V. I.

Lenin

For A. M. Gorky

Dear Alexei Maximovich, I am sending you under registered cover my wife’s
booklet, Public Education and Democracy . [1]

The author has long been studying educational questions,
over twenty years. The booklet is based both on her personal observations and on material about new educational
developments in Europe and America. From the contents you will see that the first half also contains a sketch of
the history of democratic views. This is also very important, because the views of the great democrats of the past
are usually set forth wrongly, or from the wrong standpoint. I don’t know whether you are able yourself to take
time off to read it, or whether you are interested; §§ 2 and
12 could serve as an example. Changes in education in the latest, imperialist, epoch are sketched out on the basis
of material of recent years, and shed some very interesting
light on the question for the democrats in Russia.

You will do me a great favour by helping—directly or indirectly—to publish this booklet. The demand in
Russia for literature in this sphere has now probably greatly
increased.

Best regards and wishes,
V. Ulyanov

Wl. Uljanow. Seidenweg. 4a. Bern .