TO MAXIM GORKY (November 15, 1913)

Written in the middle of November 1913 · First published in 1924 in Lenin Miscellany I. Sent from Cracow to Capri. Printed from the original. · page 266

Dear A. M.,

I have received the novel^[1] and your letter. My opinion is that the novel should be shelved, since you are not in favour. I enclose a letter from Kamenev, who read the novel (I have not read it yet).

We shall write to St. Petersburg to have them hold it up.

I enclose my letter of yesterday^[2]: don’t be angry that I lost my temper. Perhaps I did not understand you aright? Perhaps it was as a joke that you wrote “for a time”? Perhaps you weren’t serious about God-building, either?

I entreat you to get the best possible treatment.

Yours,
Lenin

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[1] Voitinsky’s manuscript (see p. 265 of this volume).

[2] See present edition, Vol. 35, pp. 121-24.