Written: 11 February, 1914. Letter sent from Krakow to St. Petersburg
Published: 1955 in the jouranl Istorichesky Archiv No. 4.
Source: Lenin
Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1977, Moscow, Volume 37, pages 619-620.
Translated/Edited: George H. Hanna and Robert Daglish.
Transcription/Markup: D. Walters
Public Domain: Lenin Internet Archive 2008. You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as the source/editing/transcription/markup information noted above.
Dear Anya,
The periodical for women is developing sporadically solar. Moscow has promised to arrange a social evening to get money for it, but I don’t know whether it will come off. Supplements to the newspaper would cost more and not less- A journal would have an organising significance and in that respect is better than supplements. In St. Petersburg they say "a hundred rubles is not money". I don’t know about that, but somehow we start everything without money. When the first issue appears, perhaps it will be possible to get some, although, I repeat, I don’t see any in the offing.
I am very worried about how the editorial side will be arranged. Things so far are ill a bad way because there are two of us here and two more in Paris, but as far as the fifth member of the board is concerned things are not so simple. There are some very competent people in Paris. You know Lyudmila. The other is still more reliable as far as principles are concerned and whatever she undertakes she does well.[The Parisians were Lyudmila Stal and Inessa Armand.—Editor.] I should like the Parisians to co-opt a third person and have an editorial office there, but somehow this is not being done. The actual editorial office will be in Russia, of course. I do not think this at all important because the matter is such an elementary one that it will not be difficult to come to an agreement. At first there will be some slight confusion, then we shall talk matters over and in the end we shall be able to work together and everything will be all right. And the disadvantage is that we are not all competent literary workers, and some of our ideas may not be expresned clearly …. Still, I hope everything will turn out all right. Please write more about this matter.
A few days ago I read through all the articles in our newspapers about women’s affairs and saw that the insurance campaign had made the question of women very prominent. I have sent a short article on this issue today. If only I were a competent writer-nothing comes out the way I want it to. While you are writing a thing it. seems good, but when you see it in print you are ashamed to look at it.
I am worried about the article for Prosveszcheniye.[Krupskaya’s article “Results of the Congress on Public Education” was published in 1914 in Prosveshcherdye No. 1.—Editor.] It is written exclusively from newspaper articles, and from very few newspapers at that. The resolutions were reported everywhere very differently and many factual errors may easily have crept in. Apart from that, the article was written at a time when I was feeling very ill and the work did not go well. Then they wrote to me that E. K.[’ It is not known whom this refers to.—Editor]would write about the congress. His reports were the best. I was very pleased, but it was my article that appeared. So there you are.
So please let me have the details about the periodical for women, ’think you will get down to it seriously. It may develop into something big. At any rate i am beginning to get an appetite for it.
Nadya