Letter to Maxim Gorky, November 14, 1910

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Author(s) Lenin
Written 14 November 1910


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First published in 1930. Sent from Paris to the Isle of Capri (Italy). Printed from the original

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Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1974, Moscow, Volume 34, pages 432-433
Keywords : Letter, Maxim Gorky

November 14, 1910

Dear A. M.,

There has been no news from you and M. F. for a very long time. I have been looking forward eagerly to news from Capri. What’s wrong? Surely you don’t keep count of letters as some people are said to keep count of visits.

Everything here is as of, old. A host of trivial affairs and all kinds of trouble connected with the struggle of the various “dominions” inside the Party. Brrr!... It must be nice on Capri....

By way of relaxation from the squabbling we have taken up the old plan of publishing Rabochaya Gazeta. With difficulty we raised 400 francs. Yesterday No. 1 came out at last. I am sending you a copy together with a leaflet and a subscription list.[1] Members of the Capri-Neapolitan colony who sympathise with such an enterprise (and with the “rapprochement” between the Bolsheviks and Plekhanov) are invited to afford every assistance. Rabochaya Gazeta is necessary, but we can’t make a go of it with Trotsky, who is intriguing in favour of the liquidators and the otzovists and Vperyod supporters. Already in Copenhagen Plekhanov and I protested vigorously against Trotsky’s despicable article in Vorwärts. And what a disgusting article he has published in Neue Zeit, too, on the historical significance of the struggle among the Russian Social-Democrats[2]! And Lunacharsky’s in the Belgian Le Peuple—have you seen it?

We are setting up a small legal periodical to combat Nasha Zarya and Zhizn—this, too, with Plekhanov’s participation. We hope to issue No. 1 soon.[3]

And so we jog along. Little by little, hard and slowly we are making headway, extricating ourselves from the squabbles.

What is the news with you? Did you write to Stroyev and what reply did you receive? We wrote a first letter to him to “make contact”; he received it and replied that he did not understand who was writing. We wrote again. Not a word. There’s a terrible shortage of the right people, and the old ones have dispersed.

Arrangements were on the point of completion in St. Petersburg for putting out a weekly newspaper together with the Duma group (the Mensheviks there fortunately incline not towards the liquidators, but towards Plekhanov), but the matter has been held up again, the devil knows why.[4]

Write how you are getting on. Is your work going well? Has anything come of the journal we talked about in the summer? How are things with Znaniye?[5]

I have the right to be cross with M. F. She promised to write. Nothing has come. She promised to find out about the Paris library on the history of the Russian revolution. Nothing has come. That’s bad.

All the best.

Yours,

Lenin

Tria’s report will, probably, be published after all. The editorial board of the CO[6] decided this. But the squabbling on that editorial board—ye gods!...

  1. ↑ Lenin’s “Announcement on the Publication of Rabochaya Gazeta”^^(see Vol. 16 of this edition)^^. Rabochaya Gazeta (Workers’ Gazette)—an illegal popular organ of the Bolsheviks, published in Paris in 1910–12.
  2. ↑ During the International Socialist Congress In Copenhagen (August 28–September 3, 1910) Lenin and Plekhanov submitted a joint protest to the Executive of the German Social-Democratic Party against the publication in Vorwärts, the Central Organ of the German Social-Democrats, of an anonymous article penned by Trotsky concerning the state of affairs in the Russian Social-Democratic Party.
    Lenin came out against Trotsky in his article “How Certain Social-Democrats Inform the International About the State of Affairs in the RSDLP” published in the newspaper Sotsial-Demokrat No. 17, for September 25 (October 8), 1910, and in his article “The Historical Meaning of the Inner-Party Struggle in Russia” published in Diskussionny Listok No. 3, for April 29 (May 12), 1911^^(see Vol. 16 of this edition)^^.
  3. ↑ Lenin has in mind preparations for the publication of the Bolshevik legal monthly Mysl (Thought), the first issue of which appeared in Moscow in December 1910. The journal was published up till April 1911, altogether five numbers being issued.
    The journal was founded on Lenin’s initiative to step up the fight against the liquidator’s legal organs and to educate the advanced workers and intellectuals in the spirit of Marxism. Lenin directed the journal from abroad and carried on a regular correspondence with the editors.
  4. ↑ This refers to the publication of the Bolshevik legal newspaper Zvezda (Star). It appeared from December 16 (29), 1910 to April 22 (May 5), 1912. Up till the autumn of 1911 the pro-Party Mensheviks (the Plekhanovites) contributed to Zvezda. Ideological guidance of the newspaper was effected by Lenin from abroad.
  5. ↑ Znaniye (Knowledge)—a book-publishing house, founded in St. Petersburg in 1898 by a group of writers; later Maxim Gorky was closely associated with it.
  6. ↑ The Central Organ of the RSDLP, the illegal newspaper Sotsial-Demokrat, was published from February 1908 to January 1917^^(see Note 394)^^.
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