V. I. Lenin

1895

4

To:   HIS SISTER MARIA

December 24

Manyasha, At last I have found time to answer your letter of the
15th.

I cannot agree with your views of the school and your studies.

First—the doctor said don’t go till Christmas and you think it will not be convenient to miss your lessons. People
miss months, not only weeks; it will not be any better if
you have to take to your bed by the spring.

Secondly—you write that either you will stop studying altogether or, if you go on, you can’t be “just off-hand
about it”. It seems to me that the main thing now is to
graduate . For that there is no sense in working extra hard;
what does it matter if you get threes [1] and an occasional two [2] by way of exception? In any case you will get your
remove since you had good marks in the first and second
terms. And that is all you need. Moreover, since you did
everything thoroughly at the beginning, you will finish
up well even if you do no homework. You must agree that
those who go all the way through with threes do not, first,
do their homework and, second, do not know the first thing
about the subject. [At least that is how it was at my school.]
So you will have an advantage over them.

It seems to me that your only chance of finishing the course is to be “off-hand” about it. If you don’t, you will
be seriously ill by summer.

If you cannot take things easy, then it is better to give
up studying and go abroad. You will always be able to graduate and a trip now will freshen you up, enliven you,
and get you away from moping at home. You will have a chance to look around and stay on there to learn something
more interesting than Ilovaisky’s History or Filaret’s
Catechism (?).

Do you take good walks now? Probably not. Why shouldn’t
you go skating? Again you’ll say, “It’s dull”. But you must not allow yourself to get so weak—that will be even
less “amusing”. You must force yourself.

About Shelgunov, I agree with you that some of his things are out of date. Which of his articles do you like?
On Russian or historical problems? On economics or philosophy?

Yours,

V. U.

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Notes:
[1]
In Russian schools a mark of “three”=fair, “two”=poor.— Ed .

[2]



In Russian schools a mark of “three”=fair, “two”=poor.— Ed .