1905
108. To V. A. NOSKOV, L. B. KRASIN AND L. Y. GALPERIN, MEMBERS OF THE C.C., R.S.D.L.P.[1]
To Members of the C.C. Glebov
Nikitich
Valentin
Geneva, 13.I. 05
Dear Sirs,
Enclosed you will find my statement in reply to yours in Iskra No. 77.[2] My representatives in the arbitration are Comrades Schwarz and Voinov. Address for communication with them: forwarding office of the newspaper Vperyod, for so-and-so.
N. Lenin
Sent in two envelopes to the address: Mr. P. Axelrod. 4. Bd. Pont d’Arve. 4.
Notes
[1] The letter has the word “Copy” on it in Lenin’s hand.—Ed.
[2] The statement Lenin sent to the Bolshevik conciliators L. B. Krasin, V. A. Noskov and L. Y. Galperin, members of the C.C., R.S.D.L.P., was written in connection with the “July Declaration” of the C.C. (see Note 76).
In July 1904 the three C.C. members passed, without Lenin’s knowledge, a resolution recognising as lawful the co-opting by Plekhanov into the Iskra Editorial Board of Mensheviks who had been voted down by the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P., and forbidding Lenin to take any important action as C.C. representative abroad unless empowered to do so by the C.C., there by depriving him of his powers as the Party’s representative abroad.
Although Lenin on August 18, 1904, challenged the resolution inasmuch as he had not been invited to the C.C. meeting or even informed that the question would be taken up, the resolution was printed in Iskra No. 72 on August 25.
On November 5, Iskra No. 77 carried a statement of the C.C. accusing Lenin, who continued to consider himself a member of the C.C. and said so publicly, of doing so allegedly “with the object of disorganising the Party”. The C.C. proposed that the conflict be submitted to arbitration by leaders of international Social-Democracy.