Letter to V. D. Kasparova, August 30, 1928

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The Conflicts Are Still Ahead

Dear V. D.:

Your letter with excerpts from the letters of Karl [Radek], Ivan Nikitich [Smirnov], and others came yesterday. Many thanks – both for your letter and for the excerpts from the letters of others. Apparently a number of my letters didn't reach you – in particular the letter in which I roundly reviled our friend Teplov for sentimentality, Manilovism, and other obscene qualities. Now, however, I feel relieved, since we've straightened out our front very well, even beyond expectations. Well, what can one say? The centrists helped, as always. Needless to say, I totally agree with you about the necessity for a serious internal discussion on the basic questions. Nothing but good could come of it. And the "young ones" are already making rather wide use of the right of discussion. I received a number of angry letters from them for being excessively compliant toward Preobrazhensky. And in the main they are right. I was overly diplomatic, trying to avoid an internal discussion at a sharp moment on a sharp question – "under the fishbowl" [i.e., with the GPU reading the Oppositionists' mail]. But I fully agree with you that in relation to Karl, the "young ones" have gone much too far. I must say, however, that Karl did everything he could to "arouse the public." While pouring out letters with a number of very important formulations, he didn't write a word to Rakovsky or me or a number of other comrades. I began to receive protests from all quarters against Karl's letters and was obliged to answer that I didn't know anything about these letters. That put the young ones on their guard even more. The letter to Vardin, the agent of Yaroslavsky, could not help adding fuel to the fire. Moreover; many of the young ones, even in their exaggerations, learned a lot from Karl, who took the most extreme position on all these questions at the end of last year and commented in a more than disapproving way about some of his present allies. Needless to say, I am doing and have done what I can to pour oil on troubled waters, because the importance of Karl to us needs no explanation. The youth also understand that.

In addition to the critique of the program, the letter "What Now?" the declaration, and the documentary record on "Trotskyism," I have managed to send the congress a "postscript" in which I summarize some of the results of the July plenum. I hope that this addition reaches you also.

From this whole serious and significant episode in the development of the party and the revolution – I am referring to the latest left zigzag – the most compromised element to emerge has been vulgar and unprincipled conciliationism. It is clear to every thinking person that it is not Zinoviev, Kamenev, Pyatakov, and Company who are inside the party now, but you and I. We are participating actively in the party's life. Our documents are read by the delegations to the Comintern congress. The hundreds of signatures endorsing our declaration are a major political fact. But the former chairman of the Comintern and all his miserable group do not exist politically. Zinoviev himself is forced to declare that there is nothing left to do now but keep quiet and wait. These people reentered not the party, but Centrosoyuz. It has never occurred to you and me, however, despite all the dreadful separations, that we were moving away from the party. We are seated in it more solidly than last year and I think that over the next several months this will become clear to everyone.

Another element that has emerged totally compromised out of all this is centrism. Some of the young ones exaggerate in seeing the increase in grain prices as the last word of centrism. No, the conflicts are still ahead. The centrists still have the apparatus. Our statement that we support every step to the left, even a halfhearted one, remains in force. But this has nothing in common with any illusions concerning the centrists, any vulgar conciliationism, or any desire to gloss over the differences. Along this line no quarter!

My general conclusion: we have passed a serious test with top grades and have entered the senior class. After this a summer vacation would normally be expected. But I do not know if we will have one.

As for our health, things are not entirely satisfactory. Natalya and I both have completely succumbed to malaria again, and the intensified use of quinine has undermined the stability of my intestines, so that everything is in commotion.

Endorsements of our declaration continue to come from "back there" in [European] Russia as well. I have received telegrams to that effect from Moscow, Voronezh, Odessa, Kherson, and elsewhere. In drawing up all the documents I was greatly helped by the numerous letters, theses, etc., that I have received. I hope to continue to receive letters – from you too of course, V. D. What news from your son? How is his health? You don't say anything personal about yourself either in your letter.

I am following the congress with great interest. The main report on the international situation, etc., made a devastating impression on me. There was not one complete thought in it. Fragments, scraps, cigarette butts – and nothing more. In bad years [years of famine] they feed cattle with dried up, decomposing chaff. It only tickles the throat but gives no nourishment. That is the impression the report makes …

I firmly shake your hand and wish you all the best.