Published:
First published in 1929 in the journal Proletarskaya Revolyutsiya No. 4.
Sent from Shushenskoye to Moscow.
Printed from
the original.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
1977,
Moscow,
Volume 37,
pages 155-157.
Translated: The Late George H. Hanna
Transcription\Markup:
D. Moros
Public Domain:
Lenin Internet Archive.
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February 14, 1898
I have received a book (Bulgakov[6]) from Manyasha, Mother dearest, and thank her for it. She asks whether I received a registered package sent by Anna on December 27.[1] It is difficult for me to remember now because it was a long time ago. I remember that I received some foreign catalogues and Neue Zeit.[7] Manyasha’s letter is dated January 26, so it is quite possible that my answer to the letter of December 27 had not reached Moscow by then.[2] I received Bogdanov’s book before that; I liked it very much and have written a review.[3] Bulgakov’s book is not too bad, either, but I do not like the chapter on turnover and his formulation of the question of the foreign market is not quite correct. I was, of course, very pleased to receive it.
Again our allowance is being delayed—owing to the new year. Another piece of news—a new chief of police has arrived from Yeniseisk (it is the one who wanted to take the shotguns away).[8] He does not seem to have done anything to distinguish himself yet. For some unknown reason Prominsky has had his allowance reduced from 31 rubles a month (he has five children) to 21 rubles—seven people cannot live on that sum in Shusha and his hatter’s business (that is his trade) is not a going concern here. Another comrade[4] went to see a doctor in Minusinsk and has been admitted to hospital there.
It is still very, very cold here; the Siberian winter intends to make itself felt after all. But I seem to have got fairly used to the frosts, and do quite a lot of walking every day.
Yours,
V. U.
Did you send N.K. money to subscribe to Vestnik Finansov? I did not expect it at all (because I asked her to subscribe only in the event of my finances being in a brilliant state) and now I get it from her as I always did.
Today I am sending Anyuta tho books from the library
and the technical reports by registered post.
Nadezhda Konstantinovna writes that the writer has proposed either to look for money for the publication of my articles or a publisher for them, and for this reason she will not take the manuscripts away from him. I answered that she should take them and send them to you because one can “look” for many years, and, indeed, who would willingly go to so much trouble. I shall start on the corrections to Sismondi in a couple of days without waiting for your answer to one of my earlier letters and as soon as they are finished I shall send them to you.[9] (The writer’s proposal is important to me only because it shows the feasibility of this enterprise from the standpoint of censorship, which is actually the only thing that interested me.) As regards my other manuscripts, with the exception of the article on handicraftsmen,[5] [10] I do not think they should be included, first, because they are of a different character, suitable only for a journal, the subjects are polemical and of temporary interest, and, secondly, because it is not worth the risk.
When you receive this letter you should be able, I think, to begin negotiations with the printers (in the plural, because you will probably have to seek and haggle) and look for a shop in which to buy paper. While these preliminary searches are going on I shall send the corrections, and you will then be able to go straight on with the printing. It seems to me important not to waste time, so that the book can come out in April.
All the best,
V. U.
I think the article on Sismondi had better go first, followed by the handicrafts.
[1] I have received Neue Zeit No. 3. —Lenin
[5] That is, the articles on the “heritage” and on Yuzhakov. The note on Mikulin’s book is, of course, absolutely unsuitable for inclusion in the book.[11]—Lenin
[6] This refers to S. Bulgakov’s book Markets Under Capitalist Production. A Theoretical Study. Lenin reviewed this book in his article “A Note on the Question of the Market Theory (Apropos of the Polemic of Messrs. Tugan-Baranovsky and Bulgakov)”. (SeeCollected Works, Vol. 4, pp. 55–64.)
[7] Die Neue Zeit (New Times)—the theoretical journal of the German Social-Democratic Party published in Stuttgart from 1883 to 1923. Up to October 1917 it was edited by Karl Kautsky, later by H. Cunow.
[8] In one of his August 1897 letters that has been lost Lenin apparently spoke of a letter he had received from A. A. Vaneyev, informing him of the illegal actions of the Yeniseisk District Chief of Police Stoyanov, who demanded that Vaneyev hand over his shotgun.
[9] In this letter and the next the corrections mentioned are to the article “A Characterisation of Economic Romanticism”; they were made when the article was republished in the symposium Economic Studies and Essays.
[11] This refers to Lenin’s articles “The Heritage We Renounce” and “Gems of Narodnik Project-mongering”, both of which were published in the symposium Economic Studies and Essays.The note on A. A. Mikulin’s book has not been found.
[10] Lenin refers to “The Handicraft Census of 1894–95 in Perm Gubernia and General Problems of ’Handicraft’ Industry”. (See Collected Works, Vol. 2, pp. 355–458.)
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