Written: Written in October 1893
Published:
First published in 1929 in the journal Proletarskaya Revolyutsiya No. 11.
Sent from St. Petersburg to Moscow.
Printed from
the original.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
1977,
Moscow,
Volume 37,
pages 67-68a.
Translated: The Late George H. Hanna
Transcription\Markup:
D. Moros
Public Domain:
Lenin Internet Archive.
You may freely copy, distribute,
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commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
Archive” as your source.
Manyasha,[1]
I read with interest your letter of September 27 and would be very glad if you would write to me occasionally.
I have not been to the Hermitage Museum or to theatres. I somehow do not want to go alone. In Moscow I shall be glad to go to the Tretyakov Gallery and other places with you.
I read Russkiye Vedomosti[5][2] (two weeks old) in the Public Library. When I get a job here perhaps I Will subscribe to it. It is not worth while saving them for me, but I think they should not be torn up too soon—there may be something interesting that will be needed.
From what you say about the French teacher I see that if the Moscow schoolgirls are ahead of you it is not by very much. The average girl probably doesn’t know the language any better than you? Write and tell me whether you spend a lot of time doing your homework.
Tell Mitya[6][3] that he should tell the bookseller to go to hell if he asks 25 rubles for Klyuchevsky—he should not pay more than 4 rubles.[7] How is Mitya getting on with his studies?
Till we meet,
Yours,
Can you read my writing?
[1] Manyasha—one of the many pet names formed from Maria.—Ed.
[2] Translations of the titles of books, articles and periodicals mentioned in the letters will be found in the Index of Literary Works and Sources given as an appendix to this volume.—Ed.
[3] Mitya—the pet name for Dmitry.—Ed.
[4] Ulyanova, Maria Ilyinichna (1878–1937)—a leading figure in the Communist Party and public affairs; Lenin’s youngest sister. She joined the revolutionary movement while still a student, became a professional revolutionary in 1898 and was later among the Bolsheviks; she did Party work in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Saratov and in other towns in Russia and abroad. In 1900 she began taking an active part in the work of the newspaper Iskra (The Spark) and from the autumn of 1903 was in the secretariat of the C.C. of the Party. In 1904 she worked in the St. Petersburg Bolshevik organisation. She was arrested and exiled several times for her revolutionary activities. From March 1917 to the spring of 1929 she was a member of the Pravda editorial board and the executive secretary of the paper. She became a member of the Central Control Commission at the 14th Party Congress and a member of the Soviet Control Commission at the 17th Party Congress. She was a member of the Moscow Soviet and in 1935 was elected to the Central Executive Committee of the U.S.S.R.
[5] Russkiye Vedomosti (Russian Recorder)—a Moscow newspaper that began publication in 1863; moderate liberal in its views. It was suppressed in 1918 at the same time as other counter-revolutionary periodicals.
[6] The Mitya here referred to is = Dmitry Ilyich Ulyanov (1874–1943)— professional revolutionary, Bolshevik, physician by training; Lenin’s younger brother. He began his revolutionary activities in 1894 in Marxist student groups in Moscow; in 1900 he entered the Iskra organisation. At the Second Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. he was delegate from the Tula Committee, an Iskra supporter and member of the majority. After the Congress he was appointed agent of the Central Committee. He was arrested and imprisoned several times for his revolutionary activities. From 1905 to 1907 he was a member of the Simbirsk Bolshevik Committee; he then worked as doctor in Serpukhov and Feodosia, all the time maintaining contact with the central Bolshevik organisations. He was mobilised in 1914 and conducted revolutionary work among the soldiers. After the October Socialist Revolution he was engaged in Party and government work in the Crimea; in 1921 he took up work at the People’s Commissariat of Health in Moscow; from 1925 to 1930 worked at the Sverdlov Communist University and from 1933 onwards in the medical department of the Kremlin; he was active in promoting the Lenin Central Museum.
[7] This apparently refers to lithographed copies of lectures on Russian history by Vasily Klyuchevsky, the publication of which began in the 1880–81 academic year. In the Central Party Archives at the Institute of Marxism-Leninism there is a lithographed copy of Klyuchevsky’s Course of Modern Russian History for the 1883–84 academic year which bears notes in Lenin’s hand.
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