V. I.

Lenin

237

To:   HIS SISTER MARIA

Maria Ilyinichna Ulyanova, Yekaterininsko-Dvoryanskaya Street, 40, Vologda, Russia

Dear Manyasha, I believe I am in debt to you (to Mark Timofeyevich
I most certainly am). At long last I have settled down to write. We moved here a few days ago (partly because
of Nadya’s illness—she has thyroid trouble which worries
me greatly) to spend the summer in the village of Poronin,
in the mountains seven kilometres from Zakopane. It is near the Tatra
Mountains, [1]

6--8 hours by rail to the south of Krakow and communication with Russia and Europe
is through that town. It is farther from Russia, but that
can’t be helped.

We have rented a country house (a huge one, far too big!) for the whole summer up to October 1 (New Style) and
after a lot of bother and bustle have moved. I think Nadya is
worse from the moving. I shall probably have to take her
to Berne for treatment....

This is a marvellous place. The air is wonderful—the altitude is about 2,300 feet. Our rather damp situation
on the plains at Krakow cannot be compared to it. We have
plenty of newspapers and can work.

The local people are Polish peasants, “Hurals” (mountaineers), with whom I
converse [2] in incredibly broken
Polish, a language of which I know five words, and the rest in distorted Russian. Nadya speaks a little Polish
and can read the language. The villages are almost Russian
in type. Thatched roofs, poverty. The women and children
go barefoot. The men wear the Hural costume, white cloth
trousers and coats, half jacket and half cape, of the same
material. This is not a holiday resort (Zakopane is) and,
therefore, very quiet. I still hope that Nadya will get better
in the quiet and the mountain air. We have started leading
the rural life here—we get up early and go to bed almost
with the roosters. We walk every day to the post office and
the station.

Do you see Pravda and Prosveshcheniye regularly? [4] The
people here were glad to see the anniversary issue [5] and
to hear of the metalworkers’ victory over the liquidators. [6]

How are you? Will you be able to keep your lessons for the summer? Do you get enough books?

Greetings to Polish friends, [3] and I hope they help you
in every way....

Y.V. and Nadya send regards and kisses. I too.

Yours,

V. U.

Address: Herrn Ulianow, Oesterreich, Poronin (Galizien).

P.S. You had better send this letter to Mother, unless she will be visiting you soon.

---
Notes:
[1]
The Tatras are part of the Carpathians, 8,500 feet high. Pure
Switzerland!— Lenin

[2]

( I prefer talking to Jews—in German).— Lenin

[3]
Lenin refers to V.V. Vorovsky who was in exile in Vologda.— Ed .

[4]
Prosveshcheniye (Enlightenment)—a Bolshevik legal journal
dealing with questions of theory published monthly in St. Petersburg
from December 1911 to June 1914. Its circulation reached 5,000
copies.

The journal was founded on Lenin’s initiative in place of the
Bolshevik journal Mysl , formerly published in Moscow and
suppressed by the authorities.

On the eve of the First World War Prosveshcheniye was prohibited by the tsarist government. In the autumn of 1917 the
journal was restarted, but only one issue (a double number)
appeared; it contained two articles by Lenin, “Can the Bolsheviks
Retain State Power?” and “The Revision of the Party
Programme”.

[5]
The anniversary issue of Pravda (No. 92) appeared on April 23
(May 6), 1913. The issue carried two articles by Lenin, “The
Pravda Anniversary. Workers Support the Workers’ Paper” and
“A Few Words on Results and Facts”.

[6]
The elections to the Executive of the St. Petersburg Metalworkers’
Union took place on April 21 (May 4), 1913. Some 800 persons
attended the meeting and over 400 were unable to get into the
overcrowded hall. The Bolsheviks put forward a list of candidates
for election that had been published in Pravda No. 91 and
distributed among those present at the meeting. Despite the insistence
on the part of the liquidators to elect candidates irrespective
of political allegiance, the majority of those present voted for the
Pravda list; 10 out of 14 members of the Executive were elected
from the Bolshevik list. The newly elected Executive sent a
telegram to Lenin greeting him as “the true leader of the working
class”.