Written: 2 December, 1900. Letter sent from Ufa to Podolsk
Published: 1931 in Lenin’s Letters to Relatives Printed from the original.
Source: Lenin
Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1977, Moscow, Volume 37, pages 595-596.
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.
Her Excellency Maria Ilyinichna Ulyanova,
Sharonnv ’s House,
Bakhmetyevskaya Street,
Moscow
December 2
Dear Manyasha,
Many thanks for the album, excuse me for the trouble I have caused you in getting it sent on; thanks also for bothering to supply me with French books. I have not yet managed all the old ones for I read terribly little. I know very well that unless I read I cannot master a language, but there is no tine. How I sometimes envy you your solitude! It would give me the greatest pleasure to pore over my books of an evening, but I never manage to. Hustle, bustle and again hustlel One would have thought this could be avoided in Ufa. I do not know how it happens because I am not, I believe, very sociable. It is true that I have lost my shyness, only on rare occasions am I overcome by a sudden wave of shyness and cannot utter a word; now, however, that rarely happens and soon passes, but it used to be a real misfortune. That is why I understand you so well when you write about your being shy. I know what a tormenting feeling it is and how difficult it is to get over it…
I have another request to snake of you. Volodya asked for someone to write to Filippov about manuscripts and about payment for the Skvortsov article. I am writing about the manuscripts today but a letter must be written to Soikin about payment, mentioning the exact number of pages. I have not got a copy of Nauchnoye Obozreniye handy, so I cannot count the number of pages; more important than that-I am afraid there may be some delay in sending the money and that I shall have left Ufa in the meantime—I want to avoid complications. It is also possible that Filippov has sent the money to Moscow and that may make things awkward. So please write to Soikin in Volodya’s name telling him to send the money to you. I think it would be better to do this before the New Year.
What were you sick with? What did you have, influenza? I hope you have completely recovered …. Have you? And is Maria Alexandrovna keeping well? For some reason you did not write anything about her. What are you doing? What are you reading?
If you have not gone abroad by that time we shall see one another in March. Only three and a half months left, actually not very much. Do you know, I sometimes wonder whether I shall be given a passport to go abroad with Volodya away, perhaps his consent is necessary. Do you know whether Mark Timofeyevich’s consent was required before a passport was issued to Anyuta? In general, as we get nearer to March 1 am getting alarmed at the possibility of delays. It is true that Volodya’s letters have now become calmer and he writes that he is quite well, but it would not be a bad thing if those three months passed more quickly.
The Siberians write very seldom, and from, people passing through I have learned only that Glob has grown thin and Zina has got fat. That’s not much.
Well, good-bye, I embrace you fondly and kiss you. Many, many kisses for Maria Alexandrovna as well. Mother sends regards.
Yours,
N. Ulyanova