513. To G. Y. ZINOVIEV

Written in August 1918 · First published in 1964 in Collected Works, Fifth (Russian) Ed., Vol. 49. Sent from Flums to Hertenstein. Printed from the original. · page 568

There is no conflict: you are imagining too much, really. Recollect (or reread) my letter: I did not state that I was voting against your article, I only wrote: “write and tell me candidly” what you think of such-and-such a plan.^[1] You wrote.

And that’s all.

So the article is going in.

Yuri will “reconcile” us still more, I believe,^[2] as it is precisely his conclusion that “in the epoch of imperialism” there can be no “defence of the fatherland”.

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In fact, “in an imperialist war, engendered by the epoch of imperialism, defence of the fatherland is a deception”.

These are “two great differences”.

Best regards,
Lenin

P.S. Isn’t it time we sent a joint letter to N. I. B. about the faction? I think it is. And about his article?

I am for issuing the C.O. I agree!

Notes

[1] See Document 514 in this volume.—Ed.

[2] Lenin’s ironical comment stresses the error of and certain uniformity in the wordings of Pyatakov’s and Zinoviev’s articles concerning “defence” of the fatherland (see Sbornik Sotsial-Demokrata No. 2, December 1916, p. 27).