Comrade Ch.,

Your note is full of misunderstandings. My report at the Fifteenth Party Conference speaks of the “unity between the interests of industrialisation (i.e., of the proletariat) and the interests of the main mass of the labouring sections of the population.” It says there that our method of industrialisation, i.e., the socialist method of industrialisation, “leads not to the impoverishment of the vast masses, but to an improvement of their living standards, not to an aggravation of the internal contradictions, but to the latter being evened out and overcome.”11 Hence it is a matter here of the bond between the working class and the main mass of the working people, particularly the main mass of the peasantry. Hence it is a matter of the contradictions within the bond, which will be evened out and overcome satisfactorily as industrialisation increases, that is, as the strength and influence of the country’s proletariat grows.

That is the matter dealt with in my report. But you, having forgotten all this, argue about the contradictions between the proletariat and the kulaks, that is contradictions that lie outside the scope of the bond and will grow and become more acute until we eliminate the kulaks as a class. It follows that you have confused two different things. You have confused the contradictions between the proletariat and the main mass of the working people with the contradictions between the proletariat and the kulaks.

Is that clear? I think it is.

With communist greetings, J. Stalin November 1930 Comrade Ch.,

1. In your first letter you played with the word “contradictions” and lumped together contradictions outside the bond (that is contradictions between the proletarian dictatorship and the capitalist elements of the country) and those within the bond (that is contradictions between the proletariat and the main mass of the peasantry). You could have avoided this, for a Marxist impermissible, game if you had taken the trouble to understand the basic causes of the disputes between the Party and the Trotskyists. The Trotskyists told us:
a) You will not cope with the contradictions between the middle peasants and the working class; they are bound to fall out and the bond will be abolished unless a victorious world revolution renders timely assistance;
b) You will not overcome the capitalist elements, you will not completely build socialism by your own efforts and a Thermidor will be inevitable unless a victorious world revolution renders timely assistance. On both these questions the Trotskyists, as we know, were defeated. But you had no desire to reflect on our disputes with the Trotskyists. In my reply I was therefore compelled to expose your playing with the word “contradictions” and said that it was impermissible to lump together two series of dissimilar contradictions. And what was your reply to this?

2. Instead of honestly acknowledging your mistake, you “diplomatically” evaded the question and passed on from playing with the word “contradictions” to playing with the words “inner contradictions,” lumping together contradictions within the bond and contradictions within the country, contradictions between the proletarian dictatorship and capitalism. That is, you are “imperceptibly” repeating your former mistake, with a mere change in its form. I shall not conceal the fact that lumping together two dissimilar contradictions and “diplomatically” slurring over this question is a very characteristic feature of the Trotskyist-Zinovievist way of thinking. I did not think that you were infected with this disease. Now I have to think about this as well. As I cannot tell what further play you will indulge in and am terribly overburdened with current affairs so that I have no time left for play, I must bid you farewell, Comrade Ch. J. Stalin

December 7, 1930

Published for the first time