Published:
First published in 1929 in the journal Proletarskaya Revolyutsiya No. 2-3.
Sent from Shushenskoye to Moscow.
Printed from
the original.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
1977,
Moscow,
Volume 37,
pages 141-142.
Translated: The Late George H. Hanna
Transcription\Markup:
D. Moros
Public Domain:
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Text
December 27, 1897
The money has arrived, Mother dearest, both the first and the second lots (i.e., of November 16 and December 8). We are now receiving our allowance regularly, too, so that in this respect things have returned to normal and I think for a long (relatively long) time no emergency additions will be necessary.
Gleb has now been living with me for several days, having obtained permission for a ten-day trip here. We are having an excellent time and do a lot of walking because the weather is mostly very warm. Ever since one day, when the frost was said to be 36° R (about ten days ago) and after a few days of snowstorm (“of weather”, as the people here say), the days have been very warm and we go shooting very zealously but without much luck. What shooting is there to be had here in winter! The walks are pleasant, though. Because of the holidays there was no outgoing mail on Wednesday this week and ho incoming mail on Friday; this is the third time since I have been living in Shusha that the mail has missed a turn—that is not very often. Thanks to my guest, I scarcely notice it.
Many kisses,
Yours,
V. U.
I am sending an article of mine for the journal. It would be good if you could pass it on quickly; perhaps you will be in time for the January issue.[1]
Gleb sends his regards. He asks you to tell Manyasha that he expects he will have a lot to argue about with her.
Do not work so hard, Manyasha, over Stange; it is quite probable that I was mistaken. How could I remember after so many years! You have found one article so we may consider ourselves lucky. It has even occurred to me that the second was not in Ekonomichesky Zhurnal but in Severny Vestnik for 1891 (at least I recently came across a reference to that effect somewhere). In any case there is no need to go through Ekonomichesky Zhurnal up to 1895.
As far as concerns your visit to me—I shall be very glad. Things are different now and I have no particular reasons for objecting. If you wait for a steamer up the Yenisei you can travel without any particular discomfort. It is quite possible that Nadezhda Konstantinovna will also come to me; the matter will probably be settled soon, and may even have been settled by the time you are reading this letter. If she is allowed to choose Shu-shu-shu as her place of exile instead of the north of Russia, she will not, of course, be allowed to put it off until spring but will have to travel at once.
Best wishes,
V. U.
I recall that Mark once wrote to me asking if he should get a gun dog for me in Moscow. My attitude at the time was very cool since I counted on my Pegasus, but he has let me down badly. I would now be in hearty agreement with such a plan, of course, but as far as I can see, it is purely Utopian and would not be worth the trouble. The transport is very expensive. Gleb gets fantastic ideas—why not take a little pup and bring it in a basket! We had a good laugh over that plan, which is, of course, little better than any other. It was simply that Mark let his imagination run away with him; from this postscript you can see what petty problems sometimes engage the attention of the inhabitants of Shu-shu-shu and Te-te-tes.
[1] Lenin sent his article “The Heritage We Renounce” to Novoye Slovo. Since the journal had been suppressed the article was not printed. It appeared later in the miscellany Economic Studies and Essays. (Collected Works, Vol. 2, pp. 491–534.)
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