V. I.   Lenin

50

To:   V. G. SHKLYAREVICH

Published: First published in 1930 in Lenin Miscellany XIII. Sent from London to Koreiz. Printed from the original.
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, [1977], Moscow, Volume 43, pages 86^b-87^a.
Translated: Martin Parker and Bernard Isaacs
Transcription\Markup: R. Cymbala
Public Domain: Lenin Internet Archive (2005). 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.
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Your communication concerning the “inheritance” received.^[3] We too feel there is much that is “strange and incomprehensible” about this, especially the suggestion that   Fyokla[1] should look for a lawyer. How could Fyokla do it? And why shouldn’t the heir himself do it? Of course, nothing ventured, nothing gained, and an attempt might be made, but it has to be nevertheless thoroughly considered. Otherwise we might make a laughing-stock of ourselves by chasing soap-bubbles. So, do everything possible to investigate the matter and let us know how “the heir can be placed at our disposal”. Send him abroad, or what? Describe him in detail for us. Further, why didn’t “your” heir apply to the lawyers acting for the co-heirs? (Needless to say, we cannot afford to spend any money on this.)

It would be very important for us to have good contact directly with the Southern workers’ organisation.^[4] Please attend to this and send us as detailed an account of it as possible.^[2]

Notes

[1] Code name for the Editorial Board of Iskra.—Ed.

[2] This paragraph is crossed out in the original.—Ed.

[3] A reference to the inheritance left by a Russian who had died abroad. V. C. Shklyarevich bad written to Lenin about it in a letter dated June 5, 1902, suggesting that the Editorial Board of Iskra find a lawyer to handle the case, for which Iskra would have received one-third of the property involved. The Editorial Board turned down the proposition.

[4] A reference to the Social-Democratic organisation in the Crimea, which V. G. Shklyarevich put in touch with the Editorial Board of Iskra. The letters from Simferopol, Feodosia and Yalta published in Iskra Nos. 24 and 25 afford an idea of the activities of this organisation.