V. I.

Lenin

42

To:   HIS MOTHER AND HIS SISTER MARIA

February 24, 1898

Today, Mother dearest, I received a pile of letters from
all parts of Russia and Siberia and have therefore been
in a holiday mood all day.

From Manyasha and Anyuta I received their letters of
February 9 and also Yuridichesky Vestnik [2] and
Statistichesky Vremennik and also the Dnevnik syezda (of
technicians). [3] Thank you for everything. The last-named was very
interesting and thank Anyuta very much for it. She writes
that the book by de Amicis is a children’s book. I did not
know that, but even children’s books will be useful here,
for Prominsky’s children have nothing to read. I even thought of doing a thing like subscribing to
Niva . [4] That would be very nice for the Prominsky kids (pictures every
week), and for me a complete edition of Turgenev in 12 volumes as promised by Niva . And all this for seven rubles,
including postage. Very tempting! If only Turgenev is published decently (that is, without distortions, cuts, clumsy
misprints), it would be well worth while subscribing. Have
any of our people seen the Niva supplements for past years?
I think they issued Dostoyevsky? Was it decently done?

I now expect to set my money affairs right, since the book
edition of the articles should also bring in something whatever happens, and, moreover, I am getting a big
translation from English (from St. Petersburg)—Adam Smith—and
I shall get something for that. [5] I shall then be able to pay
off my debts (I must not forget them). That is why I think
it is also possible to subscribe to Niva . Whether Turgenev will be “decently” published, our people must decide,
they have more facts to go on.

Today I received Russkoye Bogatstvo No. 1 for 1898.
I have been receiving Vestnik Finansov for a long time.

I shall have to ask you to send a smallish sum of money
by N.K. (there will be no need for it earlier. The allowances
were paid today), since there may be some fairly big expenses to meet. That means that my debt will increase slightly.

Things here are still the same—no news, no visitors and
still no acquaintances.

Anyuta writes that N.K. has written to her saying that a publisher has been found in St. Petersburg. She wrote to
me only that they had “promised to look for one”. We may have an amusing muddle; the plan was evolved in St.
Petersburg independently and prior to my letter, and mine
was also independent, prior to the receipt of the St.
Petersburg letter. And so we are dancing round each other like
people who have bumped into one another in the street and
do not know whether to step left or right to allow their
vis-à-vis to pass.

The matter has probably settled itself by now.

Kisses for you and regards to all.

Yours,

V. U.

I understood from Manyasha’s letter that both books ( Yuridichesky Vestnik , 1887, No. 12, and Statistichesky Vremennik ) had been bought and would not have to be
returned.

N.K.’s case is still dragging on. She will probably have
to drop the claim for a shorter term, but they do promise
to permit her to come here.

I am enclosing a letter to her because she may now be in Moscow. If not, send it on.

Manyasha, Send me, in addition, the following things:

(1) Hardmuth pencil No. 6 (Anyuta bought me one last year and I liked it very much, but it has now,
unfortunately, served its time).

(2) A box of sealing wax and some sort of a seal to seal
my letters. (If we-have not got an old seal, either buy or
order a cheap one,) There is no need for a name on the seal,
even initials are not necessary, as long as there is some sort
of a figure or drawing on it that is easily remembered and
described to others.

(3) essuie-plume [1]

}}

(4) small scissors }}

I had both of these but, alas, they got lost somewhere on the
road. In place of the former I am now using the skirt of
my jacket and have inked it up beautifully. The scissors I
get from the landlord—sheep shears. Their advantage is that they always arouse laughter and general amusement.

Au revoir ,

V. U.

---
Notes:
[1]
Pen-wiper (Fr.).— Ed .

[2]
Yuridichesky Vestnik (The Legal Herald)—a liberal-bourgeois
monthly published in Moscow from 1867 to 1892.

[3]
Statistichesky Vremennik Rossiiskoi Imperii (Statistical Calendar
of the Russian Empire)—published by the Central Statistical
Committee of the Ministry of the Interior. Lenin used material
from the Statistichesky Vremennik for 1866, 1868 and 1872 for
his book The Development of Capitalism in Russia .

The book mentioned, Dnevnik vysochaishe razreshonnogo Vtorogo syezda russkikh deyatelei po tekhnicheskomu i professionalnomu obrazovaniyu, izdavayemyi komitetom syezda (Diary of the
Royally Sanctioned Second Congress of Russian Specialists on
Technical and Vocational Education published by the Committee
of the Congress), was probably sent to Lenin with a letter in
invisible ink.

[4]
Niva (Cornfield)—an illustrated weekly that published the works
of various classical and other well-known writers as supplements;
founded in 1869.

[5]
Lenin did not translate Adam Smith’s book. Apparently at the
time the letter was written he did not know exactly the author
or the name of the book he was to translate. This is confirmed by
the fact that a few days later he speaks of having received The History of Trade Unionism by Sidney and Beatrice Webb for
translation.