The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-05-22
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LIVING ABROAD.


Il elopments there very closely and attendvely.
knew exactly the change In the economy
the country and the stand of the par
| d and groups He was especially interested in
| 4 owing the building up of the party organiza-
| I BIS and their work Thru personal connections
| letters he settled the conflicts among his
| { nrades. Towards comrades there was a differ
| e attitude on his part and on Plekhanov's. The
| rkers tell that when they came to Plekhanov
| h received them in a superior way and tired
| tim out with lecturing. Lenin approached them
| il simple way and they could talk to him all
/ d|E a1ldr all night. He had learned his manners
\ thu tlo contact with the workers. In the early
| nbeties when he prepared some party leafet,
htQuestioned one worker so long that the worker,
| wping the sweat from his forehead said "It is
| e$ier to do overtime work than to be questioned
! b1 YOU" Lenin took notice of this and learned
tdput his questions in different way. But still,
| during his time as head of the Peoples Commits
| sariat, he could be boresOme enough for some
| people-the Indifferent Soviet workers and the
insincere internationalists. But the rank and
file Bolsheviks, as well as his closest friends took
all their troubles to him and he helped them find
the solution. They did not regard him as the
Omniscient authority and they could criticize him
severely and differ with him. But they stuck to
him unfinchingly, and together with him they
created the iron cohort of the Bolsheviks.
And throughout his party life, there stood
beside him his wife Nadeshda Krupskaya. AS
teacher she had her own sphere of work, but
most of her time was devoted to the party
work. She was secretary of the group and
the party and she conducted the correspond
ence of Lenin with the comrades
From the Spark, the Flame"
1 THAT was the slogan Of, SSIskra"s = (Spark')
launched in 1900 in Munich. The head
| quarters were later moved to London and then
to Switzerland. 1t was one of those historical
papers by which epochs will be known It's
, followers in exile and in Russia were those
VITO are still the backbone Of the Russian
E4tyE and leaders of the revolutionary movement
of the world. On the editorial staff were three
"old-timers," Plenkhanov, Axelrod, and Vera
zassulitch, and three of the 9yOung" ones, Lenin,
Martov and Potresov.
In the leading article it was stated how the
socialists are gaining ground in Russia and the
workers movement spreading out. But the weak
point of the movement is its hetrogeneity, "Kus-
tarnichestvo," as Lenin called it. The word
means ''handicraftship'- primitive method of
! isolated circles and groups against the central
lied czarist government Absolutism can be over
thrown only by united, strongly organized,
centralized army of the foremost fighters of the
working class. Without such party, Lenin
said, fight is as if the peasant should go with
his club and his pillow against modern army.
l There were many deviatiOns from Marxism
theor tical and practical, and the Iskra started
a me filess fight against them. 1t became the
force Nunifying the emigrant colonies with the fac
tories and mines in Russia and the exile camps
in Siberia. All questions of the international
and Russian policy were explained. Also the
problems of the Russian labor movement. There
we're always workers letters in it, and the every
day questions of the organizations reviewed.
Many comrades who accepted the views of Is
kra did not like the harsh tone of the paper in
criticizing the different views. But in time they
learned that this was the best thing about the
paper. So many of those so "harshly" ciriti
cized became deserters or traitors to. the move
ment And the workers were thankful to Lenin,