V. I.

Lenin

67

To:   HIS MOTHER AND HIS SISTER ANNA

Minusinsk, December 28, 1898

I am writing to you, Mother dearest, from Minusinsk; Nadya and I are here for Christmas and will remain until
the first. We are having an excellent time here. This is
just the kind of holiday from work that we needed. Among
other things we skate very strenuously, sing, and so on.

Yours,

V. U.

I am writing to Anna separately.

Yesterday I got a letter from Manyasha with her new address in Brussels.

Anyuta,

I have received your postcard of December 5 and your letter of December 8. Thanks for them. I read a detailed
account of the écrivain’s lecture in Russkiye Vedomosti .
Of course, it was hardly worth while putting forward such
new views in a short lecture. The remains of Fedoseyev’s
work would be interesting in this respect; I think he held
very different views on landowners’ farms before the reform. [3] ( I do not remember whether I informed you that we have
received N.Z. up to No. 24 inclusive.)

With regard to Pamyatnaya knizhka Tulskoi gubernii , I wrote that it was for A. Sklyarenko whose address I did not
have at the time. I informed you a long time ago that I had
received the report of the literacy committee. [1]

I am in agreement with the writer’s advice (to send it to the printer immediately, use the same format and type
as Tugan-Baranovsky’s book [4] and not send the proofs here). The type used in that book will be compact enough;
it will come to about 500 pages. I have finished another two
chapters (V and VI) and chapter five has been rewritten. I
hope to finish in January.

Of course, I agree to entrust the second proofs to you and shall be very, very grateful to you for this strenuous
and thankless work. I nevertheless think a professional
proof-reader is indispensable; in my opinion two rubles a
printer’s signature is too little—pay him three rubles or
more per signature for the reading of two proofs and take
the third (not the second) proof yourself. For misprints
send them to me (not one signature but 5-10 at a time). I
do not think, however, that it will be very convenient for
me to send you the rough copy; I sometimes need to make
additions, inserts, etc., and I cannot do this without the
rough copy. Could you not pay the proof-reader more and
have him send the pages of the fair copy with the proofs?
If that is impossible I will, of course, send the rough copy
(you can demand it by telegram “send rough copy”).

Yours,

V. U.

I answered immediately on receipt of your letter regarding my consent to Vodovozova’s
terms. [2]

Blos is being read and you are asked not to take it away. Can you not
get it in Moscow?