(From the Same Comrade)

I am late with this letter, don’t be angry. I have been busy all the time. All that you sent I have received (Minutes of the League; Our Misunderstandings by Galyorka and Ryadovoi; Sotsial-Demokrat, No 1; Iskra, the last issues). I liked Ryadovoi’s idea (“A Conclusion”). The article against Rosa Luxemburg is also good. These ladies and gentlemen—Rosa, Kautsky, Plekhanov, Axelrod, Vera Zasulich and the others, being old acquaintances, have evidently worked out some kind of family tradition. They cannot “betray” one another; they defend one another as the members of a clan in a patriarchal tribe used to defend one another without going into the guilt or innocence of the kinsman. It is this family feeling, this feeling of “kinship” that has prevented Rosa from studying the crisis in the Party objectively (of course, there are other reasons, for example, inadequate knowledge of the facts, foreign spectacles, etc.). Incidentally, this explains certain unseemly actions on the part of Plekhanov, Kautsky and others. Everybody here likes Bonch’s publications as masterly expositions of the Bolsheviks’ position. Galyorka would have done well if he had dealt with the substance of Plekhanov’s articles (Iskra, Nos. 70, 71). The fundamental idea in Galyorka’s articles is that Plekhanov once said one thing and is now saying another, that he is contradicting himself. How very important! As if this were new! This is not the first time he is contradicting himself. He may even be proud of it and regard himself as the living embodiment of the “dialectical process.” It goes without saying that inconsistency is a blotch on the political physiognomy of a “leader,” and it (the blotch) should undoubtedly be noted. But that is not what we are discussing (in Nos. 70, 71); we are discussing an important question of theory (the question of the relation between being and consciousness) and of tactics (the relation between the led and the leaders). In my opinion, Galyorka should have shown that Plekhanov’s theoretical war against Lenin is quixotic to the utmost degree, tilting at windmills, for in his pamphlet Lenin, with the utmost consistency, adheres to K. Marx’s proposition concerning the origin of consciousness. And Plekhanov’s war on the question of tactics is a manifestation of utter confusion, characteristic of the “individual” who is passing over to the camp of the opportunists. Had Plekhanov formulated the question clearly, for example, in the following shape: “who formulates the programme, the leaders or the led?” or: “who raises whom to an understanding of the programme, the leaders the led, or vice versa?” or: “perhaps it is undesirable that the leaders should raise the masses to an understanding of the programme, tactics and principles of organisation?” The simplicity and tautology of these questions provide their own solution, and had Plekhanov put them to himself as clearly as this, he, perhaps, would have been deterred from his intention and would not have come out against Lenin with such fireworks. But since Plekhanov did not do that, i.e., since he confused the issue with phrases about “heroes and the mob,” he digressed in the direction of tactical opportunism. To confuse the issue is characteristic of opportunists.

Had Galyorka dealt with the substance of these and similar questions he would have done much better, in my opinion. Perhaps you will say that this is Lenin’s business; but I cannot agree with this, because the views of Lenin that are criticised are not Lenin’s private property, and their misinterpretation is a matter that concerns other members of the Party no less than Lenin. Lenin, of course, could perform this task better than anybody else. . . .

We already have resolutions in favour of Bonch’s publications. Perhaps we shall have the money too. You have probably read the resolutions “in favour of peace” in No. 74 of Iskra. The resolutions passed by the ImeretiaMingrelia and Baku Committees were not mentioned, because they said nothing about “confidence” in the C.C. The September resolutions, as I wrote you, insistently demanded the convocation of the congress. We shall see what happens, i.e., we shall see what the results of the meetings of the Party Council show. Have you received the six rubles? You will receive some more within the next few days. Don’t forget to send with that fellow the pamphlet A Letter to a Comrade18—many here have not yet read it. Send also the next number of the SotsialDemokrat.

Kostrov has sent us another letter in which he talks about the spiritual and the material (one would think he was talking about cotton material). That ass doesn’t realise that his audience are not the readers of Kvali.20 What does he care about organisational questions? A new issue (the 7th) of The Proletarian Struggle (Proletariatis Brdzola)21 has appeared. Incidentally, it contains an article of mine against organisational and political federalism.22 I’ll send you a copy if I can.

Written in October 1904

Published for the first time

Translated from the Georgian