Published:
First published in 1929 in the journal Proletarskaya Revolyutsiya No. 5.
Sent from Shushenskoye to Podolsk.
Printed from
the original.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
1977,
Moscow,
Volume 37,
pages 209-211.
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.
December 12, 1898
From Anyuta I have received Neue Zeit and the report of the Committee on Literacy, also a postcard dated November 28. I am answering her on another page. Mail days here are Tuesday and Friday, but that, of course, is not what interests you. We receive Wednesday’s and Friday’s newspapers, on the fourteenth day from the day of issue, that is. It is, therefore, more convenient for you to write on Tuesdays and Fridays (from Moscow, of course; about Podolsk I do not know). Nadya and I have submitted an application to go to Minusinsk for Christmas and stay there for a week.[5] We shall receive letters just the same, so there is no need to change the address.
Yours,
V. U.
Today I am sending a registered letter containing the third and fourth chapters of the “markets” to Mother’s address. I have made a more exact calculation of how much I have written; in the first four chapters there are about 500,000 letters.[1] That is fewer than I imagined (and the second part will be less than the first). My fears were groundless; the type that gives 2,000 letters to the page will be quite all right. I have nothing against an edition of two separate volumes—decide yourselves with the publisher. The only thing is the figures—the figures!—they will get them all wrong unless they send me the proofs to correct.[2]
Please make two corrections to the manuscript: (1) in the Preface strike out everything from “As we know” in the second sentence to “opponents’ views” in the third; in the next sentence instead of “it seemed to us” write “it seemed to the author”.
I think it might be rather dangerous to speak about “opponents” in the very first paragraph.[6]
(2) On page 44 cross out the footnote at tin end of Section VI and in place of it write: “cf. V. Ilyin, Economic Studies, St. Petersburg, 1899, p. 30”.[7]
Please acknowledge receipt of these corrections.
Thanks for Neue Zeit and the report of the committee. Is it possible to obtain the missing numbers of N.Z. for 1897–98; we have Nos. 7-8 and 11–24; Nos. 1-6 and 9-10 are missing. I should very much like to have a full set for 1897–98.
You write that you received my letter of November 15[3] and did not receive the previous one about books. I no longer remember exactly when I sent it, but I know for sure that immediately after I received books from St. Petersburg I sent you an ordinary letter with a list of misprints that distort the meaning and a request to distribute a few copies among acquaintances, including another three for Manyasha (in addition to one for herself), one to St. Petersburg, not to the old man but to the Samaran, one to Kokushka (I have not sent him one); and three for you, three for the Chicagoan, the author of The Factory (T.-B.) and Markets (Bulgakov),[8] two for Grigoryev and Columbus —I make it fourteen copies about which I wrote, as I remember, in the lost letter.
I was very surprised to learn from the doctor that the censor seems to have banned the translation of the Webbs’ book finally and unconditionally. How can that be? I am of the opinion that it is a rumour—due to the translation History of Trade Unionism, which is more zensurwidriges.[4] Our translation is still in the press, isn’t it?
All the best,
V. U.
I wrote to the Statistics Department of the Zemstvo Board of Tver Gubernia asking them to send me their summaries (Vol. XIII, Issue 1, 1897). They have not sent it, canaille. Is there anyone of your acquaintance who could get it? Krasnoperov (if he is there) would surely not refuse.
[1] I have counted about 900 letters to a page (and about 1,600 letters in those long pages that have been used for Chapter II).—Lenin
[2] Figures followed by decimal fractions should be printed in a special manner; the fractions should be printed in smaller type than the whole numbers and should be printed below the line, i.e., not 6.3 but 6.3. This is very important in order to prevent mistakes. —Lenin
[4] Contrary to the censor (Ger.).—Ed.
[5] The trip was sanctioned and Lenin and Krupskaya stayed in Minusinsk from December 24,1898 to January 2, 1899. They took part in a meeting of Marxist exiles, who came from various parts of Minusinsk District.
[6] These corrections were never made to the Preface of The Development of Capitalism in Russia.
[7] The forty-fourth page of the manuscript (the fair copy) coincided with page 20 of the first edition of The Development of Capitalism in Russia (Collected Works, Vol. 3, p. 58). The correction indicated by Lenin was not made to the first or the second editions.
[8] The writers referred to are M. I. Tugan-Baranovsky, author of The Russian Factory, Past and Present, and S. N. Bulgakov, author of Markets Under Capitalist Production. A Theoretical Study.
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