Published:
First published in 1929 in the journal Proletarskaya Revolyutsiya No. 6.
Sent from Shushenskoye to Podolsk.
Printed from
the original.
Source:
Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
1977,
Moscow,
Volume 37,
pages 239-240.
Translated: The Late George H. Hanna
Transcription\Markup:
D. Moros
Public Domain:
Lenin Internet Archive.
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February 28, 1899
Today we said “Good-bye” to our guests, Mother dearest; the people from Minusinsk came here—Gleb, Basil, Z.P., local workers and others—and stayed here from Wednesday till today (Sunday). We had an excellent time and are now returning to our usual tasks. The Minusinsk people intend asking permission to come here for the summer; conditions are very bad in town in the summer. I do not know, however, whether material circumstances may not keep them tied to the town. If they can come here we shall be able to spend an excellent summer. Elvira Ernestovna, Gleb tells us, is ill all the time. A.M. did not come—she is acting as district nurse in the village of Kuraginskoye.
Many kisses,
Yours,
V.U.
Are you planning how to spend the summer and what are you thinking of doing?
I have received the issues of Neue Zeit;[2] merci for them and for the agricultural returns,[3] and also for the clean proofs of “markets”. I was very much pleased with the last. You must have had a lot of trouble with them, but as a result there are practically no misprints. I have not found any in the tables (although you write about them) and those in the letterpress are a mere bagatelle. I think the type is satisfactory. There will be about 30 printer’s signatures (that is the maximum, there will probably be fewer), just the number I counted on. The tables have been set excellently. It is particularly good that the decimal fractions stand out well and there are no tables printed sideways.[1] The tables set in 6 point (p. 46) and in 5 point (p. 39) have come out very well—I could not wish for anything better.[4] The sub-titles and the numbers of the sections are all set in suitable type. In short, on this occasion I have no reason to regret that the author cannot read the proofs. In one of my next letters I shall send you a short list of my acquaintances to whom I should like you to send the book directly from Russia. It would cost more to send a lot of copies to me and for me to send them from here, and it would be less convenient. I hope that by the time you receive this letter you will have gone a long way past the second chapter, which, from the proof-reader’s point of view, is the most treacherous chapter. I shall give the Preface a little more thought—perhaps I shall send another, or perhaps the old one can stay.[5]
I am adding a list of misprints to this letter.
I have received Nauchnoye Obozreniye No. 1 with the article by P.B. Struve against Ilyin only from the Minusinsk people. I am thinking of answering it, although it seems to me that P.B.’s article is more for than against me. I do not know whether I can now write and quote from the “markets”, i.e., will they be out in the first half of April? Write and tell me what you think. (It is important for me to quote in order to avoid repetitions.)[6]
All the best,
Yours,
V. U.
I am enclosing a letter to Mark.
I do not know whether it would be convenient to write to him at your address or direct. (Administration of the Moscow-Kursk Railway—is that enough?)[7]
[1] There are column headings printed sideways but they are not in the least inconvenient. In exceptional circumstances, tables printed sideways are not so bad, but those set in 5 point type and upright are much better. It will be a good thing if the table on p. 504 can be set in 5 point type.[8]—Lenin
[2] Die Neue Zeit journal published by the German Social-Democratic Party; although subscription to it was permitted in Russia it was frequently confiscated if addressed to a politically unreliable person. For this reason Lenin referred to it in Russian (Novoye Vremya). Lenin’s relatives had the journal sent to them in Moscow, and sent it on to Lenin in Shushenskoye. Letter No. 78 __PROGRESS_COMMENT_
[3] Lenin refers here to one of the books of agricultural returns which was published by the gubernia Zemstvos, and which he used in writing his book The Development of Capitalism in Russia.
Letter No, 78 __PROGRESS_COMMENT_
[8] Lenin probably refers here to the table showing categories of industries in Chapter V of his The Development of Capitalism in Russia (see Collected Works, Vol. 3, p. 347). This table was printed in the smallest available type, as Lenin requested. Letter No. 78 __PROGRESS_COMMENT_
[4] This refers to the table in the second section of Chapter II of The Development of Capitalism in Russia (First Edition) on the distribution of allotment land among the various groups of householders and the table in the first section of that chapter illustrating the ousting of the middle group of householders in the Dnieper Uyezd of Taurida Gubernia (see Collected Works, Vol. 3, pp. 86 and 71).
[5] Lenin added only a postscript to the Preface of his book (Collected Works, Vol. 3, pp. 26–27); he mentions this in Letter No. 82.
[6] Lenin here refers to his article “Once More on the Theory of Realisation”, in which he does not quote The Development of Capitalism in Russia because he does not know when it will be published; instead he quotes “A Characterisation of Economic Romanticism”, published in the collection Economic Studies and Essays.
[7] There follows, in the original, a list of the misprints. Some of the corrections were made in the handwriting of Lenin’s sister Anna.
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