page 551

Dear Comrades and Friends,

    Thanks for the greetings conveyed to us on behalf of your Party. We know very little about your movement; we have no documents whatever. However, the little we do know shows us that we stand together for the Communist International and against the Berne yellow International, which deceives the masses. The negotiations which the leaders of the yellow International conducted with your Party show that they are merely a general staff without an army. The dictatorship of the proletariat and the Soviet system have already won moral victory throughout the world. Real and final victory will inevitably come in all countries of the world, despite all difficulties and all bloodshed, despite the White terror of the bourgeoisie, etc.

    Down with capitalism! Down with false democracy, bourgeois democracy! Long live the world republic of Soviets!

Ever yours,          
V. Lenin  

Moscow, August 19, 1919