an article in the Comintern’s Jahrbuch für Wirtschaft, Politik und Arbeiter- bewegung.

At the top of Varga’s letter is this note by Lenin: “To the archives. Replied 9/III.1922.”

8/III.

Dear Comrade Varga:

I am ill. I am quite incapable of undertaking any work at all.

If you compile a collection (of quotations from my works or parts of them) I do not, of course, object to this, but you must state that you are responsible for the selection.

Here is my request:

1) quote as fully as possible my works of the spring of 1918 against the “Leftists”, about “state capitalism” and the difficulties of administration, as a specific task;

2) (quote more fully) my pamphlet against “Infantile Disorder” (general rules of tactics and strategy)[1] ;

NB 3) never quote my speeches (their text is always bad, always imprecisely conveyed); quote only my works.

Best regards,

Yours,

Lenin

P.S. Nor can I promise an afterword. You will declare yourself responsible for the selection of the quotations.[2]

  1. ↑ A reference to the book, “Left-Wing” Communism—an Infantile Disorder (see present edition, Vol. 31, pp. 17–118).—Ed.
  2. ↑ See also this volume, Document 693.
    On Lenin’s proposal, Y. S. Varga made a selection of extracts from Lenin’s works which was published in German under the title. Die neue ökonomische Politik, under the name N. Lenin, in Jahrbuch fur Wirtschaft, Politik und Arbeiterbewegung 1922/23, Hamburg, S. 328–344. In his introduction, Varga wrote that he was guided by Lenin’s directives as set out in letters addressed to Varga.
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