Letter to Vyacheslav Karpinsky, May 19, 1914

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19/V. 1914

Dear Friend,

I have a favour to ask of you. Is Volume One of Rubakin’s Among Books available in your library or can you get it for me in Switzerland?

By the way, wasn’t it you who sent me Volume One?[1] If it was, then I did not refund your postal expenses!! And you didn’t remind me. Drop me a line, please, and I’ll send you the money for both volumes. (I need Volume I for only a short time.)

Do you always get Put Pravdy?

What has happened to that young Bolshevik, the Wittmarist, that nervous vegetarian I met at your place a year ago?[2]

Could any of your acquaintances travel to Vienna as delegates at their own expense (we have no money, alas!)?[3] Look around, find out. We must make up a delegation.

All the very best. Regards to Comrade Olga. N. K. also sends you both her regards.

Yours, Lenin

Wl. Uljanow.

Poronin (Galizien), Autriche.

  1. Apparently this refers to Volume II of N. Rubakin’s book Among Books reviewed by Lenin in the journal Prosveshcheniye No. 4 for April 1914 (see present edition, Vol. 20, pp. 259–61). Lenin, as his letter shows, did not have Vol. I.
  2. A reference to A. F. Ilyin-Zhenevsky.—Ed.
  3. This refers to a trip to attend the international socialist congress which was to he held in Vienna in August 1914.