Letter to Leo Jogiches, March 28, 1910

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For T.

March 28, 1910

Dear Comrade,

Thank you for sending me Rosa Luxemburg’s articles. I must protest in the strongest possible terms on the main question—regarding the replacement of Warski by Leder. Why, you put us in the most impossible situation! I will not say anything of Leder’s personal qualities (as they caught the eye in work together at congresses and conferences: these impressions of him did not at all testify to any knowledge, capacities, literary taste, understanding of the business, and often bore witness to petty faultfinding, etc., etc.—you will appreciate that I am writing to you, too, privatissime ). I won’t enlarge on the fact that it is not right to substitute an inexperienced and scarcely suitable person for an experienced writer, a sensible Marxist and an excellent comrade.

But I will speak about the position of the CO editorial board and about the crisis in the Party. You surely cannot have failed to notice the critical situation. Warski and I write to the Central Committee about a change in the composition of the CO (Dan is clearly disrupting it). The liquidators are disrupting the CC And in these circumstances, just when there is unquestionable need of a man who was at the plenum, who has been tested in the work, who is working nicely with the board, who has begun a serious war with a serious enemy—just at that moment he is being replaced by a new man! Where’s your fear of God? Don’t you see it means paralysing the CO? After all, the CO is now the only organ of leadership for the whole Party (until the CC gets together again after its disruption by the liquidators). It is terribly important to have the CO in working trim—and this is surely no time “to begin all over again”, to “initiate” a newcomer, to argue instead of getting on with the job. Please do try to understand that, in order to find loopholes, the Mensheviks, relying on the plenum (and formally they have an unquestionable right to rely on it), argue about every single word in the resolution, its every omission, every incident at the plenum (even the tiniest). Now, is it conceivable, in the situation, to have a man play the part of pendulum when he was not present at the plenum and has not worked with us in the central bodies of the RSDLP for years and years? Why, this is absolutely impossible! It means blocking the whole business—and that at a time when highly important questions come up for decision at every meeting. Why, Leder will be obliged to say “I don’t know” to the thousands of arguments and the cavilling of the Mensheviks (who, as you know very well, are devilishly skilful at making use of every &facute;raktioneller Dreck ). Now, I ask you, can we have such a man at such a time?

No. No. We are not demanding anything excessive of the P.S.D. We know their forces, and their needs, and the conditions of work in Poland. We are not overburdening Warski, and are not preventing him from doing Polish literary work. But you must let us have him in the CO, as we agreed during the plenum. Without Warski, we are absolutely not in a position to “tide over” the period of crisis, i.e., to secure a change in the composition of the CO Now, when the crisis is over, when the composition of the CO is altered, then ... but even then, let’s not have Leder, for the love of God. In that case, let’s have Karski, if we can’t have Warski even then. But at present Warski is absolutely, absolutely essential.

All good wishes. Greetings to Rosa.

Yours,

Lenin