Written: Written April 22, 1901
Published:
First published in 1928 in Lenin Miscellany VIII.
Sent from Munich to Berlin.
Printed from the original.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
[1977],
Moscow,
Volume 43,
page 56b.
Translated: Martin Parker and Bernard Isaacs
Transcription\Markup:
R. Cymbala
Public Domain:
Lenin Internet Archive
(2005).
You may freely copy, distribute,
display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
Archive” as your source.
• README
April 22
Since the red-print leaflets are to be forwarded to St. Petersburg the valise containing them should be sent in that direction (to Pskov, not to Smolensk or Poltava).
We are sending 100 marks as a loan to the Berlin group.[2] It would be desirable to collect the money needed for delivering the valises on the spot and to relieve Iskra of this expense. Do everything you can to raise the money, for we are very short of funds.
As regards your leaving the neutral group, you know best what to do. It might perhaps be better to wait, since you might be able to win others to our side.
The stamp has been ordered. Let us have the Vienna address again, the one you sent looks queer.
As regards sending consignments through the Polish Social-Democrat, you should accept his offer and do your best to give him a pood or two of literature at the earliest possible date for trial shipment. How much literature do you have on hand? We shall send you the balance—Zarya and (after May 1) Iskra No. 3.
You did not let us know how much open literature you have received. Send us a detailed account.
[1] Written together with Nadezhda Krupskaya.—Ed.
[2] The letter refers to the Iskra promotion group founded in Berlin in the autumn of 1900. The group played a major role in the organisation of the transport of the paper to Russia and the collection of funds. Similar groups were set up in other European cities (Geneva, Zurich, Paris, etc.) where there were student youth and revolutionary emigrants from Russia. They collected funds for Iskra, arranged for the shipment of illegal publications to Russia, obtained passports, established contacts and carried on other work for Iskra.
The neutral group of Social-Democrats in Berlin formed around V. A. Bazarov in the autumn of 1900. Its aim was to overcome the split between the supporters of the journal Rabocheye Dyelo and the Emancipation of Labour group, which developed following he Second Congress of the Union of Russian Social-Democrats Abroad. Among others, the group included M. G. Vecheslov and I. B. Basovsky. According to Bazarov, the group sent its representatives to Geneva early in 1900 to persuade the Iskra and Sotsial-Demokrat organisations to effect a reconciliation with the Union. The group published three or four proclamations on political topics and existed until the summer of 1901.
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