V. I.   Lenin

33

To:   HIS MOTHER AND HIS SISTER MARIA

Published: First published in 1929 in the journal Proletarskaya Revolyutsiya No. 2-3. Sent from Shushenskoye to Moscow. Printed from the original.
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1977, Moscow, Volume 37, pages 133-134.
Translated: The Late George H. Hanna
Transcription\Markup: D. Moros
Public Domain: Lenin Internet Archive.   You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.

I received Manyasha’s letter of September 29th, Mother dearest, on October 14; it told me about the delay of my letters to Mark.^[1] I must admit I was afraid of this before, when I knew that Mark was leaving. The delay, however, was not very great, so small, in fact, that the manuscript I sent reached its destination in time.^[3]

I am still living as usual, in peace and quietness. The weather is getting wintry, we, have long since sealed ourselves up behind double windows, keep the stove going, etc. The real cold is still to come, of course, and so far there have been mostly autumn days when it is pleasant to stroll through the forest with a gun. I shall probably continue that exercise through the winter. Shooting in winter, going after hares, for instance, is no less interesting than it is in summer, and I regard it as one of the important advantages of rural life.

I usually get the magazines in the first half of the month. I am now reading the September issues with interest. Soon I hope to get some information from the editors about the article I sent. If it is accepted I shall subscribe to a few more magazines—I think I had better do it through the same editorial office, so that there is no more muddle and I don’t get the same copies twice.

I am awaiting news of the arrival of Anyuta, Mark and Mitya.

Yours,
V. U.

I had a letter recently from Yuly. He writes that he had moved to a new flat, much better than the old one,   and is now fixed up so comfortably that he has been able to work for the past month; he has written something and sent it off. We shall see how he will stand the winter in Turukhansk. Anatoly has found work, temporarily.[4]
 

Manyasha,

Merci for the letter. Why do you keep saying that I should write more frequently? Do you think I do not write often as it is? You say yourself that you now receive two of my letters at a time—what more do you want?

Up to now I have not received the L. G.^[2] and Bulletin. I do not know the reason for the delay. If you happen to be near the shop in which you ordered them, look in and hurry them up.

Buy me Programmy domashnego chteniya na 3-i god sistematicheskogo kursa; it costs 50 kopeks at the warehouse in Nikitskaya Street, Rikhter House, apartment 3. (I read about this book today in Russkiye Vedomosti and want to see what it is like. It is probably to be found in other bookshops besides that warehouse.) And subscribe for me to the new monthly publication Izvestiya knizhnykh magazinov tovarishchestva M. O. Wolfe, 35 kopeks a year (Kuznetsky Most, 12, Moscow). I want to see what sort of publication it is. In general I have nothing that gives me bibliographical information and which will tell me about new books. If you are interested in this publication, subscribe to it in your own name and send it on to me afterwards. Its programme is so extensive and the price so low that one cannot help thinking there may be some catch in it. We’ll see.

I recall that either Anyuta or you wrote to me about having sent the second issue of Mehring. I have not received it. It is quite possible that the first got through by chance.

All the best,
V. U.

Notes

[1] See Letter No. 30—Ed.

[2] The Labour Gazette.—Ed.

[3] Here and below the manuscript referred to is that of Lenin’s article “The Handicraft Census of 1894–95 in Perm Gubernia”.

[4] When A. A. Vaneyev was in Yeniseisk he found work in the office of the engineer in charge of improving navigation on the River Angara.