V. I.

Lenin

1895

1

To:   P. B. AXELROD [4]

You are probably cursing me for this delay. There were some good reasons
for it.

I will recount them in order. First of all, I was in

Vilna. [1]

I had talks with our people about the

Miscellany. [5]

Most of them are agreed on the need for such a publication and promise
support and supply of material. Their mood is in general sceptical (I
recalled your expression about the pal. [2] provinces), as much as to say—we shall see whether it will correspond to
agitational tactics, to the tactics of the economic struggle. I stressed
that this would largely depend on us.

Further, I was in Moscow. I saw no one, for there was no trace of the
“Teacher of Life”. Is he all right? If you know anything about him and
have an address, write to him to send it to us, otherwise we cannot find
any contacts there. Great havoc has been played there, [6] but it seems that some people have survived and the work did not cease. We
have material from there—a description of some strikes. If you have not
had it, write and we shall send it to you.

After that I was in Orekhovo-Zuyevo. Places like this, frequently to be met
with in the central industrial area, are extremely peculiar: a purely
manufacturing town with tens of thousands of inhabitants, whose only means
of livelihood is the mills. The mill management is the sole authority. The
mill office “runs” the town. There is the sharpest division of the people
into workers and bourgeois. Hence the workers’ frame of mind is rather oppositional, but, after the recent
smash-up there, so few of our people are left and all of them so closely
watched that contacts are very difficult. However, we shall be able to
deliver the literature.

Further, the delay has been due to local trouble. This also accounts for
the meagreness of the material sent.

I don’t like the address in Zurich. Can’t you find another—not in
Switzerland, but in Germany? That would be much better and safer.

Further, in sending your reply— a book on technology , address:
Mr. Luchinsky, Alexandrovsky Iron Works, Chemical Laboratory,
St. Petersburg—add, if there is room, other material: pamphlets issued in
Geneva, interesting cuttings from

Vorwärts , [7] etc. Write in detail about the Miscellany: what material there is already,
what is planned, when the first issue will appear, and what exactly is
lacking for the second. We shall probably send money, but later on. Reply
as quickly as possible so that we may know whether this method is
suitable.

Send the Pole a rendezvous address as quickly as possible, since we need
delivery facilities. The address is: student Mikhail Leontievich Zakladny,
Technological Institute, the same town, ask for Ivanov. The money for the
publication in Russian of his Geschichte, etc. , has been promised. [3]

Another request: we are badly in need of ink; as to what kind, you can find
out from Mögli, who has it. Could you send it somehow? Is there no
opportunity? Please think it over or ask your “practical men” to do
so. By the way, you asked us to approach them directly. In that case, tell
us: 1) do they know our method and key? 2) do they know who these letters
come from?

You are now being sent: 1) information about the expulsion of the
Dukhobors; 2) an account about rural workers in the south; and 3) a
description of the Thornton mills—for the time being, only the beginning,
about a quarter, of this is being sent.

It is necessary to write with Chinese ink . Better still, add
a small crystal of potassium dichromate (K_2Cr_2O_7): then it
won’t wash off. Use the thinnest paper possible . All the
best.

Yours....

Regards to the comrade.