| Author(s) | Karl Marx |
|---|---|
| Written | 15 June 1876 |
MARX TO PYOTR LAVROV
IN LONDON
[London,] 15 June 1876
My dear Friend,
I am delighted to see from your letter that the suspicions about R.[1] cannot be anything other than figments of the imagination.
Liebknecht first wrote to Engels, telling him that certain suspicions attached to R. and that he (Engels) should privately warn our Russian friends in London.[2] Engels replied that he would do nothing so long as Liebknecht had not informed him of the facts upon which those suspicions were based. Then Liebknecht wrote saying that one evening, while in the company of several members of the Volksstaat's despatch department and some other working men, R., who was not altogether sober, tried to filch a packet of letters (from the Volksstaat) intended for the post, that his friends did not try to stop him, but went with him to the post office and made him post the packet. The matter was reported to Liebknecht, so that it was not he, but the working men—who had previously trusted R. implicitly—who raised the alarm. Liebknecht himself says that the adage in vino Veritas[3] is very far from being gospel truth, but nevertheless the incident gives food for thought. As you well know, once a suspicion of this kind has been aroused, other evidence invariably comes to mind which, however vague, lends itself to unfavourable interpretation.
In my opinion, Liebknecht was doing no more than his duty in reporting the matter; neither he (and up to a point this also applies to me) nor his friends were aware of the intimate ties between R. and yourself; otherwise he would certainly not have thought it necessary to have you informed. Misunderstandings of this kind can best be cleared up by plain speaking. In the life of a militant party one must be ready for anything; I, at any rate, was not at all surprised when I was accused of being one of Mr Bismarck's agents.
Engels was here last night. I asked him if he had written to you; he said he had not; he did not think it right to write to you on the subject, since Liebknecht had enjoined him to inform you privately, and he had not yet had time to go and see you. I told him I had written to you, whereupon he said he would also write.
I shall write and give Liebknecht the gist of your letter. At the same time I feel that it might be better not to let R. know anything about what has happened. When Liebknecht shows my letter to his friends, the latter—I feel sure—will do all in their power (for they are honest working men) to right the wrong they have done their comrade.
Last week's Pall Mall Gazette carried an article fulminating against Russia's financial policy.[4]
Yours ever,
K. Marx