V. I.

Lenin

76

To:   HIS SISTER ANNA

February 13, 1899

Anyuta,

I have received your letter of January 27 and am delighted with the news about the “markets”. If my letter of
January 10 was, as you say, too pessimistic, this one will
probably be far too optimistic. I am very grateful to
V.A., Mitya and especially you for the trouble you have
taken with the book, about the fate of which—as far as a satisfactory edition is concerned—I am now quite
reassured. With regard to the title—I am inclined to agree
that mine is too long; it is, true enough, a necessary one,
but it would be better as a sub-title. The title itself
should be more modest than The Development of Capitalism in Russia , which is too bold, too broad and promises too
much. On the Problem of the Development of Capitalism in Russia would, in my opinion, be better. I did not receive
Ribot’s booklet ( Affektivnaya pamyaf ) which you say you
sent. [4] There seems to have been a delay, either in your sending the registered packet or in the delivery
here.

I wrote in an earlier letter about the approximate number
of letters in the entire composition, so it should be easier
for you to calculate how many more pages there will be.
I am anxiously awaiting the first two chapters—typographically the second is the most difficult. You did well to
convince V. A. not to make changes “according to sense”
(incidentally, with regard to the little illustration you were quite right—that is indeed what I meant to say, little
and not nice. As regards sharpness of tone, I am now in
favour of toning down such passages and decreasing their
number. I have realised that they are much stronger in print than in speech or in a letter, so one must be more
moderate in this respect). I am also very, very pleased with
the tables, with your having convinced the printer not to
omit decimal fractions but to print them below the level of the
whole numbers and in a different type and not to print the
tables sideways. Even if it makes the publication somewhat
dearer, it does not matter very much. Judging from your
approximate estimate of the cost, you will probably be able
to fix the price at no more than 2 rubles 50 kopeks for an
edition of 2,400 copies. [1]

With regard to all that, however, I leave it entirely to you to decide. It will also be
interesting to see how well the diagram comes out. [5] What do the
statisticians say about it (V.A. and the other [2]

)?

Several remarks have been made to me about its being unusual.
Does it serve its purpose of being clear and convincing?

The publisher [3] wrote to me about the “Heritage”; there is a certain grain of truth in his
remarks. [6] As far as the Samarans are concerned, I doubt very much whether
they have said anything sensible (I have already had a letter about the accusation of “bourgeois
sympathies”). [7]
The question of “from whom we received the inheritance”
is not the one I posed in my reply to Mikhailovsky—do we
renounce that heritage “that Moskovskiye Vedomosti attacks”
and which I gave an exact definition of? [8] If polemics were
to be started against the Samarans on the fundamental question of the attitude of Marxism to the liberal-enlightener
trends, and of the role and significance of the “extra-economic”, it would be very interesting and useful.

All the best to you, Mark and Mitya, and many kisses for Mother.

V. U.

Today Mikhail Alexandrovich (Silvin) passed through here. He has been transferred to the village of
Yermakovskoye (some 40 versts from us). He seems quite well,
physically and mentally; he has changed little; we were very
glad to see him.

I am sending you yet another addition to Chapter
VII. [9]

I am surprised that O. Popova is taking so long in settling up for
Webb. [10] Nadya said that the terms were to pay the translator in any case, even if the censor banned
publication of the book. Our finances are again at rock
bottom. Please send 200 rubles to Y.V.’s address. If there
is still nothing from O. Popova and nothing is expected
for a week or two, I would ask you to borrow the money;
otherwise we shall be in trouble.