Letter to Valentin Olberg, April 27, 1930

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Comrade Olberg

Dear Comrade,

In your letter of April 14 you present a rather pessimistic picture of the state of affairs within the leadership of the United Opposition. If information I have received very recently is correct, it may be that the situation has improved somewhat. Or don't you agree?

You write in detail about Comrade Pfemfert and his journal Aktion. It goes without saying that we have disagreements with Comrade Pfemfert on very basic questions. But you must not forget that until very recently the Left Opposition was represented in Germany by the Leninbund, with whom our disagreements were in no way less than those we have with Comrade Pfemfert, with one great difference: Urbahns functioned in a totally disloyal and often downright unscrupulous way while Comrade Pfemfert has at all times functioned with absolute loyalty. You raise a point about the article devoted to the question of a visa. 192 I wrote this article for the organs of the Leninbund. Urbahns for some reason unknown to me did not print the article. But because I considered it necessary, precisely in Germany, to explain the meaning and nature of my appeal to the Social Democratic government, I passed the article on for publication in Aktion. Thus, no abuse was committed on its part.

I have just received word from Pfemfert that in view of the fact that it is impossible for the Opposition to publish my "Open Letter to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union" (Grylewicz told him of this), he, Pfemfert, is publishing this letter in the next issue of Aktion. Would it have been right for me to refuse? No, it would have been wrong. Very likely, you are right in your conviction that I will not be able to make the old experienced readers of Aktion change their minds. But on the other hand I will give our cothinkers or sympathizers, at least some of them, an opportunity to become familiar with these documents, which I cannot publish by other means.

The same goes for the publication of pamphlets. Of course I will be fully prepared to pass my pamphlets on to the United Opposition as soon as it gets on its feet and sets up its own publishing house. This is absolutely essential and is the task of the immediate future. But it is impossible to do this now. In the meantime, I think the pamphlet Permanent Revolution should be published. Comrade Pfemfert has pledged to pass along to the United Opposition as many pamphlets as it needs, at cost.

You write about the advisability of my meeting with Comrades Landau and Neumann. I absolutely agree with you and hope over the course of the summer to be able to arrange this, if no unforeseen obstacles arise.