V. I.   Lenin

165

To:   HIS MOTHER

Published: First published in 1929 in the journal Proletarskaya Revolyutsiya No. 11. Sent from Geneva to Mikhnevo, Serpukhov Uyezd, Moscow Gubernia. Printed from the original.
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1977, Moscow, Volume 37, pages 384-385.
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

Mother dearest,

It seems quite a while since I last wrote to you. I think the last time was a postcard from London.^[2] I arrived back from there with a bout of abdominal catarrh. I am better now and have begun to eat properly, and after the diet feel hungry all the time. I have begun work again.

Life here goes on as usual. The weather is extremely changeable—one day it is hot, oppressive and stormy and then, like today, it is rainy and cold. Summer has not yet come into its own.

How are you getting on in the country? I hope that Manyasha has completely recovered. We are expecting her here. Best regards to Mitya.

I embrace you fondly, my dear.
Yours,
V. Ulyanov

P.S. It is a pity that the Moscow publisher-philosopher^[1] has refused to publish my book. I should like you, if you can, to write to some of your Moscow literary acquaintances and ask them whether they can find a publisher. I now have no contacts in this field.

I have been told that Anyuta read the proofs of the last part of my agrarian book. I have still not received a single copy! It is extremely important, for many reasons, for me   to obtain two or three copies, even if they are not stitched.[3] I realise, of course, that to ask for them direct would be careless, inconvenient, etc., from all points of view. If there is the slightest opportunity of doing so privately, or if Anyuta has even one copy, I ask you to send it to me, at least for a time. I stand very much in need of it at this very moment.

Regards from all of us!

Yours,
V. Ulyanov

Notes

[1] This refers to P. G. Dauge.—Ed.

[2] Lenin worked on his Materialism and Empirio-criticism in the British Museum (London) in May 1908.

[3] This refers to Lenin’s The Agrarian Programme of Social-Democracy in the First Russian Revolution, 1905–1907. It is possible that Lenin wished to show it to those attending the Plenary Meeting of the C.C., R.S.D.L.P., which was to be held in Geneva in   August 1908. It is not known whether Lenin’s request was fulfilled.