V. I.

Lenin

TO M. G. VECHESLOV

June 17, 1901

We have received your letter asking us to send you 100 marks. Unfortunately, I cannot fulfil this request until
I have received from you the “latest information” which
you promised. I simply cannot take it on myself to decide
to pay out this sum (both for formal reasons, because it
depends on the board, and for the reasons I explained to
you when we met), and I cannot get the hoard together at
present because some people arc absent. I ask you once again not to be sparing of reports to us of the latest and most
detailed facts, otherwise our relations will never settle
down to normal. Information of the kind that “so far everything is satisfactory” may produce, if anything, a negative
impression on our board, which decides such matters. I understand very well that the most energetic efforts often
prove fruitless for reasons beyond our control, and that it
would be stupid to blame you for any failures. But you,
too, must understand that unless we have the most circumstantial and exact information of what those efforts were,
what exactly was successful ( respective [1] unsuccessful), why
precisely and what the state of affairs and the plans at the
present moment are, we cannot take any further steps and
impose on our principals further sacrifices, for which we
bear the responsibility.