Letter to Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova, March 7, 1899

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An envelope addressed to Lenin’s sister Maria in Brussels in his mother’s hand was attached to this letter—Ed.

March 7, 1899

This week, Mother dearest, I have received three little books by Turgenev in German. Merci for them. I am glad you got the Reclam edition—I think it is the most convenient. I am now waiting for a dictionary from Russian into German (I remember we had two—Lenström and Reiff, an old dictionary from Russian. The latter would be better, although the first of them is quite all right), and also some sort of a grammar. I wrote about this to Anyuta; Mark has a Book about Books in which several detailed German grammars written in the German language are listed. I wanted to order Pavlovsky’s Russo-German Dictionary from Kalmykova but it seems that it is not finished and is being published piecemeal.

I am now finishing an article[1] in reply to Struve.[2] It seems to me he has got things badly mixed up and his article may cause a good deal of misunderstanding among supporters and malicious glee among opponents. If it is not possible to place the reply in the journal (for the simple reason that Tugan-Baranovsky or Bulgakov will get their answers in first; I still have not had the January issue of Nauchnoye Obozreniye) I think I shall include it in the “markets” as a fourth Appendix (the article is no more than about sixteen pages). Of course it would be better in the journal.

There are no changes here. The weather is warm. Spring is already making itself felt.

There is little good news from the comrades. Apollinariya Alexandrovna was allowed to go to Yeniseisk for three weeks. Poor Anatoly is sick all the time, his temperature goes up to 40° C. They say he has consumption—he is not allowed to know this, of course. His transfer to Minusinsk District has still not been settled.

Yours,

V. U.

Many kisses. Y.V. and Nadya send regards.

  1. ↑ Lenin’s article “Once More on the Theory of Realisation” was written in reply to P. B. Struve’s “Markets Under Capitalist Production (Apropos of Bulgakov’s Book and Ilyin’s Article)” (see Collected Works, Vol. 4, pp. 74–93).
  2. ↑ At this point Lenin’s mother added a note, apparently for her daughter Maria: “We read it with pleasure; it is well written.”—Ed.