Lenin to Lunacharsky

 Lenin to Lunacharsky

<Zurich. March, no later than March 12/25, 1917>

Dear comrade Anatoly Vasilievich!

Regarding the conference  1 , my  personal  opinion (I am forwarding your letter to Zinoviev  2 ) is that it is now expedient only among people who are ready to warn the proletariat not only against the Gvozdevites, 3 but also against  Chkheidze’s vacillations . 4

This, in my opinion, is the crux of our inner-party and, so to speak, near-party situation.

That is why I  do not  waste time on a single meeting with Martov and Co. 5

The independence and uniqueness of our party,  no rapprochement with other parties , are ultimatum for me. Without this, it is impossible to help the proletariat go through  a democratic revolution towards  commune, and I would not serve other goals.

With people and groups who generally agree on this, I personally would be  in favor of  a meeting.

I would be very happy to just have a conversation between you and me, without any formal meetings, and I would consider it  useful for myself personally (and for the business) . 6

I congratulate you with all my heart, 7 for my part, and firmly shake your hand, sending greetings from N<dezhda K<onstantinovna> to both of you. 8

With friendly greetings. Lenin

My address:

Wl. Ulianow. Spiegelgasse 14 II (bei Kammerer).

Zurich. I.

Lenin, vol. 49, pp. 410–411. Sent from Zurich to Geneva.

It is a response to a letter from Lunacharsky to Lenin that has not reached us. Dated based on Lenin’s message in a letter to V. A. Karpinsky on March 12/25, 1917:

“Lunacharsky wrote to me offering a ‘meeting’. I answered: I personally agree to talk with you (Lunacharsky). (He will be in Zurich.) I agree to the meeting  only  on the condition that the workers are warned  against  Chkheidze’s hesitations. He (Lunacharsky)  remained silent”  (Lenin, vol. 49, pp. 411–412).

As can be understood from Lenin’s response letter, Lunacharsky proposed organizing a meeting in Switzerland of all Russian Social Democrats who take internationalist positions. ↩

Zinoviev in 1915–1917 was a member of the Bolshevik Central Committee and maintained constant contact with Lenin. In February–March 1917 he was in Geneva, where Lunacharsky lived at the same time. ↩

“Gvozdevtsy”  are Russian chauvinists who were led by the Menshevik Gvozdev, chairman of the “working group” under the Central Military-Industrial Committee, created by the Russian bourgeoisie in 1915. ↩

During the February Revolution, N. S. Chkheidze was elected chairman of the first Petrograd Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies and pursued a policy of active support for the Provisional Government. ↩

During the First World War, Martov took a vacillating position. On the one hand, he acted as an active opponent of world carnage, publishing a series of anti-war articles “War and Russian Democracy” in the newspapers “Golos”, “Nashe Slovo”, “New World” and a number of other emigrant internationalist publications; on the other hand, he was against the break with the defencists, which, in particular, Lunacharsky insisted on in his journalistic articles of 1914–1916. ↩

About Lunacharsky’s meeting with Lenin before the departure of the Bolsheviks from emigration to Russia, see the present, volume, pp. 637–644. ↩

Lenin congratulated Lunacharsky on the February Revolution that took place in Russia. ↩

Lunacharsky and his wife Anna Alexandrovna. ↩