Letter to Grigori Zinoviev, After September 21, 1915

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I am sending you Axelrod,[1] Neue Zeit (don’t lose it and don’t give it to anybody) and No. 1 of the Bulletin.[2] I am waiting for the German pamphlet.

The letter to the Japanese is no good as it is, in my opinion. The tone is for a break. If there is to be a break, it is not for this reason. Either send this in your own name, or we shall alter it completely (in a tone of friendly exhortation and discreet intimation of their error).

I am sending you Radek’s letter (return it). He is naïve to the point of holiness. Grimm is a scoundrel who has to be closely watched. (To this day I have not been able to get our Resolutionsentwurf!!!)

I am enclosing Kamenev’s letter. I have answered him, pointing out that the situation is serious (spoilt) and must be seriously rectified.

Write the editorial for the Central Organ, but not more than 10,000 ems. (No room for more!) It must include a slashing criticism of the Organising Committee’s leaflet (3.IX.1915, “The Tasks of the Russian Proletariat”) with the slogan (liberal) of Constituent Assembly. For our 3 pillars, against the Cadets, against the chauvinist revolutionaries and for the international revolution of the proletariat.[3]

Wait a day or two (don’t write about Russia in the CO yet).

Tomorrow I shall send you “The Tasks of the Russian Proletariat” and maybe my own draft.

Best regards,

Lenin

  1. ↑ The idiot! “Internationalisation of tactics”=internationalisation of labour legislation!! This is what Martushka had been driving at in Nashe Slovo, but far more cleverly. I should like to show Axelrod up properly in Kommunist. —Lenin
  2. ↑ This refers to the Bulletin of the International Socialist Commission in Borne, the executive organ of the Zimmerwald organisation. The Bulletin appeared from September 1915 to January 1917 in English, French and German. Altogether 6 numbers were issued. The I.S.C. Bulletin No. 1 published the Manifesto of the International Socialist Conference in Zimmerwald and the official report on the conference.
  3. ↑ This paragraph is crossed out in the manuscript.—Ed.