Letter to Viktor Nogin, January 3, 1901

From Marxists-en
Jump to navigation Jump to search

January 3, 1901

Dear Comrade,

I have received Revolution and Counter-Revolution,[1] and am very grateful to you for sending this booklet. As regards transport we cannot at this moment undertake any definite obligations. Our routes are just now being arranged and will evidently be arranged satisfactorily; but it remains to be seen how they will function. In all probability we shall be able to give you quite a definite reply in 2 or 3 weeks at the outside, and will be happy to undertake the shipment of your booklet, if we can. We know nothing of Max Menkus, and are not doing our business through him. Your letters and reports have been received. We have already used some of them for the paper. Incidentally, the first issue should be ready in a few days, and I shall then send you a copy.[2] We expect our Poltava friend to arrive here in the very near future. All the best. Oh yes, there is also this. Having learned that we have completed a translation of Kautsky’s book, Bernstein and the Social-Democratic Programme, a member of the Rabocheye Znamya group approached a member of our group in Russia offering to publish the translation.[3] But we should like to publish it ourselves, in our own name. Therefore would the persons who made the offer agree to give us the money for its publication, if only some of it? Please write to tell us whether you are able and willing to write to them about it.

Yours,

Petrov[4]

We propose to publish Hyndman’s article in the near future with a footnote that “it has been sent to us in the author’s MS. through the good offices of a member of the Rabocheye Znamya group in St. Petersburg”.[5] If you have anything to say about the underlined words, please inform us immediately.

All the best,

Petrov

  1. ↑ A reference to F. Engels’s Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany.
  2. ↑ A reference to Iskra.
  3. ↑ While in exile in Shushenskoye, Lenin read and translated into Russian Kautsky’s Bernstein und das sozialdemokratische Programm. Eine Antikritik (Bernstein and the Social-Democratic Programme. An Anti-Critique). In 1905, it was published under the title, K. Kautsky. A Collection of Articles, without any mention of the translator’s name. The second edition in 1906 said: “Translated by Lenin.”
  4. ↑ Here is added, in an unknown hand: “Address: Herrn Philipp Rögner. Cigarrenhandlung. Neue Gasse. Nürnberg.”—Ed.
  5. ↑ The article, Socialism, Trade-Unionism and Political Action, by H. M. Hyndman, was ordered by S. V. Andropov for Rabocheye Znamya No. 3, but was never published. The English original and Lenin’s translation are now at the Central Party Archives of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism of the CPSU Central Committee.