Published:
First published in 1929 in the journal Proletarskaya Revolyutsiya No. 11.
Sent from London to Samara.
Printed from
the original.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
1977,
Moscow,
Volume 37,
pages 352-353.
Translated: The Late George H. Hanna
Transcription\Markup:
D. Moros
Public Domain:
Lenin Internet Archive.
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December 17, 1902
Mother dearest,
A few days ago we received Manyasha’s letter to Nadya
with your postscript and I was very glad to hear from you
because there had been no news for a long time. There
was also a short letter from Anyuta; she seems to be well
content with her new place. Manyasha writes that you will
soon be seeing Mitya and his
wife.[1]
Give him very best
regards from me and all of us. Perhaps Anyuta will visit
you, too, and you will all be together for a short while
during the holidays. That would be fine.
Our life here goes on just the same as usual. It was cold for a few weeks (cold here means “not thawing”) but there was no snow and we all caught colds. But we are all right now. The weather is again wet—at this rate I shall soon get unused to our winter!
I see from Manyasha’s letter that she liked Zheleznov’s book. I have not read it, of course; I merely turned over the pages, and so cannot undertake to judge. When I have read it, I will write about it. What I wrote concerned only the first, superficial impression.
Manyasha also writes that she has taken up languages, even English. I thought of sending her a textbook on pronunciation, a very good one, in German. I have been doing some study lately and am very pleased with the book; I can’t praise it enough. The book is, Henry Sweet, Elementarbuch des gesprochenen Englisch, Oxford, 1901, and it costs something like a ruble twenty-five kopeks. If Manyasha would like me to, I can send it; I do not need it any more. Since she has Toussaint, however, I don’t know whether it is worth while, because Toussaint is excellent. I used not to believe in this system but now I am sure it is the only serious, efficient system. If you take a few lessons from a native foreigner after working through the first part of Toussaint you can certainly acquire a thorough knowledge of the language. There are Toussaint dictionaries now as well, in which the pronunciation is indicated; I strongly advise Manyasha to buy them because our Alexandrov is wrong in many cases. (For instance, I strongly advise her to buy Muret’s pocket dictionary that uses the Toussaint method, Taschenwörterbuch der englischen und deutschen Sprache, Teil I, Englisch-deutsch, Preis 2 Mark. ,Berlin, 1902. Langenscheidtsche Verlagsbuchhandlung.)
Well, I have used up a lot of paper talking about books.... I want to order Problemy idealizma—this seems to be a “militant” review by the nonsense-mongering gentlemen.[2]
Y.V. and Nadya send their regards. I hope you will soon be receiving visitors and have some relief from your loneliness.
I embrace you fondly, my dear.
Yours,
V. Ulyanov
[1] Lenin’s brother and his wife visited Samara in the winter of 1902.—Ed.
[2] The symposium contained articles by S. N. Bulgakov, Prince Y. N. Trubetskoi, N. A. Berdyayev, S. L. Frank, Prince S. N. Trubetskoi, S. F. Oldenburg and others.
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