V. I.

Lenin

September 6

Dear Comrade, I arrived here safely yesterday with my whole family,
after a brief captivity in Austria. Zinoviev will also be
coming. We thought of settling in Geneva, where all our
old sympathies attract us. But then we began to hesitate
in favour of Berne. They say that there’s a rush to Geneva
of new French émigrés from Paris, Brussels, etc. We wonder if there is an excessive rise in prices, particularly
of rents. Also we shall have to make our arrangements on a
temporary basis: is it possible to take furnished rooms (two
small ones), with use of kitchen, by the month?

One other question: if it is not too much trouble, please
call at the Société de lecture (Grand’ Rue. 11) and take their
rules; I must see whether they have been changed in any
way. It is this
Société [1] that particularly attracts me to
Geneva, although here too?... It’s expensive.... What about
a printing press? Is there a Russian one? Can one now publish a leaflet, etc.? In Russian? With special precautions,
or as before (against the war, of course, and against the new
type of nationalists, from Haase to Vandervelde and
Guesde—they’ve all played false!). You will oblige me very
much by replying to all these questions as soon as possible.
Are there any other Bolshevik comrades in Geneva?
Including those going to Russia? Best regards from all of
us to you, to Comrade Olga and all our friends.

Yours,
N. Lenin

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Notes:
[1]
The collection of the latest books at the Society.