V. I.   Lenin

144

To:   HIS MOTHER


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.   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.README


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


Notes

[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.


< backward   forward >
Works Index   |   Volume 37 | Collected Works   |   L.I.A. Index