V. I.

Lenin

144

To:   HIS MOTHER

December 17, 1902

Mother dearest, A few days ago we received Manyasha’s letter to Nadya
with your postscript and I was very glad to hear from you
because there had been no news for a long time. There was also a short letter from Anyuta; she seems to be well
content with her new place. Manyasha writes that you will
soon be seeing Mitya and his wife. [1]

Give him very best regards from me and all of us. Perhaps Anyuta will visit
you, too, and you will all be together for a short while
during the holidays. That would be fine.

Our life here goes on just the same as usual. It was cold
for a few weeks (cold here means “not thawing”) but there
was no snow and we all caught colds. But we are all right
now. The weather is again wet—at this rate I shall soon
get unused to our winter!

I see from Manyasha’s letter that she liked Zheleznov’s
book. I have not read it, of course; I merely turned over
the pages, and so cannot undertake to judge. When I have
read it, I will write about it. What I wrote concerned only
the first, superficial impression.

Manyasha also writes that she has taken up languages, even English. I thought of sending her a textbook on
pronunciation, a very good one, in German. I have been doing
some study lately and am very pleased with the book; I can’t praise it enough. The book is, Henry Sweet,
Elementarbuch des gesprochenen Englisch , Oxford, 1901, and it
costs something like a ruble twenty-five kopeks. If
Manyasha would like me to, I can send it; I do not need it any
more. Since she has Toussaint, however, I don’t know whether it is worth while, because Toussaint is excellent.
I used not to believe in this system but now I am sure it
is the only serious, efficient system. If you take a few
lessons from a native foreigner after working through the first
part of Toussaint you can certainly acquire a thorough knowledge of the language. There are Toussaint dictionaries now
as well, in which the pronunciation is indicated ; I strongly
advise Manyasha to buy them because our Alexandrov is wrong in many cases . (For instance, I strongly advise her to
buy Muret’s pocket dictionary that uses the Toussaint method, Taschenwörterbuch der englischen und deutschen Sprache, Teil I, Englisch-deutsch , Preis 2 Mark. , Berlin, 1902.
Langenscheidtsche Verlagsbuchhandlung.)

Well, I have used up a lot of paper talking about books....
I want to order Problemy idealizma —this seems to be a “militant” review by the nonsense-mongering
gentlemen. [2]

Y.V. and Nadya send their regards. I hope you will soon
be receiving visitors and have some relief from your loneliness.

I embrace you fondly, my dear.

Yours,

V. Ulyanov

---
Notes:
[1]
Lenin’s brother and his wife visited Samara in the winter of
1902.— Ed .

[2]
The symposium contained articles by S. N. Bulgakov, Prince
Y. N. Trubetskoi, N. A. Berdyayev, S. L. Frank, Prince S. N.
Trubetskoi, S. F. Oldenburg and others.