V. I. Lenin

Source: ru:PSS/v47; en:CW/CW34;es:MT
Translated: machine translation (DeepSeek) from the Russian; AI-translated.

15. I. 08.

Dear A. M. and M. F.,

I received your express letter today. It is devilishly tempting to come and join you in Capri! You have described it so well that, by God, I shall certainly make it and shall try to drag my wife along too. Only I don’t know yet about the time: just now I must attend to Proletary and get it going and the work organised at all costs. That will take a month or two, at least. And it must be done. In the spring we shall come and drink white Capri wine, see Naples and have a chat with you. By the way, I have started to learn Italian and, like a student, I at once pounced on the address written by M. F.: expresso instead of espresso! Send a dictionary here!

Now, as for the transport of Proletary, you have brought that on your own heads. You won’t get out of it so easily now! I have at once to give M. F. a whole lot of commissions:

1) To find without fail the secretary of the union of steamship employees and workers (there must be such a union!) on the steamers that maintain communication with Russia.

2) To find out from him where the steamers go to and from, and how often. He must arrange for us to have the paper transported every week. How much will it cost? He must find us a reliable man (are there any reliable Italians?). Do they need an address in Russia (say, in Odessa) for delivering the paper, or could they temporarily keep small quantities with some Italian innkeeper in Odessa? That is extremely important for us.

3) If M. F. cannot arrange all this herself, make inquiries, find out, explain, check, etc., she must without fail put us in direct touch with this secretary; we shall then correspond with him.

This matter must be hurried on: in two or three weeks we hope to bring out Proletary here and it must be sent off immediately.129

Well, au revoir in Capri! Look after yourself, A. M.!

Yours, V. Ulyanov