London, 9 January 1877 
41 Maitland Park Road, N. W. 

My dear Friend, 

I have learned that a Russian lady* who has rendered the party 
important services is unable for want of money to find a lawyer in 
Moscow for her husband. I know neither the husband in 
question, nor whether he is guilty or not. But a consequence of 
the trial could be exile in Siberia and, since Mrs ... is determined 
to follow her husband, whom she considers innocent, it is most 
important that she should at least be provided with the means for 
his defence. Since Mrs ... has left the management of her fortune 
to her husband and is wholly uninformed about such matters, only 
a lawyer could set things right.”° 

Mr Taneyev, whom you know and whom I have long esteemed 
as a devoted friend of the emancipation of the people is, perhaps, 
the only lawyer in Moscow who would take on so thankless a case. 
You would greatly oblige me by asking him to concern himself 
with our friend’s exceptionally unfortunate situation. 

Yours ever, 

Karl Marx