V. I.

Lenin

260

To:   HIS SISTER MARIA

Maria Ilyinichna Ulyanova, Shirokaya Street, 48, Apt. 24, Petrograd, Russia

Oulianoff, Spiegelgasse, 14 II , Zürich I, Switzerland

October 22, 1916

Dear Manyasha, I received your two postcards dated August 29 and
September 1 at the same time. Thanks very much for the trouble
you have taken with the publishers and for the money you
sent. Has the new publisher received the manuscript on modern
capitalism? [4] Please let me know when he does.
I regard this work on economics as being of exceptionally
great importance and would especially like to see it in print
in full. You write that the publisher wants to put out The Agrarian Question as a book and not as a pamphlet. I
understand that to mean that I must send him the continuation
(i.e., in addition to what I have written about America I
must write what I have promised about
Germany). [5]
I will start on this as soon as I have finished what I have to write to cover the advance received from the old publisher. [1]

And so I take it that the new publisher has commissioned me to continue the agrarian question! If you have
the chance, remind him of that. (I have not received the
500 rubles, but shall receive them in a day or two, of course;
I do not think it is an advance, but payment for the manuscripts received.)

Is it at all possible (if an opportunity offers, not especially)
to find out whether Granat included my article on Marx in the
Dictionary? [2]

I did not get the promised reprints.
If he does not answer, can you find out from the library by
taking out the volume for that letter?

I have sent you three suggestions for translation (three
books—Kemmerer; Gilbreth; Hobson). If they are not suitable let me know and I will look for others. If suitable,
you must make sure that an order is given and the suggestion
accepted. Then I will start work. Perhaps Anya will undertake the translation of one of the books? Give Anya my very
best regards and Nadya’s. I have sent you three postcards
to
M.T.’s [3] address and am now sending this to your address. Is it just as convenient? Nadya and I are still living
in the same old way, quite quietly; the libraries in Zurich
are better and it is more convenient to work. Many kisses
from Nadya and me and regards to M. T. I am very grateful
for the books you sent; we have also received the women’s
journal.

Yours,

V. U.

---
Notes:
[1]
The old publisher was V. D. Bonch-Bruyevich.— Ed .

[2]
See Note 334.— Ed .

[3]
Of the three postcards two have been lost and the third is
published as Letter No. 259.— Ed .

[4]
The book referred to was Lenin’s Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism which he wrote in the first half of 1916 and on July
2 sent via Paris to Parus Publishers in Petrograd; on Gorky’s
initiative this publishing house put out a series of popular booklets
on the countries of Western Europe during the First World War.
The series was edited by M. N. Pokrovsky, who was in Paris at
the time, and through him Lenin maintained contact with the
publishers The manuscript did not reach Pokrovsky and a second
copy had to be sent. In September 1916 Gorky wrote to Pokrovsky
saying, “Lenin is really magnificent”. The Parus editors, however,
protested strongly against Lenin’s criticism of Kautsky’s
apostasy and made some substantial changes to the text—they removed
the criticism of Kautsky’s theory of ultra-imperialism and
distorted several of Lenin’s formulations.

Lenin’s book was first published in Petrograd in mid-1917 under
the title Imperialism, the Latest Stage of Capitalism. (A Popular Outline ) with a Preface by Lenin dated April 26, 1917.

[5]
New Data on the Laws Governing the Development of Capitalism in Agriculture. Part One. Capitalism and Agriculture in the United States of America is the full title of the part published. Lenin
intended writing two further parts—on Germany and Austria—
and started collecting material. During a search of his house at
Poronin on August 7, 1914 three notebooks containing statistical
analyses on the agricultural systems of Germany, Austria and
Hungary were seized. The Central Archives of the Institute of
Marxism-Leninism, C.C., C.P.S.U., is in possession of some of the
material prepared by Lenin for the next part (on Germany).
Lenin was unable to carry out his intention of writing Part Two,
Germany.