[From the introduction to New Outlook Publishers' 1970edition of V. I. Lenin's
Letter to American Workers.]

LENIN'S LETTER TO AMERICAN WORKERS, ¹ WRITTEN IN 1918, IS ONE
of history's most interesting and most unusual documents. It is
a letter written from the barricades of a successful revolution. It
is a letter written by a head of a workers' state to workers of
another land. It is a family letter, a letter of mutual confidence
between class brothers and sisters. It is not a letter in the form
of a Russian writing to Americans, but from one worker to an-
other. It is an inspiring revolutionary message -- a message
from a victorious class. With no bravado or boasting, it conveys
a deep sense of revolutionary confidence.

Lenin's letter is a report to U.S. workers on the nature of a
critical, historic moment in the world and on the criminal activ-
ities of U.S. imperialism.

Lenin wrote the letter at a most explosive turning point of
human history, at a moment when the first revolution estab-
lishing workingclass power had achieved its victory. It was a
moment of great victory but also a moment when the new so-

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