Published:
First published in 1929 in the journal Proletarskaya Revolyutsiya No. 6.
Sent from Shushenskoye to Podolsk.
Printed from
the original.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
1977,
Moscow,
Volume 37,
pages 247-249.
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.
• README
March 17, 1899
Yesterday, Mother dearest, I received your letter of February 28. A very big merci for your photograph. I think it came out quite well and I am all the more glad because the one I have is rather old. It would be wonderful if you could visit us in Shusha. In summer the journey is a relatively easy one—by rail to Krasnoyarsk and then by steamer to Minusinsk (at the beginning of May the steamers do not usually go as far upstream as Minusinsk but in summer they go further, sometimes, though rarely, even to Shusha). Shusha is not a bad place to stay in summer. Gleb and Basil are applying for permission to be transferred here for the summer (summer in Minusinsk is very bad); I do not know whether permission will be given.[1] Manyasha wrote to us recently and we are writing to her today.
Y.V. received the money.
It is a good thing that Mitya intended going for a gun soon after your letter. The shooting season here begins at the end of March and we are already discussing plans for the shoot.
Many kisses and congratulations for your name day. This letter will probably arrive before the first of April.
Yours,
V. U.
Y.V. sends regards, Nadya will also write to you today.[2]
I have received the Izvestiya[5]—a big merci for it— and the clean proofs.[3] By and large I am very pleased with them; the book is neatly printed, the tables are clear and without misprints, and very few of the tables are printed sideways. But I don’t know about the diagram, how did that come out? I am sending you a list of the misprints in signatures 4 to 11. A few of them (I have underlined them) either make reading difficult or distort the meaning (these are very few). Perhaps it will be convenient for you to do this: in addition to the list of misprints at the end of the book you put in a special sheet at the beginning (it should be glued in) asking the reader to correct, before reading, the most important misprints, of which these (the ones I have underlined) are of significance, the remainder being given at the end of the book. I believe this is sometimes done.
Since it is no use hoping for any book to appear without misprints, I can tell you (contrary to your expectations) that I feel fully satisfied. As far as accuracy is concerned the Studies will not compare at all with this publication; there are few misprints and most of them are quite unimportant.
As for the contents, do as you please; you may confine it to the section headings or add the detailed contents I have compiled.[6]
I am sending a list of acquaintances to whom I would like you to send the book when it comes out. Mitya will have plenty to do sending off such a heap of packages! But that is better than sending a lot here (three copies will be enough for me).
I am also sending a Postscript to the Preface. If it is not too late I should very much like to print it, so as to make reference to Kautsky’s splendid book.[7] Perhaps it will be possible to set the Postscript, even if the Preface has already been set. As soon as you receive this, write and let me know whether it is possible and, in general, when the end is expected.
V. A–ch has let himself in for a job! It must be very difficult to read the proofs of such a book!
All the best, and regards to all.
Yours,
V. U.
Columbus and the doctor have not written to me for a long time.
I have one other request to make of you. Perhaps you will chance to be in St. Petersburg or will see the writer— if so, please find out about the Webbs’ book. Why have they not paid any fee for it all this time, for, according to Nadya, it should have been paid irrespective of whether the book appeared or not. We should get it out of O. Popova. We are not writing to the writer about it because we think this question cannot really be dealt with in writing. I tell you only in case you see him personally.[4]
[2] This letter has been lost.—Ed.
[3] These were the proofs of Chapters II and III of The Development of Capitalism in Russia.—Ed.
[4] There follows, in the original, a list of the misprints.—Ed.
[5] Apparently communications were written in invisible ink between the lines of Wolfe’s bibliographical journal Izvestiya.
[6] The table of contents gave details of the contents of each section.
[7] This was Karl Kautsky’s Die Agrarfrage, 1899; Lenin’s review of this book was published in Nachalo No. 4 for 1899 (see Collected Works, Vol. 4, pp. 94–99); his conspectus of it was published in Lenin Miscellany XIX. In the Central Party Archives of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism, C.C., C.P.S.U., there is a copy of the book with notes in it made by Lenin.
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