1904

149. To HIS MOTHER

First published in 1929 in the journal Proletarskaya Revolyutsiya No. 11. Sent from Geneva to Kiev. Printed fromthe original. · page 359 · Translated by The Late George H. Hanna

January 8, 1904

Mother dearest,

I forgot to reply to Manyasha about the 150 rubles she was enquiring about. Let them remain with you, for the time being at any rate. I would, however, ask you to buy a few books with some of the money. I have already written about a Russian-French Dictionary. To this I should like to add Sechenov’s Elementy mysli (a recently published book).

A few days ago I had a wonderful outing to Salève with Nadya and a friend.^[1] Down below in Geneva it was all mist and gloom, but up on the mountain (about 4,000 feet above sea level) there was glorious sunshine, snow, tobogganing— altogether a good Russian winter’s day. And at the foot of the mountain—la mer du brouillard, a veritable sea of mist and clouds, concealing everything except the mountains jutting up through it, and only the highest at that. Even little Salève (nearly 3,000 feet) was wrapped in mist.

So we are beginning to get to know Switzerland and its scenery. In the spring we intend to make a long walking tour.

I embrace you fondly, my dear. Are you keeping well? How are you?

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[1] F. V. Lengnik.—Ed.