The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-12-11

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conducted French courses in Geneva
asking him to recommend other good
libraries. l received an answer imme-
diately with the necessary informa-
ton. Ilyich made the rounds OF all
the libraries recommended, but could
not find a suitable one. In the end
his bicycle was stolen. He used TO
leave it on the staircase at the house
adjoining the "Bihliotheque Nation
ale" and paid the concierge" ten
centines q day for this. When the BIZ
cycle was stolen the concierge" de-
clared that she had not undertaken
to watch the bicycle, but merely to
allow Ilyich to put 1t up under the
staircase.
One had 70 be very careful in rid
ing a bicycle in Paris and in the SUI
burbs Once on his way to Juyissy,
Ilyich collided with an automobile,
He barely managed to jump clear but
the bicycle was smashed.
Innokenty, who had escaped from
Solvychegodsk, arrived. zhitomirSky
very kindly invited him to live with
him. Innokenty arrived very sick, On
his way to exile the iron letters which
he wore had so chafed the flesh of
his legs that deep wounds were
caused. Our doctors examined limo
kenty's legs and said lot of wise
things about it, but could do nothing.
Ilyich went TO consult the French
professor Dubouchier, an excellent
surgeon who had worked in Odessa
during the 1905 revolution. Ilyich was
accompanied by Natasha Hopner who
had known Dubouchier in odessa.
When Dubouchier heard the queer
things our doctors had told limo
kenty he burst out laughing and said:
Your physician comrades may be
very good reyolutionaries but as doc
tors they are jackasses!" nyich
roared with laughter, and on many
occasions afterwards repeated the
story. However, Innokenty had to
have medical treatment for a long
time.
Ilyich was very glad that limo
kenty had arrived. They were both
happy that Plekhanov was beginning
to associate himself from the liqui-
dators. He had already announced
thct he was leaving the editorial
board OF "Golos Sotsial Demokrata"
(The Voice of the Social-DemocratS +,
which the hquidators had controlled
since 1903. Later on, he withdrew his
resignation, but his relations with the
liquidators were becoming more
strained and on May IS, 1909, when
the first volume of the Menshevik
symposium, THE Social Movement in
Russia at the Beginning Of the Twen-
tieth Century" appeared, which con-
tanned an article by Portresov deny
ing the leading role Of the proletariat
in the bourgeois democratic revolu-
ton, Plekhanov definitely resigned
from the editorial board Of "Golos
Sotsial Denokrata. Both Ilyich and
Innokenty still hoped that joint
work with Plekhanov would be pos
sible. The younger generation did not
feel toward Plekhanov the same way
as the older generation of Marxists
in whose lives Plekhanoy had played
a decisive role. Ilyich and Inno-
kenty took the struggle on the philo-
sophie front very much to heart, for
both regarded philosophy as Wea-
pom in the struggle. They were OF
the opinion that philosophy was Or
ganically linked up with the question
Of evaluating all phenomena from the
point of view of dialectic material
ism, with the questions of the practi-
cal struggle in every field. Ilyich
wrote to Anna Ilyinishna asking her
to hurry the publication of his book.
1C was proposed to call an enlarged
meeting OF the editorial board OF
'Proletarii at which the question was
to be raised Of completely breaking
away from the Otzovists. 1.-THE sit
uation is sad one here" Vladimir
Ilyich wrote to his sister Anna IL
yinishna ON May 26, "Spaltung "a
split) is inevitable; I hope that in
about month and a half I shall be
able to give you an exact account
Of it,"
In May, Iyich's book "Materialism
and Empirio- Citicisrn, was pub
lished, In this book he, as it we're,
crossed all the is and dotted all the
fs' of this controversy. In Lenins
opinion the questions of philosophy
were closely bound up with the ques-
ton OF the struggle against religion.
That is why he delivered a lecture
on Religion and the Working Class"
at the "Proletarii" Club and wrote an
article entitled 1.-THE Attitude of the
Workers Party Towards Religion"
for No. As Of the "Proletarii" and an
other article entitled 1.-THE Attitude
of Glasses and Parties Towards Re-
ligion" for No. Of the "Sotsial DEM
okrat."f These articles, particularly
the one in "Proletarii," are applic-
able to this very day. In these articles
nyich emphasizes the class character
of religion and points out that in
the hands of the bourgeoisie religion
is a means for dlyerting the masses
from the class struggle and for stulti-
tying their minds. The fight on this
front, he argues, must not be ignored
or underestimated; but 1t must not be
approached from too simple an an
gle; the social roots of religion must
be revealed, the question must be
taken in all its eomplexity.
Even as a boy of Is, Ilyich under
stood the pernicious character OF re-
lieion. He then ceased to wear cross
and stopped going to church. In those
days this was not so simple mat
ter as 1t is now
Lenin was of the opinion that the
more subtle religions, those that were
free from obvious absurdities and Of
external slavish forms, were more per-