V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:PSS/v46; en:CW/CW36;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

June 1, 1901

Dear P. B., We have just received your letter with the enclosures of material and letters from Deb.\* Many thanks; we shall have to go into the material.

As regards Deb.’s proposal, we, of course, agree to give him 300 reprints and hope that his reservations will not constitute the slightest obstacle to the publication of his reminiscences in our journal. The deadline for No. 2 of *Zarya* is one month, i.e., July 1. The maximum size is two signatures, at the most 2½. We hope that he will divide his 4-5 signatures into chapters so that they will fit into No. 2 and No. 3 of *Zarya*.

We still know nothing about the conference. Please persuade Koltsov and some others from *Sotsial-Demokrat* to agree. After all, it does not commit them to anything, and it removes from us the odium\*\* of being unwilling to put an end to the strife. God knows, we are not inclined to make any concessions of any importance either to *Borba* or to *Rabocheye Dyelo* (how weak is No. 7 of its *Listok*! We have already outstripped it even in the technical field—in the promptness of our information).

No. 5 of *Iskra* is being printed. Its leading article is “On Vain Dreams” (Starover). G. V.’s feuilleton—“New Wine in Old Bottles”—on the manifesto of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and on their turn towards the Social-Democrats. Then one (or even two) short articles on the butchery of May 4-7 in St. Petersburg (on the Viborg Side and at the Obukhov Works). There is also some material for the “Social Chronicle” and the “Working-Class Movement” columns, as well as for the “May Day in Russia” section—for instance, a vivid letter from a St. Petersburg working woman about the killing on May 4 of a worker (a relative of hers) in the crowd that was marching to the Nevsky.\*\*\* A letter from our close friend, a worker from Ivanovo-Voznesensk, about the mood there, about the attempts to celebrate May Day, about the success of *Iskra*.

Only our finances are in a bad way; everything else is going well and gives us hope for the future.

How is your health? Is your Erwerbsarbeit\*\*\*\* a little easier for you now? Do you get enough rest? How do you intend to spend the summer?

I firmly shake your hand and send greetings to all your family.

Yours,
Petrov

\* We shall, of course, keep his letter.

\*\* Accusation.

\*\*\* See pp. 117-118 of this volume.—Ed.

\*\*\*\* Work for a living.—Ed.