Written: Written on February 21, 1913
Published:
First published in 1923 in the book Iz epokhi “Zvezdy” i “Pravdy” (1911–14), Part III.
Sent from Cracow to St. Petersburg.
Printed from the typewritten copy found in police records.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
[1976],
Moscow,
Volume 35,
pages 86-87.
Translated: Andrew Rothstein
Transcription\Markup:
R. Cymbala
Public Domain:
Lenin Internet Archive.
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• README
Dear Colleagues,
Let me first of all congratulate you on the vast improvement in the whole conduct of the paper which has become apparent during the last few days. I want to congratulate you and to wish you further successes in the same direction. The day before yesterday I sent the first two short articles entitled “An Increasing Discrepancy”.[1] From No. 234 of Pravda I see clearly that these articles will not be suitable. Therefore please pass them over without delay to Prosveshcheniye, to which I am sending the final section. Please pass over to them also the other articles which have not been printed (the reply to Mayevsky; on morality; Bulgakov on the peasants[2]—Bulgakov’s articles from Russkya Mysl, etc.). Please be sure to reply as soon as possible whether you have done this. Send me Nos. 7, 8, 21 and 24 of Luch and No. 25 of Pravda. I had always been getting Pravda until lately in the mornings, as I do Rech and Novoye Vremya. But for the last week Pravda has begun to come late, and arrives only in the evenings. Clearly the dispatch department is working carelessly. I earnestly request you to take steps to see that, they display greater care with the daily post.
I receive no new books at all. Steps must be taken (a) to get them from the publishers on a deposit account, (b) to get the Duma arid official publications through the deputies. It is absolutely impossible to work without books.... I don’t receive either Zavety or Russkaya Molva.[3] I can’t get on without them. I particularly need the issue of Russkaya Molva where they wrote about Luch and explained that the Mensheviks are against underground work.
March 1 (14) will be the 30th anniversary of the death of Marx. You ought to publish a supplement for two or three kopeks, four pages in Pravda formal with a big portrait of Marx and a number of small articles.[4] There should also be detailed advertisements both for Pravda and Prosveshcheniye. Probably it would pay for itself with a circulation of 25–30 thousand, and make a profit. If you agree, cable me: “Draw up” (we shall then sit down to write), then, in addition, send a more detailed reply. Reply please, two or three times a week in a few lines, about what articles you have received and which will be printed.
In my opinion you were quite right to publish Dnevnitsky in full, as a first step. But for the future it would be better to hold up such long (and bad) articles, and to begin correspondence about passing them over to Prosveshcheniye.
Yours,
I.
[1] See present edition, Vol. 18, pp. 562–79.—Ed.
[2] Lenin’s articles “A Reply to Mayevsky”, “Bulgakov on the Peasants” and two other articles on morality, mentioned in this letter, have never been found.
[3] Russkaya Molva (Russian Tidings)—daily newspaper of the Progressist Party; appeared in St. Petersburg from December 1912 to August 1913.
[4] On March 1 (14), 1913, the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Karl Marx, Pravda published Lenin’s article “The Historical Destiny of the Doctrine of Karl Marx” (see present edition, Vol. 18, pp. 582–85). The issue of Pravda dedicated to the anniversary appeared on March 3 (16), 1913.
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