Published:
First published in 1929 in the journal Proletarskaya Revolyutsiya No. 2-3.
Sent from Krasnoyarsk to Moscow.
Printed from
the original.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
1977,
Moscow,
Volume 37,
pages 99-100.
Translated: The Late George H. Hanna
Transcription\Markup:
D. Moros
Public Domain:
Lenin Internet Archive.
You may freely copy, distribute,
display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
Archive” as your source.
April 5, 1897
Today there was good news, Mother dearest, and I hasten to tell you about it. First, I received a telegram from the doctor in Irkutsk, “Hear you being sent Minusinsk”. Secondly, A. M. has at last learned the Governor-General’s reply— Gleb and Basil are also being sent to Minusinsk District. E.E. will be arriving tomorrow and will press for their release and also ask permission for them to travel at their own expense. I expect she will succeed (judging by precedents we know of).[1]
I am very pleased with my place of exile (if the rumours prove true, and I do not think they are wrong) because Minusinsk and its district are the best in these parts both on account of the excellent climate and the low cost of living. The distance from Krasnoyarsk is not very great, the post goes there two or three times a week, so that to send a letter and get an answer will take 30 to 35 days instead of the present 22 or 23 days—no more. I do not expect I shall be able to leave before the river is open to navigation, because the spring thaw and floods are now at their height and the party on its way to Irkutsk is being kept here until May. When the river is open to navigation it is possible to go to Minusinsk by steamer.
It is a great pity no attempt was made to get Anatoly Alexandrovich sent to Minusinsk District, too; it would be very, very good for him after the pleurisy he has had. We sent a telegram to St. Petersburg asking them to set things going; since there has been a delay of the whole party there is now ample time, so we may hope they will be able to get him sent there if they tackle the job energetically.
For the time being letters should, of course, be sent to me at the old address; if I go away I will leave the new address and they will be sent on to me. I think you can send my books on now, without waiting for the final address; in any case you cannot send goods to Minusinsk (there is no carrier’s office there), and they take a long time to come here by rail. So send them here, to A. M.’s address, if no other, or, better still, addressed to the bearer of the receipt, and send the receipt by registered post to A. M. From here the goods can be sent on to Minusinsk by boat in the spring.
They say that Gleb and Basil look very ill—pale, yellow and terribly tired. They will probably get better when they come out.
I am in good health and am living quite well; the weather is marvellous. I intend to write Manyasha a letter in a “literary” vein; I do not know, however, whether that intention will be put into effect. I have seen Novoye Slovo[2] and read it with great pleasure.
Regards to all,
Yours,
V. U.
[1] G. M. Krzhizhanovsky, V. V. Starkov, Y. O. Zederbaum and A. A. Vaneyev were held in Krasnoyarsk prison from April 4 to April 23, 1897, because they were on their way to exile at the cost of the state. An order of the Governor of Yeniseisk dated April 10 appointed the village of Tesinskoye in Minusinsk District as the place of exile of Starkov and Krzhizhanovsky; they left for Minusinsk with Lenin at their own expense on board the steamer Svyatoi Nikolai on April 30.
[2] Novoye Slovo (New Word)—a scientific, literary and political monthly published in St. Petersburg from 1894 by liberal Narodniks; from the spring of 1897 it was run by “legal Marxists”. It was suppressed by the government in 1897.
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