Letter to the Editor of Pravda, September 8, 1912

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Author(s) Lenin
Written 8 September 1912


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First published in 1923 in the book Iz epokhi “Zvezdy” i “Pravdy” (1911–14), Part III. Sent from Cracow to St. Petersburg. Printed from the typewritten copy found in police records.
Source: Lenin Collected Works, Progress Publishers, 1976, Moscow, Volume 35, pages 56-57
Keywords : Letter, Pravda

Dear Colleague,

You remind me again about the address of a friend. You have already asked me once for this address, and T sent it to you. It was added by me—I well remember—at the very end of a long letter. Look this up if you can. But perhaps it is simpler to repeat the address: Herrn Kurt Lauschner, Beuthen (Ober-Schlesien). Piekarerstr. 19/III, Germany. Inside it is essential to add: for Herr Hörsing: FĂŒr Herrn Hörsing (there are two Beuthens in Germany, therefore it is necessary to specify “Ober-Schlesien”)...[1] has arrived. Many thanks. Dansky’s manuscript has also arrived. I am extremely surprised that today, when I had from you both Pravda and a packet of reactionary papers, I did not receive Thursday’s Nevsky Golos. But I, for a number of important reasons, very much need to have Nevsky Golos directly it appears. If it does not appear, please don’t be too lazy to send me two words about it at once. It is extremely important for me to know as soon as possible whether it appeared on Thursday, August 23 (as Nevsky Golos promised on August 17), and, if it did appear, to get a copy. By the way, I sent you a long time ago a list of issues of Zvezda, Nevskaya Zvezda, Pravda and Zhivoye Dyelo missing from my files. You still don’t reply whether you can send them. Yet one mutual friend told me the other day that you have files of Zvezda and Nevskaya Zvezda. Let me know, please, whether you have kept the list I sent, and whether you can send me the missing issues. I take advantage of this opportunity to congratulate Comrade Vitimsky (I hope it will not be difficult for you to pass this letter on to him) on the remarkably fine article in Pravda (No. 98)[2] which I received today. The subject chosen was extremely topical, and was splendidly worked out in a brief but clear form. In general it would be useful from time to time to recall, quote and explain in Pravda Shchedrin and other writers of the “old” Narodnik democratic movement. For the readers of Pravda—for the 25,000—this would be appropriate and interesting, and also it would throw light on present-day questions of working-class democracy from another point of view, and in other words.

What is the circulation of Pravda? Don’t you think it might be useful to publish monthly statistics, even briefly (circulation, name of town and district)? What could be the arguments against publishing them? If there are no special considerations, it seems to me that you should publish.

I almost forgot. We have had a number of complaints from various places abroad that neither when subscriptions are sent, nor when money is sent for particular issues, does Pravda arrive. I don’t get it regularly now myself. This means undoubtedly that something is wrong in the dispatch department. Please take the most energetic steps you can. Look yourselves at the letters from abroad about subscriptions, and get the matter cleared up. Send one copy of Pravda and Nevskaya Zvezda to the following address: Frl. Slutzky: Katherinenstr. 8 g. H.II (bei Worte), Halensee, Berlin.

  1. ↑ Some words are missing in the original.—Ed.
  2. ↑ Reference is to the article “Kulturniye lyudi i nechistaya sovest” (“Cultured People and a Sullied Conscience”) by M. S. Olminsky (A. Vitimsky), published in Pravda No. 98, August 23, 1912.
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