Letter to Mark Yelizarov, March 28, 1898

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Author(s) Lenin
Written 28 March 1898


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First published in 1929 in the journal Proletarskaya Revolyutsiya No. 4. Sent from Shushenskoye to Moscow. Printed from the original.
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1977, Moscow, Volume 37, pages 169-170
Collection(s): Proletarskaya Revolyutsiya
Keywords : Letter, Mark Yelizarov

March 28

Mark,

I received your letter of March 10 acknowledging receipt of my manuscripts and proposing various plans.

You have, of course, received my letter in which I reject the idea of publishing in Moscow (I wrote that letter immediately after I learned about censorship conditions in Moscow)[1] .

It stands to reason that if things are so impossibly bad with the Moscow censor it is no use thinking of publishing there. Why should we risk such a large sum of money when there may be a delay of a year or a year and a half (at least )? You must gather the manuscripts together, do them up in one packet and send them back to St. Petersburg, to the writer, since he is kind enough to take the trouble, upon himself. Write to him about the money, telling him we have it, and that he should inform you how much he needs; and that he should see about the publication in autumn, without losing time, as soon as his own work permits.

Such is the outcome of two months’ correspondence! I hope you have not yet done anything definite. If you have bought paper you can send it on to St. Petersburg, and if you have started having it set you must pay for the pages already set. It is better to lose a few dozen rubles than risk hundreds. The writer (and you can believe him) speaks confidently about St. Petersburg.

Of course, if I had had any idea of the charms of our “first capital city” and its censors, I should never have dreamed of publishing a book in Moscow. I found out too late, from N.K.’s letter, after she had consulted the writer.

All the best,

Yours,

V. U.

My work has come to a complete standstill[2] ; I am busy with the translation and spend a lot of time over it. After that we’ll see—the rough translation will soon be ready, but it will require radical revision.

P.S. I am surprised that you write as if you want to publish the book in Moscow—and at the same time point out how impossible censorship conditions are there. Why kick against the pricks?

  1. ↑ See Letter No. 43—Ed.
  2. ↑ The work referred to is Lenin’s book The Development of Capitalism in Russia.—Ed.
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