N. Krupskaya

18.

To Lenin’s Mother


Written: 17 October, 1899. Letter sent from Shushenskoye to Podolsk
Published: 1929 in the journal Proletarshaya Revolyufsiya No. 8–9 Printed from the original.
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1977, Moscow, Volume 37, pages 582-583.
Translated/Edited: George H. Hanna and Robert Daglish.
Transcription/Markup: D. Walters
Public Domain: Lenin Internet Archive 2008. You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as the source/editing/transcription/markup information noted above.


Dear Maria Alexandrovna,

It is quite a long time since I wrote to you and I have not even answered Manyasha’s letter of September 14 and my conscience is troubling me on account of it. There is nothing new to write about and I have described our daily life many times. A few days ago Kurnatovsky visited us and he told us about the people at Yermakovskoye. A son has been born to Dominika but the child is ill, they think it is consumptive, and she herself is sick all the time and very miserable. Mikh. Al. has been found fit for service in the army and he is now enjoying his last few months of freedom. In December he will be sent nobody knows where but for the time being he is very busy. His wife is always rather poorly, she is miserable and amuses herself by taking walks in the vegetable garden with a calf and her dog, Kurtashka. They promised to come to us as soon as the sleigh road is open. On the two days Kurnatovsky was with us, the men all went out shooting first thing in the morning; Kurnatovsky is fanatically keen on this sport. Somebody has beard from Kazachinskoye that Yakubova has disappeared from there, enquiries are being made about her everywhere, and the people at Yermakovskoye have been asked whether she has been there; according to their information she was there a week ago. There are rumours that she has escaped abroad, somebody has seen her in Berlin. So that’s that.

It is already autumn hero and soon we shall go skating. That will be better because we have got rather fed up with walking and Volodya’s shooting will soon he over. He is now busy with the Webbs’ book. He has to work on alone because two of us together take longer. It is boring enough work because the translation is a poor one and it has to be almost all retranslated. Actually I don’t do anything arid I don’t know where all the time goes. There remain three months and 13 days to the day of our departure, that is very little. I have already applied to the police department for permission to go to Pskov. Mother intends to make the same application in her own name.

Well, good-bye. Many kisses, regards to all,

Yours,
Nadya