Letter to Joseph Stalin, December 14, 1912

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Author(s) Lenin
Written 14 December 1912


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First published in 1960 in Istorichesky Arkhiv No. 2. Sent from Cracow to St. Petersburg. Printed from a copy in Krupskaya’s handwriting.
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1977, Moscow, Volume 43, pages 316b-317a.
Collection(s): Istorichesky Arkhiv
Keywords : Joseph Stalin, Letter

To Vasilyev[edit source]

14/XII.

Dear Friend,

We learned today that the board of the co-operative[1] is, to be dissolved within a week. There is therefore very little time left. We earnestly ask you to take all steps to: 1) transfer Dyen[2] in good time to No. 5,[3] or at any rate make certain, concretely and with full guarantees, that the funds are in his hands. The financial crisis is terribly acute. Subscription money is now all we have. To leave this in unreliable hands would be a crime! 2) It is necessary at once to prepare (or to take those already prepared by us and sent long ago) articles and statements by the six co-operators for Dyen and publish them without delay. If we do not launch an energetic campaign for subscriptions, for donations, for support, we are lost. 3) Get Misha’s collegium[4] to pass a resolution against No. 16,[5] to counteract the liquidators’ resolutions. 4) See to it that the gathering of all (without exception) which has been finally decided upon is held—this is now trebly important. We are dragging Spitsa in too. 5) Get Vasilyev out as soon as possible, otherwise you won’t be able to save him, and he is needed and has already accomplished the main thing.

Please reply to this letter as soon as possible and especially about Pravda.[6] You wrote that “it smacks of a criminal act”.[7] We shall be finished if we do not turn over the whole business (i.e., the publishing and the funds) to No. 5.

Best regards,

Yours,[8]


P.S. The trip is possible only if undertaken immediately, if passports are obtained for everybody at once, without delay, if you see to it that there should be action, not promises. If it is postponed, they will all scatter and nothing will come of it. It is extremely important to get everyone to take part simultaneously, for otherwise again there will be no decisions, no organisation, only promises, only talk.


P.P.S. You must do your best to put off the question of No. 16 until 1913, many after all do not know the Party documents, and without them it would be wrong for people to decide such a question.

  1. ↑ Co-operative—code name of the Social-Democratic group in the Fourth Duma.
  2. ↑ Dyen (The Day)—code name of the newspaper Pravda.
  3. ↑ For reasons of secrecy the Social-Democratic deputies in the Fourth Duma were referred to by numbers. No. 1 was A. Y. Badayev; No. 3, R. V. Malinovsky (who later was exposed as a provocateur); No. 4, N. R. Shagov; No. 5, M. K. Muranov; No. 6, G. I. Petrovsky; and No. 7, F. N. Samoilov.
  4. ↑ Misha’s collegium—evidently code name for the St. Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP
  5. ↑ No. 16—Y. I. Jagiello.—Ed.
  6. ↑ This word is crossed out in the original and replaced with Luch for reasons of secrecy.—Ed.
  7. ↑ At the close of 1912 the business end of Pravda had been neglected by the official personnel to such an extent that there was reason to suspect embezzlement and other abuses.
  8. ↑ Signature illegible—Ed.
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