Letter to Karl Radek, September 30, 1910

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Author(s) Lenin
Written 30 September 1910


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First published in 1930 in Lenin Miscellany XIII. Sent from Paris to Leipzig. Printed from the original.
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1971, Moscow, Volume 36, pages 172-173
Keywords : Karl Radek, Letter

September 30, 1910

Werter Genosse,

Excuse me for this delay in replying to your two letters. I returned to Paris only the other day,[1] and was unable to reply earlier.

As regards an article for the CO on the disarmament resolution of the Copenhagen Congress, it was ordered (back in Copenhagen) and written by another contributor. Unfortunately, your proposal came too late.

As to inserting your article in the next issue, I must have a talk with Warski and another member of the editorial board. I shall do this.

Concerning your leading articles in Leipziger Volkszeitung, I must say that the question is very interesting, but I have not studied it at length, and it seems to me that theoretically you are not quite right. The criterion of what is “impracticable within the framework of capitalism” should not be taken in the sense that the bourgeoisie will not allow it, that it cannot be achieved, etc. In that sense, very many demands in our minimum programme are “ impracticable”, but are none the less obligatory.

Then, when mentioning the Inaugural Address of the International, you omit from your quotation Marx’s words about the principles of relations between states.[2] Is not that a “minimum programme” in foreign policy? And finally, why do you say nothing about Engels’s “Kann Europa abrĂźsten?”[3] ?

You are quite right, in my opinion (all this is my personal opinion, of course), that it is impossible to leave out the demand to arm the people. Wouldn’t it be more correct to concentrate your fire not on the fact that Abrüstung[4] is written into the resolution, but that Volkswehr[5] is not?

I want to reply to Martov and Trotsky in Neue Zeit. I have already written to Kautsky and asked him whether they would carry it and how long it could be. It is also necessary of course to reply in Leipziger Volkszeitung.

Best wishes,

Yours,

Lenin

  1. ↑ On September 28, 1910, Lenin returned to Paris from Copenhagen where he had stayed after the Eighth International Socialist Congress of the Second International and from where he had gone to Stockholm to visit his mother, M. A. Ulyanova, and his sister, M. I. Ulyanova.
  2. ↑ Karl Radek, in quoting the Inaugural Address of the Working Men’s International Association, omitted the words of Marx to the effect that in the event of it being impossible to prevent the diplomatic activity of one’s government, the working class must “combine in simultaneous denunciation, and indicate the simple laws of morals and justice, which ought to govern the relations of private individuals, as the rules paramount of the intercourse of nations” = (see Marx and Engels, Selected Works, Vol. I, p. 385).
  3. ↑ Can Europe Disarm?”—Ed.
  4. ↑ Disarmament.—Ed.
  5. ↑ Arming the people.—Ed.
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