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TO MAXIM GORKY July 18, 1919 Dear A. M., Come here for a rest—I often go away for two days to the country, where I can put you up splendidly for either a short or a longer time. Do come! Telegraph when; we shall arrange a compartment for you, so that you can travel in comfort. Really, you need a little change of air. I await your reply. Yours,
First published in Pravda No. 7 5 Printed from the original and Izvestia No. 7 5 , March 2 9 , 1 9 2 8 410 218 TO MAXIM GORKY July 31, 1919 Dear Alexei Maximych, The more I read over your letter, and the more I think of the connection between its conclusions and what it sets forth (and what you described at our meetings), the more I arrive at the conviction that the letter, and your conclu- sions, and all your impressions, are quite sick. Petrograd has been one of the sickest places in recent times. This is quite understandable, since its population has suffered most of all, the workers have given up more of their best forces than anyone else, the food shortage is grave, and the military danger too. Obviously your nerves can’t stand it. That is not surprising. Yet you won’t listen when you are told that you ought to change your abode, because to let oneself flog the nerves to a state of sickness is very unwise, unwise even from the plain common-sense point of view, not to speak of other points of view. Just as in your conversations, there is in your letter a sum of sick impressions, leading you to sick conclusions. You begin with dysentery and cholera, and immediately a kind of sick resentment comes over you: “fraternity, equality”. Unconscious, but the result is something like communism being responsible for the privations, poverty and diseases of a besieged city!! Then follow some bitter witticisms, which I don’t under- stand, against “hoarding” literature (which? why connected with Kalinin?). And the conclusion that a “wretched 411 TO MAXIM GORKY remainder of the intelligent workers” say that they have been “betrayed” into “captivity to the muzhik”. That, now, has no sense in it at all. Is it Kalinin who is being accused of betraying the workers to the muzhik? That is what it amounts to. This might be invented by workers who are either quite green, stupid, with a “Left” phrase instead of a brain, or else by those who are overwrought, exhausted, hungry, sick, or else by the “remainder of the aristocracy” who have a splendid ability to distort everything, a splendid gift for picking on every trifle to vent their frenzied hatred of Soviet power. You yourself mention this remainder at the same point in your letter. Their state of mind is having an unhealthy influence on you. You write that you see “people of the most varied sec- tions of society”. It’s one thing to see them, another thing to feel daily contact with them, in all aspects of one’s life. What you mainly experience is from the “remainder”—if only by virtue of your profession, which obliges you to “receive” dozens of embittered bourgeois intellectuals, and also by virtue of your general circumstances. As though the “remainder” cherish “something bordering on sympathy for Soviet power”, while “the majority of the workers” produce thieves, “Communists” who have jumped on the band-waggon, etc.! And you talk yourself into the “conclusion” that a revolution cannot he made with the help of thieves, cannot be made without the intelligentsia. This is a completely sick psychology, acutely aggravated in the environment of embittered bourgeois intellectuals. Everything is being done to draw the intelligentsia (the non-whiteguard intelligentsia) into the struggle against the thieves. And month by month the Soviet Republic acquires a growing percentage of bourgeois intellectuals who are
grumbling and spitting fury. This cannot be “seen” in Petrograd, because Petrograd is a city with an exception- ally large number of bourgeois people (and “intelli- gentsia”) who have lost their place in life (and their heads), but for all Russia this is an unquestionable fact. In Petrograd, or from Petrograd, one can only become convinced of this if one is exceptionally well informed V. I. L E N I N 412
FROM MARX TO MAO
NOT FOR
COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION politically and has a specially wide political experience. This you haven’t got. And you are engaged, not in politics and not in observing the work of political construction, but in a particular profession, which surrounds you with embittered bourgeois intellectuals, who have understood nothing, forgotten nothing, learned nothing and at best—a very rare best—have lost their bearings, are in despair, moaning, repeating old prejudices, have been frightened to death or are frightening themselves to death. If you want to observe, you must observe from below, where it is possible to survey the work of building a new life, in a workers’ settlement in the provinces or in the coun- tryside. There one does not have to make a political sum- ming-up of extremely complex data, there one need only observe. Instead of this, you have put yourself in the posi- tion of a professional editor of translations, etc., a posi- tion in which it is impossible to observe the new building of a new life, a position in which all your strength is frit- tered away on the sick grumbling of a sick intelligentsia, on observing the “former” capital * in conditions of des- perate military peril and fierce privations. You have put yourself in a position in which you cannot directly observe the new features in the life of the workers and peasants, i.e., nine-tenths of the population of Russia; in which you are compelled to observe the fragments of life of a former capital, from where the flower of the workers has gone to the fronts and to the countryside, and where there remain a disproportionately large number of intellec- tuals without a place in life and without jobs, who specially “besiege” you. Counsels to go away you stubbornly reject. Quite understandably, you have reduced yourself to a condition of sickness: you write that you find life not only hard, but also “extremely revolting”!!! I should say so! At such a time to chain oneself to the sickest of places as an editor of translated literature (the most suitable occu- pation for observing people, for an artist!). As an artist, you cannot see and study anything there that is new—in the army, in the countryside, in the factory. You have * Petrograd. In March 1918 the capital was transferred to Mos- cow.—Ed. 413 TO MAXIM GORKY deprived yourself of any opportunity of doing what would satisfy the artist: in Petrograd a politician can work, but you are not a politician. Today it’s windows being broken for no reason at all, tomorrow it’s shots and screams from prison, then snatches of oratory by the most weary of the non- workers who have remained in Petrograd, then millions of impressions from the intelligentsia, the intelligentsia of a capital which is no longer a capital, then hundreds of complaints from those who have been wronged, inability to see any building of the new life in the time you have left after editing (the building goes on in a particular way, and least of all in Petrograd)—how could you fail to reduce yourself to a point when it is extremely revolting to go on living?
The country is living in a feverish struggle against the bourgeoisie of the whole world, which is taking a frenzied revenge for its overthrow. Naturally. For the first Soviet Republic, the first blows from everywhere. Naturally. Here one must live either as an active politician or (if one’s heart does not draw one to politics), as an artist, observe how people are building life anew somewhere that is not, as the capital is, the centre of furious attack, of a furious struggle against conspiracies, of the furious anger of the capital’s intelligentsia—somewhere in the countryside, or in a provincial factory (or at the front). There it is easy, merely by observing, to distinguish the decomposition of the old from the first shoots of the new. Life has become revolting, the “divergence” from com- munism “is deepening”. Where the divergence lies, it is impossible to tell. Not a shadow of an indication of a divergence in politics or in ideas. There is a divergence of
absorbed in a struggle of the most furious kind, and the mood of a man who has artificially driven himself into a situation where he can’t observe the new life, while his impressions of the decay of a vast bourgeois capital are getting the better of him. I have expressed my thoughts to you frankly on the sub- ject of your letter. From my conversations (with you) I have long been approaching the same ideas, but your letter gave shape and conclusion, it rounded off the sum V. I. L E N I N 414
total of the impressions I have gained from these conversa- tions. I don’t want to thrust my advice on you, but I cannot help saying: change your circumstances radically, your en- vironment, your abode, your occupation—otherwise life may disgust you for good. All the best. Yours,
Sent to Petrograd First published in 1 9 2 5 Printed from the original in Krasnaya Letopis No. 1
415 219 TELEGRAM TO A. P. ROZENGOLTS Address:
Rozengolts Revolutionary Military Council 7 All in code Has every measure been taken to hold Petrograd at all costs? We are pushing ahead with the promised reinforce- ments, but it will take time for them to arrive. Make an exceptional effort.
Written on August 1 , 1 9 1 9 First published in 1 9 4 2 Printed from the text in Lenin Miscellany XXXIV written by E. M. Sklyansky and amended and signed by V. I. Lenin 416 220 TELEGRAM TO L. D. TROTSKY In code Trotsky Copy to Rakovsky The Political Bureau of the Central Committee requests that the Central Committee’s directive be communicated to all responsible workers: to hold out to the last, defend- ing Odessa and Kiev, the communications between them and their communications with us to the last drop of blood. This is a question of the fate of the whole revolution. Remember that our help is not far off. For the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, Lenin Written on August 9 , 1 9 1 9 First published in 1 9 4 2 Printed from the original in Lenin Miscellany XXXIV
417 221 TO E. M. SKLYANSKY Comrade Sklyansky, I am not well, I have had to go to bed. Therefore reply by messenger. The delaying of the offensive in the Voronezh direction (from August 1 to 10!!!) is monstrous. The successes of Denikin are enormous. What’s wrong? Sokolnikov said that there (on the approaches to Voronezh) our forces were four to one. So what is wrong? How could we miss the boat in this way? Tell the Commander-in-Chief that this won’t do. Serious attention is required. Should I not send the following telegram to the Revo- lutionary Military Council of the Southern Front (copy to Smilga): In code To be late with the offensive is quite intolerable, because this delay will yield the whole Ukraine to Denikin and will ruin us. You answer for every day and even hour that the offensive is held up unnecessarily. Inform us at once of your explanations, and the date when at last you will begin a resolute offensive.
Chairman, Defence Council Written on August 1 0 , 1 9 1 9 First published in 1 9 4 2 Printed from the original in Lenin Miscellany XXXIV 418 222 INSTRUCTION TO A SECRETARY AND NOTE TO E. M. SKLYANSKY Secret. Take ? copies, and send one to Comrade Sklyan- sky with this note: Comrade Sklyansky, It is clear from this that they are trying to shift respon- sibility. Probably there isn’t a single battle-worthy unit against Mamontov: this is an absolute disgrace, and com- plete negligence on the part of the Revolutionary Military Council, or complete failure to use an opportunity. As energetic measures as possible must be taken! Lenin To Sklyansky. See to it yourself that all this is kept secret. Addition: The railway people say that our units that have been sent against Mamontov are afraid to leave their trucks. By sending such units, the Revolutionary Military Coun- cil of the Republic disgraces itself. Written at the end of August 1 9 1 9 First published in 1 9 4 2 Printed from the original in Lenin Miscellany XXXIV
419 223 TELEGRAM TO THE BASHKIR REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE Bashkir Revolutionary Committee Ufa Copy to Comrade Validov Now that the decisive victories of the Red Army in the East have assured the free development of the Bashkir people, the decision of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic to transfer some Bashkir units to Petrograd acquires exceptional political importance. The predatory imperialists will see that the awakened peoples of the East have risen to defend the centres of the proletarian revo- lution. At the same time close contact between the armed Bashkirs and the workers of Petrograd will ensure close ties and mutual respect in the spirit of communism. I express my profound conviction that the Revolutionary Committee of the Bashkir Republic, and all advanced Bashkir comrades, will make every effort to ensure that the transfer of the Bashkir units takes place in the shortest possible time and with the least possible burdening of the railways. Please transmit fraternal greetings to the Bashkir Red Army men.
Chairman, Council of People’s Commissars Written on September 5 , 1 9 1 9 First published in 1 9 3 2 Printed from the typewritten text in Grazhdanskaya voina v Bashkirii. signed by V. I. Lenin
420 224 TO S. I. GUSEV 356
Comrade Gusev, Thinking over the letter from Sklyansky (about the situa- tion on September 15) and the sum total of the operations reports, I am becoming convinced that our Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic is working badly. To keep on with reassuring reports is bad tactics. It becomes “a game of reassurance”. But in reality, we have stagnation, almost collapse. At the Siberian Front they have put some blackguard Olderogge and the old woman Pozern in charge, and “reas- sured themselves”. An absolute disgrace! And now we are beginning to get beaten! We shall make the R.M.C.R. responsible for this, if energetic steps are not taken! To let victory slip out of our hands is a disgrace. Inaction against Mamontov. Evidently, there has been one delay after another. The troops marching on Voronezh from the North were late. We were late in transferring the 21st Division to the South. We were late with the armoured cars. Late with communications. Whether it was the Com- mander-in-Chief alone who visited Orel, or whether he went with you, is all one: the job was not done. Communications with Selivachov were not established, supervision of him was not established, in spite of the long-standing and
As a result, inaction against Mamontov and inaction with Selivachov (instead of the “victories” promised from day to day in childish little drawings—do you remember how you showed me these little drawings, and how I said: they’ve forgotten the enemy?!). 421 TO S. I. GUSEV If Selivachov deserts, or his divisional commanders betray us, the guilty party will be the R.M.C.R., because it slept, and sent us soothing messages, but didn’t do its job. We must send the best, most energetic commissars to the South, not sleepy owls. We are late, too, with new formations. We are letting the autumn go by-and Denikin will triple his forces, get tanks, etc., etc. This can’t go on. The sleepy tempo of work must be made into a lively one. Reply (through Lydia Alexandrovna Fotiyeva). Lenin September 16 Apparently our R.M.C.R. “gives orders”, without being interested in or able to follow up fulfilment. This may be our common vice, but in military affairs it simply means destruction. Written on September 1 6 , 1 9 1 9 First published in Pravda No. 6 3 , Printed from the original March 5 , 1 9 3 3 422 225 TO E. M. SKLYANSKY October 15, 1919 Comrade Sklyansky, Cavalry radio stations, and also light mobile field sta- tions, of which there are large quantities in the stores of the Central Military Engineers’ Board, are absolutely essential for the Southern Front. Give immediate instruc- tions for the urgent transfer to the Southern Front of 50 of each type. This is demanded by Stalin, who complains very much of lack of communications. Write me what exactly you have done, and incidentally order for me from the C.M.E.B. a brief summary of the total number of radio stations they possess, and their distribution among the forces. V. Ulyanov (Lenin) Chairman, Defence Council First published in Pravda No. 5 3 , Printed from the original February 2 3 , 1 9 3 3
423 226 NOTE ON A LETTER FROM G. K. ORJONIKIDZE 357
In the opinion both of Unshlikht and of Stalin, Sergo is a most reliable military worker. That he is a most loyal and most practical revolutionary, I know from my own experience of over 10 years. Written not earlier than October 1 5 , 1 9 1 9 First published in Pravda No. 2 9 8 , Printed from the original October 2 8 , 1 9 3 6 |
