Published:
First published in 1929 in the journal Proletarskaya Revolyutsiya No. 11.
Sent from Munich.
Printed from
the original.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
1977,
Moscow,
Volume 37,
pages 313-314.
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
Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova,
Sharonov’s House,
Bakhmetyevskaya Street,
Moscow,
Russia
January 16, 1901
Mother dearest,
I have received your letter of December 26th with Manyasha’s postscript and was very glad to hear that Mitya was with you and that you had a good time at Christmas. It is a pity it is so terribly cold; when I tell the Germans (or the Czechs) about a temperature of 28° below zero Réaumur they simply gasp and wonder how the Russians manage to stay alive. Here 8° or 10° below zero R is considered cold, furchtbare Kälte[1] and almost everybody manages with only an autumn coat (admittedly most of them wear woollen jerseys as well). The houses here are not at all adapted to severe cold, the walls are thin, the windows are not caulked up tight and very often there are not even Winterfenster.[2] You have no need to worry about me; I eat well at a boarding-house where I have been staying since autumn. I feel quite well, probably because I run around a lot more than I sit still. Nadya’s arrival is not far away now—her term will be up in two and a half months,[3] and then I shall make all the proper arrangements.
I send hearty greetings to Mitya and Mark, and many thanks to Manyasha for the books she sent, and especially for the unusually beautiful and interesting photographs from our cousin in Vienna; I should like to receive such gifts more often.[4]
Many kisses, my dear, and I hope you will keep well.
Yours,
V. Ul.
[1] Terrible cold (Ger.)—Ed. —Lenin
[2] Storm windows (Ger.)—Ed. —Lenin
[3] Krupskaya’s term of exile ended on March 11, 1901.—Ed.
[4] Lenin refers to the Manifesto of the Party of Socialist-Revolutionaries that G. B. Krasin sent him in an album of photographs. The manifesto was reviewed by G. Plekhanov in an article “New Wine in Old Bottles”, published in Iskra No. 5.
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