Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 16 - From Marx to Mao

362V. I. LENINthe unification and consolidation of the Social-DemocraticParty was discussed with him by his old comrades whohad worked with him in St. Petersburg, the founders of Iskra,and received his warmest support. While Ivan Vasilyevichwas at liberty Iskra never went short of genuine workers’correspondence. Look through the first twenty issues of Iskra,all these letters from Shuya, Ivanovo-Voznesensk, Orekhovo-Zuyevo and other places in Central Russia: they nearly allpassed through the hands of Ivan Vasilyevich, who madeevery effort to establish the closest contact between Iskraand the workers. Ivan Vasilyevich was Iskra’s most assiduouscorrespondent and its ardent supporter. From the centralregion Babushkin made his way to the south, where he wasarrested in Ekaterinoslav and imprisoned in Alexandrovsk.From Alexandrovsk he escaped with another comrade by sawingthrough the window-bars of his cell. Without knowing asingle foreign language he made his way to London, where theIskra editorial office was at the time. A lot of things weretalked over there, a lot of questions were discussed withhim. But Ivan Vasilyevich did not get the chance to attendthe Second Party Congress ... imprisonment and exile puthim out of active service for a long time. The revolutionarywave that arose brought new functionaries, new Party leadersto the fore, but Babushkin at this time was living in theFar North, in Verkhoyansk, cut off from Party life. Butthe time was not wasted for him, he studied, he equipped himselffor the struggle, he was active among the workers whowere his comrades in exile, trying to make them class-consciousSocial-Democrats and Bolsheviks. In 1905 came theamnesty and Babushkin set out for Russia. But Siberia toowas seething with struggle and people like Babushkin wereneeded there. He joined the Irkutsk Committee and plungedheadlong into the work. He had to speak at meetings, carryon Social-Democratic agitation and organise an uprising.While Babushkin and five other comrades—whose names wehave not learned—were taking a large consignment of armsfrom Chita in a separate railway car the train was held up byone of Rennenkampf’s punitive expeditions and all six,without the slightest pretence of a trial were lined up on theedge of a common grave hastily dug on the spot and shot.They died like heroes. The story of their death was told by