Dear L. B.! I received your letter and will try to fulfill the requests, although I cannot promise success just yet.

The public here is already almost all...*
The first impression (sous toutes reserves**) is the most favorable. There is not a shadow of "uneasiness." We are starting our meeting today and hope for great success. When we finish, I will write again.

They brought Alexinsky's letter. I am enclosing it; after reading (and making a copy for yourself), please return it without delay.

Yesterday, a very friendly letter from Gorky arrived, who seems to have been "charmed" by the arrival of the advanced members in "Pravda."

He writes that he and Tikhonov will take charge of the fiction in "Pravda," ... that "Machism and god-building and all these things are stuck forever." Splendid!

And you should not have taken on the review of Steklov: it would come out false...
"Prosvetitelstvo" (Enlightenment) is promised to be released in mid-January.

Plekhanov wrote (through Dnevitsky) to "Pravda," proposing to respond to Maevsky, "if without double censorship." They agreed. They are waiting for the article. Buryanov is with Plekhanov. Plekhanov wrote to him against accepting Yagello.

From the Vorstand came an invitation to a unification conference: Central Committee + Foreign Committee + Plekhanov + Duma faction + P. S. D. We will send it to hell. Entre nous!*
I am in a hurry. I need to finish. Everyone sends you their best regards, especially Malinovsky and Koba. We all terribly miss you. In general, it seems that things are on the upswing. The finances in "Pravda" are in a bad state, but now there is hope in Gorky.

All the best! Your Lenin

* The manuscript of the document is partially damaged. Here and below, several words are illegible. Ed.
** - without further commitment. Ed.