V. I.

Lenin

32

To:   HIS MOTHER

October 12, 1897

On the 7th, Mother dearest, I received a letter from you
and Mitya dated September 20. I was in a great hurry last
time and, as I remember, did not write much. Today I must make up for it.

Thanks to Mitya for his letter. In answer to his questions—I am receiving Voprosy Filosofii i Psikhologii for
1897 and have also received one issue for 1896 and will
send it when I have read it (for the time being I have given
it to the people at Tesinskoye).

I still go shooting. The shooting is not as successful as
it was (shooting hares, grouse and partridge is new to me
and I shall have to get used to it), but it is no less pleasant.
Whenever there is a fine autumn day (and this year there
have been many of them) I take my gun and wander off across the fields and forest. Usually I go with Prominsky;
I take my landlord’s dog, which I have trained to follow
me, and which has some (although not much) skill as a gun
dog, I have acquired a dog for myself—I got a pup from an acquaintance here and hope that I shall be
able to train it by next summer; I don’t know whether it will turn out a good dog and whether it will have any
hunting sense. I don’t know how to spot that kind of thing,
and no very definite opinion of the qualities of my
Pegasus can be had from his pedigree. The quilted jackets we
all had bought for us in St. Petersburg are very convenient
for shooting and I can never praise mine enough. In general,
as far as my winter clothes and other things (which you
ask about) are concerned, I have ample. I have already bought many winter things in Minusinsk and will buy some
more. In general, shopping in Minusinsk is difficult; there
is practically no choice, the shops are the village type of
general store (all sorts of odds and ends; goods are delivered periodically and I got there at a time when the old
stock had run out and the new had not arrived) and it is difficult for one accustomed to city shops to find anything
in them. Incidentally, it is high time I got rid of these
bigcity habits; they are of no use here and I must get used to
local ways. I seem to be fairly well acclimatised, but as
far as shopping is concerned I still think in the St.
Petersburg way—you have only to go into a shop and get what
you want....

I will tell you about my journey in greater detail. I was
in Minusinsk for two days only and all the time went in
running round the shops, in seeing about Basil’s case (we
wrote a complaint together about the magistrate’s sentence
and the magistrate himself admitted that it was too severe. [3]
We’ll see what the higher court has to say) and in visiting
acquaintances. There are now many political exiles in
Minusinsk—A. V. Tyrkov (the March 1,1881 case), N. S.
Tyutchev and Y. K. Yakovlev (Narodnoye Pravo group),
S. I. Melnikov (Narodnaya Volya Party), Blazejewski
(Polish worker), S. G. Raichin (my closest acquaintance
and a man of the same views), F. Y. Kon (Polish intellectual who has served a sentence of penal servitude), and
Stoyanovsky (arrested in connection with the Ginsburg case
and has served a sentence of penal servitude). I saw almost
all of them. I think I shall be able to go there again in
winter. Such temporary visits are probably better than living
in Minusinsk, which does not attract me. Its only advantage is the post (this advantage is even greater in Achinsk,
so I would naturally “prefer” Achinsk). But this is only
by the way, for I have settled down completely in
Shushenskoye and have got used to the idea of wintering here
and am not applying for a transfer and advise you not to.

I went to Tesinskoye with Basil. We had a good time there
and I was very pleased to see the comrades and to have company after my Shushenskoye solitude. That company,
however, seems to be worse off than I am. Not as far as
lodgings, etc., are concerned, in that respect they are better off, but they are not adjusted. Gleb is often quite ill, is
often despondent; Basil, too, it seems, is not so “flourishing” after all, though he is the most balanced of the Tes
crowd. E.E. does the housekeeping, enjoys life at
Tesinskoye, but is also often ill. Keeping house is not easy for
her since there are no servants; it is extremely difficult
to find a servant in the Siberian villages—in summer it is
absolutely impossible. You can live well if you are fixed
up as I am with full board and lodging, but keeping house
yourself is very difficult. The Tes people live much more
“sociably” (so to speak) than I do; they are acquainted
with the district nurse in Tesinskoye and not far from them
(about 15 versts) there are some former women students whom they see quite
often. [4] I have not lost hope that their despondency will pass. Gleb and Basil now have
jobs [5] ; they could not live without work, for the allowance they
receive is only 24 rubles (the authorities won’t give Basil
an allowance for his wife because he got married while in exile).

Again about the library. Which library did Mitya get the Voprosy Filosofii i Psikhologii from? If he got them
from the Petrovskaya library, can he get their catalogue
(a new one)? I think they lend books for an indefinite period.

Yours,

V. U.

I am perfectly well, of course; I am working, I feel fine.

The doctor (from the north) asks me to give you his regards. [1] (I correspond with him and Columbus fairly
-3
regularly.) [2]