Books: Lenin Speaking

THE LETTERS OF LENIN—Translated & edited by Elizabeth Hill & Doris Mudie— Harcourt, Brace ($4).

Of the thousands of letters written by Vladimir Ilich Ulianov in his 54-year life, about 1,000 are left. That is not because his correspondents were thoughtless but because Vladimir Ulianov was a revolutionary. Many a missive he wrote in invisible ink, bound inside book covers, traced between lines of bromidic gossip; many were destroyed when read, some were intercepted, some went to the dead letter orifice. In Russia, where Vladimir Ulianov's tomb is Moscow's most sacred sight, three...