Lenin: 144. TO HIS MOTHER (original) (raw)

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.