Written: Written prior to March 23, 1916
Published:
First published: the letter—in 1964 in Collected Works, Fifth (Russian) Ed., Vol. 49; the appendix—March 25, 1916, in the newspaper Sotsial-Demokrat No. 52.
Sent from Zurich to Berne.
The letter printed from the original; the appendix printed from the text of Sotsial-Demokrat.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
[1977],
Moscow,
Volume 43,
pages 523-524a.
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
I am sending an addition (O. Rühle and Liebknecht)—I think it must be squeezed in, to mark the historical words of Liebknecht.
I am sending a draft of cuts covering 37 lines. I trust you will find where to make more cuts in order to squeeze in Rühle and Liebknecht.[1]
“Strekoza” in any case must be thrown out, as 1) it is not the thing; 2) we must wait (since it is not only a matter of Trotsky, but plus La Vie Ouvrière: for them it may be progress).[2]
3) We had better deal with Trotsky in Sbornik Sotsial Demokrata; he has to be dealt with at greater length.
Salut,
Lenin
Be sure to send the theses to Grimm personally (it would be a good idea to invite him for a talk on this).
I am considering another insertion to the theses. Let me know in good time when they are made up.
Rühle in Vorwärts of 12/I. 1916 openly declared for a split in the party. Liebknecht, in his speech of 16/III. 1916 in the Prussian Landtag, openly called on “those fighting in the trenches” to “lower their rifles and turn against the common enemy”, for which he was not allowed to finish his speech. Which Russian Social-Democrats, then, displayed “factionalism”—those who stood for the Bolshevik slogans—the only consistent slogans—of civil war and a split with opportunism? Or those who denied the obvious correctness of these slogans, to which the course of events is leading the internationalists in all countries?
[1] See appendix to letter.—Ed.
[2] Probably this refers to an article criticising the draft Manifesto for the Second International Socialist Conference submitted to the I.S.C. on behalf of persons grouped around the journal La Vie Ouvrière and the newspaper Nashe Slovo. The draft was published on February 29, 1916, in the I.S.C. Bulletin No. 3.
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