Letter to Grigori Zinoviev, July 4, 1916

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I was ever so glad to get your plan of the collection.[1] You shouldn’t grudge the 2,000 frs., really (it will bring in some money, and the money will be ours, not the kulaks’). It’s not worth quarreling and upsetting ourselves over such perfectly lousy people. These people will be wiser after the lesson, I assure you.

I quite agree with you that Bukharin (and Yuri) should formally be asked to immediately give a discussion article on self-determination. We shall publish it. Will you write to them? I’m so furious now with Bukharin that I cannot write. Write at once. To Bukharin in addition: about Höglund and the Norwegian strike.

But we must fix the size as strictly as possible both for ourselves and for others. Essential!!

I quite agree also that Radek’s theses should go in.

I should like to write about self-determination—on Junius—and about defeatism (+“imperialism and opportunism”+on the Chkheidze Duma group).

We must get Varin’s article immediately. Ought we not get him to write another one about Ireland? I think we should!

George and Tinsky (the latter provisionally) should be commissioned to write something: we must encourage the youth.

On the Internationale preferably 3–4 short articles with a brief introduction from the editors.[2]

Let’s make exact arrangements as to length.

Best regards!

Lenin

  1. ↑ This refers to Sbornik Sotsial-Demokrata.
    Yuri—G. L. Pyatakov—wrote an article “The Proletariat and the Right of Nations to Self-Determination in the Era of Finance Capital”, but owing to its erroneous theses it was not published in the collection.
    The Norwegian strike, which started on June 6, 1016, was dealt with in Arvid Hansen’s article “Certain Features of the Contemporary Labour Movement in Norway” published in No. 2 of Sbornik Sotsial-Demokrata.
    In this letter Lenin refers to his articles “The Discussion on Self-Determination Summed Up” and “The Junius Pamphlet”, which were subsequently included in No. 1 of Sbornik, and the articles “Imperialism and the Split in Socialism” and “The Chkheidze Faction and Its Role” published in No. 2.
    Among the articles received by the editors for No. 3 of Sbornik and listed on the cover of No. 2 was the article “What Is Happening Among the Troops” by Strannik (Varin).
  2. ↑ This refers to articles for Sbornik Sotsial-Demokrata concerning the activities of the Internationale group in Germany. No. 2 of Sbornik carried two articles on this subject: “Illegal Newspapers of the German Left Opposition” and “Current Events of the Revolutionary Struggle in Germany”.