V. I.

Lenin

49

To:   HIS MOTHER

June 7, 1898

I received your long letter of May 20 the day before yesterday, Mother dearest, merci . Last time I forgot to
tell you that I had received the box of books in Minusinsk
and brought it from there myself. [2]

I cannot understand why you have not had any letters from me for a long time; I have been writing to you
every Sunday “from time immemorial”.

Our wedding has been somewhat delayed. I handed in an application for the necessary papers to be sent to us a month
ago, and myself went to the police chief in Minusinsk to
enquire the reason for the delay. It turned out that the
“status sheet” has not yet (Siberian ways!) been received
in Minusinsk although I have been here in exile over a year
(the “status sheet” is a paper identifying the exiled person
and without it the police chief knows nothing about me and
cannot give me any certificate). It has to be obtained from
the Krasnoyarsk prison authorities—I am afraid the police
chief will not hurry with this. In any case there cannot be
a wedding earlier than
July. [1]

I asked him to allow the people to come from Tes to my wedding and he refused
outright on the grounds that one political exile in Minusinsk
(Raichin) got leave of absence to go to a village last March
and disappeared.... My arguments that there was no reason
to fear that the Tes people would disappear had no effect
on him.

The Tes people have been given permission to stay in
Tes till autumn, then they will move to Minusinsk.

I think I have already written you about steamer traffic
on the Yenisei. The water is still high—it is even rising
again; it is very hot and the snow is probably melting in
the forests on the mountains. The steamers here (they are all tugs) do not run to a schedule; they take two days
and sometimes more to get to Minusinsk from Krasnoyarsk.
From Minusinsk it is 55 versts by road to Shusha. I hope
I shall get a telegram from you if Mitya is released and
you decide to come to us. Yelizaveta Vasilyevna is worried
that the journey may be too much for you. If you can travel second class on the railway I do not think it will be too
tiring.

Regards to all. I am anxiously awaiting a letter from
Anyuta. Did she receive Voprosy Filosofii ?

Many kisses, Yours,

V. U.

---
Notes:
[1]
Lenin and Krupskaya were married on July 10, 1898.— Ed .

[2]
At the end of May, Lenin and Krupskaya went to Minusinsk,
where they took part in a conference of exiled members of the
Narodnaya Volya Party and Social-Democrats that was held on
account of the flight from exile of the Social-Democrat S. G.
Raichin.