V. I.

Lenin

21

To:   HIS MOTHER

April 5, 1897

Today there was good news, Mother dearest, and I hasten
to tell you about it. First, I received a telegram from the
doctor in Irkutsk, “Hear you being sent Minusinsk”.
Secondly, A. M. has at last learned the Governor-General’s reply—
Gleb and Basil are also being sent to Minusinsk District.
E.E. will be arriving tomorrow and will press for their
release and also ask permission for them to travel at their own
expense. I expect she will succeed (judging by precedents
we know of). [1]

I am very pleased with my place of exile (if the rumours
prove true, and I do not think they are wrong) because
Minusinsk and its district are the best in these parts both
on account of the excellent climate and the low cost of
living. The distance from Krasnoyarsk is not very great,
the post goes there two or three times a week, so that to
send a letter and get an answer will take 30 to 35 days
instead of the present 22 or 23 days—no more. I do not expect
I shall be able to leave before the river is open to navigation,
because the spring thaw and floods are now at their height
and the party on its way to Irkutsk is being kept here until
May. When the river is open to navigation it is possible to
go to Minusinsk by steamer.

It is a great pity no attempt was made to get Anatoly
Alexandrovich sent to Minusinsk District, too; it would
be very, very good for him after the pleurisy he has had.
We sent a telegram to St. Petersburg asking them to set
things going; since there has been a delay of the whole
party there is now ample time, so we may hope they will be able to get him sent there if they tackle the job
energetically.

For the time being letters should, of course, be sent to
me at the old address; if I go away I will leave the new
address and they will be sent on to me. I think you can
send my books on now, without waiting for the final address;
in any case you cannot send goods to Minusinsk (there is no
carrier’s office there), and they take a long time to come
here by rail. So send them here, to A. M.’s address, if no
other, or, better still, addressed to the bearer of the receipt,
and send the receipt by registered post to A. M. From here
the goods can be sent on to Minusinsk by boat in the spring.

They say that Gleb and Basil look very ill—pale, yellow
and terribly tired. They will probably get better when they
come out.

I am in good health and am living quite well; the weather
is marvellous. I intend to write Manyasha a letter in a
“literary” vein; I do not know, however, whether that intention will be put into effect. I have seen Novoye Slovo [2] and
read it with great pleasure.

Regards to all, Yours,

V. U.

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Notes:
[1]
G. M. Krzhizhanovsky, V. V. Starkov, Y. O. Zederbaum and
A. A. Vaneyev were held in Krasnoyarsk prison from April 4 to
April 23, 1897, because they were on their way to exile at the
cost of the state. An order of the Governor of Yeniseisk dated
April 10 appointed the village of Tesinskoye in Minusinsk District
as the place of exile of Starkov and Krzhizhanovsky; they left
for Minusinsk with Lenin at their own expense on board the
steamer Svyatoi Nikolai on April 30.

[2]
Novoye Slovo (New Word)—a scientific, literary and political
monthly published in St. Petersburg from 1894 by liberal
Narodniks; from the spring of 1897 it was run by “legal Marxists”. It was
suppressed by the government in 1897.