V. I.

Lenin

89

To:   HIS SISTER ANNA AND HIS MOTHER

May 29, 1899

Anyuta,

I have received your postscript to Mark’s letter.

You had not previously written to me about a proposal
that I write a short course of political economy. I have
decided to refuse the offer; it is difficult to write to order
(in particular, it is difficult to compete with Bogdanov.
Why not republish his
book? [2] ), and it would be difficult
to finish it by autumn. In general, I want to write less and
read more. Since my correspondence with the écrivain has
come to a complete halt, please let him know of my refusal.

I have not yet started on Webb. I am still waiting for the
original (of Volume 2) and the German translation (of
Volume 2). If there is a delay it will not be my fault. There
is more reason to fear a delay on the part of the écrivain ,
incidentally. Is the first volume in the press?

I learnt that a telegram had been sent me about the
publication of the book only from your letter. I am writing
to the Minusinsk post office asking them to search for the
telegram. Was the address correct? You should write:
“ Minusinsk, to Shushenskoye by post, Ulyanov ”, and pay
seven or fourteen kopeks extra for postage. If you did not
add “by post”, it is possible that the telegram is still lying
there. In general, I have not noticed that the despatch
of telegrams to this place is a hopeless undertaking; others
have arrived in time. You should send them so that they
arrive in Minusinsk on. Sunday or Wednesday evening and
I will receive them on Tuesday or Friday morning.

I am sending the article on Sismondists that you asked
for and the reply to
Nezhdanov. [3] It would be most
convenient to print the latter in the same
Zhizn . [1]

If, however,
contrary to expectations Nachalo revives, I should prefer
it in that journal.

I am now doing some reading and studying languages a
little. In general I am doing very little work and do not
intend writing anything.

I am very sorry the écrivain did not write anything to
me about Gvozdyov. I wanted to curse him for all I was
worth, but I saw that he was a contributor to the same
journal and felt myself duty bound to be as gentle with him
as possible. It would have been strange to squabble in the
same journal. Perhaps the writer wanted to get rid of it—
get rid of the “Gvozdyov school”, as I now call these
things. I do not know this and, in general, I do not know
what sort of fellow Gvozdyov is. It is difficult to judge
from a distance.

Yours,

V. U.

May 30, 1899

I am sending you a registered package, Mother dearest,
containing my article and a reprint of the article on the
Sismondists that you asked for. I am writing in greater
detail to Anyuta and Mark, from whom I received a letter
this week. It was strange that their letter (dated May 14)
was postmarked “ Krasnoyarsk ”. Was it sent by the
Siberian express?

We here are all quite well and send regards to everybody.

Many kisses,

Yours,

V. U.

---
Notes:
[1]
If my answer to Struve has not yet been published, you might
perhaps add this to it as a postscript and throw out my mention of
a reply to
Struve. [4] — Lenin

[2]
This refers to A. Bogdanov’s Kratky kurs ekonomicheskoi nauki .

[3]
The articles referred to are “A Characterisation of Economic
Romanticism. (Sismondi and Our Native Sismondists)” and “Reply
to Mr. P. Nezhdanov”, the latter having been published in the
December (No. 12) 1899 issue of Zhizn (see Collected Works ,
Vol. 2, pp. 129–315, and Vol. 4, pp. 160–66).

[4]
Lenin refers to the following sentence from the first paragraph
of his article “Reply to Mr. P. Nezhdanov”: “As far as the-other
questions are concerned, those raised by Mr. P. Nezhdanov in
respect of the market theory and, in particular, of P. B. Struve’s
views, I shall confine myself to a reference to my article in reply
to Struve (’Once More on the Theory of Realisation’; the delay
in its publication in Nauchnoye Obozreniye was due to
circumstances over which the author had no control”) (see Collected Works ,
Vol. 4, p. 160).