Written: 26 July, 1900. Letter sent from Ufa to Podolsk
Published: 1931 in Lenin’s Letters to Relatives Printed from the original.
Source: Lenin
Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1977, Moscow, Volume 37, page 588.
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.
July 26
Thank you, Manyasha dear, for the books and the photograph that is probably your doing—and for the postscript to Volodya’s letter. I have been intending to write for a long time but kept on putting it off. How are you all? I have not heard anything of you for ages. When are you thinking of returning to town, what plans have you made for the winter? When I received a letter from Volodya saying that Maria Alexandrovna and Anyuta were coming with him I was very glad and thought I would be able to discuss everything with Anyuta. There are many things I wanted to talk about. When they arrived, however, I was so distracted that all my ideas flew away—and there were other visitors here besides the family. It turned out that I did not have a real talk at all and I do not know when I shall see them again. Oh well, we shall see what will happen; I have only seven and a half months left to remain in Ufa, the time will pass very quickly. I have found pupils to teach and am taking German lessons myself. I have discovered a German from Berlin and with some difficulty persuaded him to talk to me twice a week. So far we have had only one talk. The German is a chatterbox, so I may get something out of it. In addition to that I have been reading the silliest German novels and have been so busy at my German that I do not go anywhere; I am becoming unsociable and have no desire to go anywhere. Good-bye. I embrace you fondly.
N. Ulyanova
P.S. Did Volodya tell you that a young lady from here is coming to see you? She is the niece of an old acquaintance. Tell her whatever you can about studies at Brussels University.