Letter to Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova, December 26, 1900

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Author(s) Lenin
Written 26 December 1900


MIA-bannière.gif
First published in 1929 in the journal Proletarskaya Revolyutsiya No. 11. Sent from Munich. Printed from the original.
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1977, Moscow, Volume 37, pages 310-311
Collection(s): Proletarskaya Revolyutsiya
Keywords : Letter, Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova

Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova,

Sharonov’s House,

Bakhmetyevskaya Street,

Moscow,

Russia

December 26, 1900

Mother dearest,

You will probably receive this letter shortly before the holidays. All best wishes and may you have a good time; perhaps Mitya will come and you will all get together—at least everyone who is in Russia. Anya and I also thought of getting together, but we could not manage it. Here it is already Weihnachten[1] — Christbäume[2] everywhere and the streets have been unusually lively over the last few days. I went to Vienna a few days ago and enjoyed the journey after several weeks of immobility.[3] But a winter without snow is unpleasant. Actually there is no winter at all, it is like a rotten autumn; everything wet and dripping. It is a good thing it is not cold and I can manage quite well without a winter overcoat, but somehow it’s not very nice without snow. I am fed up with the slush and recall with pleasure the real Russian winter, the sleigh rides and the clean frosty air. I am spending my first winter abroad, the first winter that is nothing at all like a winter, and I cannot say that I have been very pleased, although at times there are fine days like those we have at home in late autumn, when the weather is good.

There has been no change in my way of life; it is rather lonely and, unfortunately, rather purposeless. I keep hoping to arrange my studies more systematically but I don’t seem to manage it. In spring things will certainly go better and I shall get “on to the rails”. Since my Shushenskoye immobility I have done a lot of wandering through Russia and abroad and am now longing for some peaceful writing again; it is only the unaccustomed foreign atmosphere that prevents me really getting down to it.

Are you keeping well, Mother dearest? Are you not lonely without Anyuta? How is Manya’s case coming along? By the way, I forgot to tell her that I have received Pushkin and am very grateful, and that I also got her letter of December 6. I have hot answered because of my journey, and since then I have been very busy.

I embrace you fondly, my dear, and send best regards to all.

Yours,

V. U.

  1. ↑ Christmas (Ger.).—Ed. —Lenin
  2. ↑ Christmas trees (Ger.).—Ed.
  3. ↑ In the latter half of December 1900, Lenin went to Leipzig, where the first issue of Iskra was being printed, to do some final editing before the paper appeared. Vienna is mentioned in the letter for reasons of secrecy.
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