Published:
First published in 1929 in the journal Proletarskaya Revolyutsiya No. 4.
Sent from Shushenskoye to Moscow.
Printed from
the original.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
1977,
Moscow,
Volume 37,
pages 167-168.
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.
March 14, 1898
I have received, Mother dearest, your letter of February 28. I did not expect you to return from Kazan so soon, A few days ago I got a letter from there from Alexander Ivanovich which greatly surprised me. He says be is now working, that Nikolai Ivanovich is in St. Petersburg; and that they are living in the same place in Kazan.[1] I must make up my mind to answer it some time. I know nothing about his health—it is difficult to draw any conclusion from his letter; if he is the same as he used to be, it will be difficult for him to go to work and it will not be easy for him to make a living, either.
If books can be sent by express on the railway and the charge is the same as for a slow train, it is, of course, better to send them that way. The thing is when and to whom to send them? It is risky to send them to Achinsk, for Nadezhda Konstantinovna to take them on with her from there; they may be delayed and get left in Achinsk. They will most likely have to be sent to Krasnoyarsk again and wait for someone coming from there. I shall probably be able to find someone more easily now.
With regard to being transferred from here, I am not so far thinking of it. In my opinion it would be premature. I shall wait until Nadezhda Konstantinovna arrives and see how things turn out. I am not writing to her today because I hope that she will have left Moscow by the time this letter arrives. If, despite my hopes, she is still there when it comes, please tell her that yesterday I received the German translation of Webb (it is a great help to me—I could not have managed without it) and Vestnik Finansov.
There is no need to worry about my health—I am now quite well.
We are now having fine weather, the sun is getting appreciably warm and the roads are beginning to deteriorate. Winter, however, retreats very reluctantly here and there is still a long wait ahead for the warm weather.
You will probably receive this letter about April 1, or only shortly before. I offer you and Manyasha my best wishes on the occasion of your name day. I hope Mitya will definitely be out by Easter.
Yours,
V. U.
From Manyasha I have received Moskovskiye Vedomosti ,[2] at first one issue (I forget which)—there were no interesting articles in it. Yesterday I received four more issues (Nos. 53-56) in which I read some interesting little articles badgering Marxists. Merci for them.
In the near future, in three or four weeks or perhaps earlier, we must expect the spring breakdown of communications with Russia; for a fortnight or perhaps as much as three weeks, there will be no post to and from Russia.
[1] Alexander Ivanovich and Nikolai Ivanovich Veretennikov were Lenin’s cousins on his mother’s side. At the time Alexander was seriously ill, and for tins reason Lenin was greatly surprised to receive a letter that he had found himself work.
[2] Moskovskiye Vedomosti (Moscow Recorder)—a newspaper founded in 1756. From 1863 it expressed the views of the most reactionary landowners and clergy. In 1905 it became one of the chief organs of the Black Hundreds. It was published up to the Great October Socialist Revolution.
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