V. I.

Lenin

45

To:   HIS MOTHER

March 14, 1898

I have received, Mother dearest, your letter of
February 28. I did not expect you to return from Kazan so soon,
A few days ago I got a letter from there from Alexander
Ivanovich which greatly surprised me. He says be is now
working, that Nikolai Ivanovich is in St. Petersburg; and
that they are living in the same place in
Kazan. [1] I must make up my mind to answer it some time. I know nothing
about his health—it is difficult to draw any conclusion
from his letter; if he is the same as he used to be, it will be
difficult for him to go to work and it will not be easy for
him to make a living, either.

If books can be sent by express on the railway and the charge is the same as for a slow train, it is, of course, better
to send them that way. The thing is when and to whom to
send them? It is risky to send them to Achinsk, for Nadezhda
Konstantinovna to take them on with her from there; they
may be delayed and get left in Achinsk. They will most likely have to be sent to Krasnoyarsk again and wait for
someone coming from there. I shall probably be able to find
someone more easily now.

With regard to being transferred from here, I am not so far thinking of it. In my opinion it would be premature.
I shall wait until Nadezhda Konstantinovna arrives and see
how things turn out. I am not writing to her today because I
hope that she will have left Moscow by the time this letter
arrives. If, despite my hopes, she is still there when it
comes, please tell her that yesterday I received the German translation of Webb (it is a great help to me—I could not
have managed without it) and Vestnik Finansov .

There is no need to worry about my health—I am now quite well.

We are now having fine weather, the sun is getting appreciably warm and the roads are beginning to deteriorate.
Winter, however, retreats very reluctantly here and there
is still a long wait ahead for the warm weather.

You will probably receive this letter about April 1, or
only shortly before. I offer you and Manyasha my best wishes on the occasion of your name day. I hope Mitya
will definitely be out by Easter.

Yours,

V. U.

From Manyasha I have received Moskovskiye Vedomosti , [2] at first one issue (I forget which)—there were no interesting
articles in it. Yesterday I received four more issues (Nos.
53-56) in which I read some interesting little articles
badgering Marxists. Merci for them.

In the near future, in three or four weeks or perhaps earlier, we must expect the spring breakdown of
communications with Russia; for a fortnight or perhaps as much as
three weeks, there will be no post to and from Russia.

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Notes:
[1]
Alexander Ivanovich and Nikolai Ivanovich Veretennikov were
Lenin’s cousins on his mother’s side. At the time Alexander was
seriously ill, and for tins reason Lenin was greatly surprised to
receive a letter that he had found himself work.

[2]
Moskovskiye Vedomosti (Moscow Recorder)—a newspaper founded
in 1756. From 1863 it expressed the views of the most reactionary
landowners and clergy. In 1905 it became one of the chief organs
of the Black Hundreds. It was published up to the Great October
Socialist Revolution.