179. TELEPHONE MESSAGE TO K. B. RADEK AND G. Y. ZINOVIEV
By phone
Radek
and Zinoviev
7.50 p.m. 28.V.
I have just received a telegram from Berlin signed by Zetkin, with the following text:
“Under various pretexts, the Party C.C. has refused permission for the departure of the delegates authorised by the opposition, Braß and Anna Geyer. That is why I refuse to go until my associates’ trip is guaranteed.”
I request Radek and Zinoviev to let me know their opinion by telephone: isn’t it better to advise the Central Committee to agree to the departure of Braß and Anna Geyer? Or is it better for everyone, including myself, to say absolutely nothing?[1]
28/V.
Lenin
Notes
[1] In a reply letter, the same day, May 28, 1921, K. B. Radek and G. Y. Zinoviev advised Lenin to pass on Clara Zetkin’s telegram to the Comintern Executive Committee. The latter rejected Clara Zetkin’s demand. Later, after a conference with delegates from the United Communist Party of Germany to the Third Congress of the Comintern (before it opened), the Executive sent the C.C. of the U.C.P.G. a telegram proposing that Anna Geyer and Otto Braß should not be prevented from attending the congress.
However, the two did not attend the congress. The C.C. of the U.C.P.G. objected to their going to Moscow, apparently because they approved the stand of Paul Levi, who had repeatedly violated Party discipline and had been expelled fro:n the Party by the C.C. on April 15, 1921 (see Note 119).