49 (144).
15. III. 03 [London].
Dear Georgy Valentinovich]! I received your letter.
Write "The Ides of March," that's excellent. *)
Absolute deadline — 25 III 03 the article must be here. We are waiting immeasurably.
Maslov will be sent to me in a few days from Paris (I will hurry them),
and I will send it to you immediately.2) There is interesting data
on the harm of the commune there, — which I quoted in Paris. 3)
I have already ordered David and am reading it now. Terribly watery,
poor, and banal. I will try to finish it as soon as possible to send it to you.
Have you seen Kautsky's articles about this "petty-Proudhonist"? 4)
I have now set to work on a popular pamphlet for peasants
about our agrarian program. 5) I really want to explain
our idea about the class struggle in the countryside using concrete
data about the four layers of the rural population (landlords,
peasant bourgeoisie, middle peasantry, and semi-proletarians
together with proletarians). What do you think about such a plan?
I took away from Paris the conviction that only with such a pamphlet
can the misunderstandings about the cut-off lands etc. be dispelled. 6)
I wrote an article about the Manifesto of February 26, which will go
in No. 34. I insisted absolutely that it go as the leading article
in view of the enormous importance of the Manifesto.
But, it seems, Vera Ivanovna] is wavering (!) and is deciding with Yuly Osipovich
the other way around: first about Marx. 7)
In my opinion, this is even wild.
I shake your hand firmly.
Yours, Lenin.

V. I. LENIN — G. V. PLEKHANOV.

*) G. V. Plekhanov's article "The Ides of March" was published in No. 36 of
"Iskra".
(Works, vol. XII, pp. 334-341.)
2) P. Maslov's work "The Agrarian Question in Russia", vol. I, the first edition
was published in 1903.
8)
Vladimir Ilyich is referring to his lectures and report in Paris.
See note 4 to letter 42.
4) E. David's work "Sozialismus und Landwirtschaft"
("Socialism and Agriculture". The Russian translation was published in 1903.) K.
Kautsky in the article "Sozialismus und Landwirtschaft", "Neue Zeit", Nos. 22-26 for February
and March 1903 subjected David's book to a thorough analysis.
5) Vladimir Ilyich's pamphlet "To the Rural Poor," published
in May 1903 by the Iskra publishing house.
®) Vladimir Ilyich is referring to his speeches in Paris
at the end of February — beginning of March.
7) Both
articles:
Vladimir Ilyich's "The Autocracy is Wavering" (regarding
the Manifesto of Nicholas II of February 26, 1903 on the revision of laws
on the peasantry and religious tolerance) and G. V. Plekhanov's "Karl Marx" (regarding
the 20th anniversary of his death) appeared in No. 35, with Plekhanov's article
as the leading article.