Letter to Inessa Armand, April 1, 1914

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Author(s) Lenin
Written 1 April 1914


MIA-bannière.gif
Published for the first time in the Fourth (Russian) Edition of the Collected Works. Sent from Cracow to Paris. Printed from the original.
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1976, Moscow, Volume 35, pages 135-136.
Keywords : Inessa Armand, Letter

Dear Friend,

I send you the draft Ukrainian appeal for Shakhtyorsky Listok,[1] and particularly ask you to be tactful in getting it adopted (not on my behalf, of course, and better not in your name either) through Lola[2] and two or three Ukrainians (of course, against Yurkevich and, if possible, without the knowledge of this disgusting, rotten nationalist philistine, who under the flag of Marxism is preaching the division of the workers by nationalities, a special national organisation of the Ukrainian workers).

You will understand why it is inconvenient for me to send such a draft in my own name. Lola wrote to me that he agrees with me against Yurkevich, but Lola is naĂŻve. The matter, however, must not drag on. It is terribly important that a voice should be heard from amongst the Ukrainian Social-Democrats for unity against dividing up the workers by nations. And now Shakhtyorsky Listok (received by me only today, Wednesday, April 1, as a supplement to the Sunday Put Pravdy) should immediately be made use of for this purpose.

Rewrite my draft (I agree to all changes, of course, if only there remains the direct protest against the division by nations); let Lola alone or with someone else, etc., accept and translate it into Ukrainian, and then send it through me to Put Pravdy in his name or (better) on behalf of a group (though it be of two or three people) of Ukrainian Marxists (still better, Ukrainian workers).

This should be done tactfully, quickly, against Yurkevich and without his knowledge, because this twister will make trouble.

(I have received your story of Stepanyuk’s report and the speech by Yurkevich; frankly speaking, I was angry with you—you didn’t understand what the essence of Yurkevich’s position was. And I again—I’m sorry—called you the Holy Virgin. Please don’t be angry, it was because I’m fond of you, because we’re friends, but I can’t help being angry when I see “something that recalls the Holy Virgin”.)

Reply as quickly as possible and say whether you can carry out this assignment properly, and how soon.

On Monday I sent you the collection and a note attached to Nadya’s letter. Have you received them?

All the best.

Yours,

V.U.

If my draft could be retold by a Ukrainian voice, and with a couple of vivid Ukrainian examples, that would be best of all!! I will bring pressure to bear on Put Pravdy.

  1. ↑ Shakhtyorsky Listok (Miners’ Leaflet)—appeared on March 16, 1914 as a supplement to No. 38 of Put Pravdy. It was published on the initiative of the miners themselves and on funds which they collected. The second Shakhtyorsky Listok came out in No. 77 of Put Pravdy, May 4, 1914.
    The Appeal to the Ukrainian Workers was printed in Ukrainian in No. 28 of Trudovaya Pravda on June 29, 1914 over the signature of Ocksen Lola. The MS. of Lenin’s draft appeal has not been preserved. The contents of the document published in Trudovaya Pravda justify the assumption that it was Lenin’s work.
    The “Editorial Comment on Ocksen Lola’s ‘Appeal to the Ukrainian Workers’” was written by Lenin (see present edition, Vol. 20, p. 494).
  2. ↑ Lola, 0. N. (Stepanyuk) (1884–1919)—Ukrainian worker and Bolshevik. Persecuted for his revolutionary activities, he emigrated after the 1905–07 revolution to Galicia, then to Paris.
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