Letter to the Odessa Committee of the RSDLP, March 25,1905

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To the Odessa Committee from Lenin[edit source]

Dear friends,

I should like to say a few words to you about congress delegates. If you are sending them from Russia, then my letter does not apply. But I heard that you are thinking of giving a mandate to one of the people here. If this rumour is true, then I would advise giving mandates to both of your candidates here, i.e., to Josephine and Danila—one with a vote and the other with a consultative voice (i.e., write a letter to the congress that the Odessa Committee requests the congress to let Josephine attend with a consultative voice, as a member of the Southern Bureau and a very useful worker in a consultative capacity, or, for example, Danila, as having an excellent knowledge of the local areas and having worked with remarkable energy among the Odessa proletariat). You may rest assured that the congress will grant such a request from the Committee. Please read this letter toall the Committee members and send me a reply.[1]

P.S. Are you taking workers into the Committee? This is essential, absolutely essential! Why don’t you put us in direct contact with workers? Not a single worker writes to Vperyod. This is a scandal. We need at all costs dozens of worker correspondents. I would ask you to read this part of the letter, too, not only to all Committee members, but also to all Majority organisers and agitators.

Regards to everyone!

Yours,

Lenin

  1. In reply to this letter, Lydia Knipovich, a member of the Odessa Committee of the RSDLP, informed Lenin that the mandate to the congress previously issued to V. V. Vorovsky in the name of the Odessa Committee was being transferred to Lenin and that Vorovsky would receive his mandate from the Nikolayev Committee.