Letter to Georgi Plekhanov, July 30, 1901

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July 30, 1901

Dear G. V.,

I received your letter from the country and the new books (Final Report, Blondel et Vandervelde et DestrĂŠe), for which many thanks.

I did not get Tezyakov[1]; probably it won’t come at all ,as it was ordered from Kalmykova’s store[2] and she is being exiled from St. Petersburg for three years andis closing down the store (the latest and quite accurate news!).

I am sending you Kuleman[3] today.

As regards the forgery in Russkoye Bogatstvo concerning Engels,[4] I shall take all possible steps.

As regards reviews, we have little definite information. All are busy with their own articles (Velika—against Berdayev, Puttman with magazine notes=against Russkoye Bogatstvo, I with my agrarian article,[5] etc.). Moreover, there is still time for reviews.

I have sent my article against R. N. S. to the press after toning down a number of sharp passages.[6] I have also written a postscript to it, in which I draw a parallel between an article of Dragomanov’s[7] (“Knock, and it shall be opened unto you”) and that of R. N. S., to the advantage of the former. There, too, I am toning down a few expressions (on Velika’s insistence). But the general tone of my strictures can no longer be subject to radical revision.

Letters from Russia say that our people are terribly taken with Berdayev. There you have someone who asks to be trounced, and not only in the specifically philosophical sphere! True, Velika is writing an article in connection with Berdayev’s last article in Mir Bozhy.

I was very glad to learn that you and P. B. will be seeing each other and will start on the programme. It will be a tremendous step forward if we can come before our people with a draft like yours and P. B.’s. This is a matter that is most urgent.

All the very best.

Yours,

Petrov

  1. ↑ See Note 102. p. 85
  2. ↑ This refers to Kalmykova’s bookstore in St. Petersburg, which was used as a secret rendezvous by Social-Democrats. p. 85
  3. ↑ This refers to V. Kuleman’s book The Trade Union Movement, an Essay on the Trade Union Organisation of the Workers and Associations of Employers in All Countries, St. P., 1901. p. 85
  4. ↑ See pp. 81–82 of this volume.—.—Lenin
  5. ↑ Lenin was engaged on his article “The Agrarian Question and the ’Critics of Marx,”’ (see present edition, Vol. 5).—Ed.
  6. ↑ The Persecutors of the Zemstvo and the Hannibals of Liberalism” (see present edition, Vol. 5 and p. 81 of this volume.—Ed.
  7. ↑ Dragomanov, Mikhail Petrovich (1841-1895)—Ukrainian historian, ethnographer and publicist, a bourgeois liberal. He was assistant professor at Kiev University; contributed to liberal journals. p. 85