Moscow, Progress Publ., 1969, 295 p. Price 65 kopecks.

Paris has firmly entered the biography of V. I. Lenin. He first visited it in 1895, then came for short periods of time in 1902-1905, and finally lived there for more than three and a half years - from the end of 1908 to June 1912. An interesting book by Jean Freville tells about the relations of Vladimir Ilyich with the city of glorious communards, about his revolutionary activities during his stay in France. The author is a well-known French writer, publicist and historic1 . In the preface to the Soviet edition of Zh. Freville writes: "The French Communist Party did me the honor to write such a book, a task that I accepted with enthusiasm and which gave me incomparable joy "(pp. 7-8). He carefully studied the writings and letters of V. I. Lenin, memoirs and correspondence of N. K. Krupskaya, and memoir literature. The works of Soviet historians and writers are also widely used in the book.

Zh. Freville visited many places associated with V. I. Lenin. "I followed him," he writes, "along his routes, following in his footsteps" (p. 8). So the reader of the book finds himself in a small brick house on Avenue d'Orleans, where the printing office of the Bolshevik Proletarian was located, and in the streets, boulevards and squares of Paris filled with columns of demonstrators, and at the Pere Lachaise cemetery, where workers honor the memory of the Commune's heroes. The author emphasizes that in Paris, V. I. Lenin did not shy away from life, did not confine himself to the concerns and affairs of his party alone. He enthusiastically followed scientific and social achievements, discoveries, inventions, visited various exhibitions, museums, theaters. But V. I. Lenin was particularly attentive to the development of the French working-class movement, and clearly saw its strengths and weaknesses. And this, rightly notes Zh. Freville, reflected later in some of his writings: "Later, in 1920, he drew conclusions from his observations in the book "The infantile disease of 'Leftism' in Communism "(p. 103).

The author traces the wide connections of the Bolshevik leader with the surrounding world, with people, not only from printed sources. The writer talked with those who personally met with Vladimir Ilyich, recorded their memories, repeatedly checked these testimonies, compared them with each other and with published materials. In this way, for example, he gathered valuable information about the organization of a party school in Longjumeau, about the stay of V. I. Lenin, N. K. Krupskaya and workers who had come from Russia. This information shows the invariable simplicity of the leader in dealing with people, his affability and modesty, cordiality in relation to comrades and friends.

Accurately and in detail recreates Zh. Freville the environment in which Lenin lived and worked in France. And our ideas about well-known biographical facts are being expanded and concretized. Well, for example, the words of Vladimir Ilyich are well known:"...it is inconvenient to work in Paris, the Bibliothegue nationale is poorly organized"2 . But what exactly did not satisfy Lenin here? Reading the book by J. Freville, we'll find out. It turns out that the library's catalog was incomplete, the file cabinet suffered from major flaws, and many necessary foreign publications were missing. In addition, the delivery of books stopped at three o'clock in the afternoon, and at four the library closed. Vladimir Ilyich had to change his long-established routine, get up earlier, limit his sleep time, and break the entire established work schedule.

Zh. Freville tries to delve into Lenin's thoughts and plans, into his daily affairs, worries, and worries. At the same time, he combines the thoroughness of a research historian with a lively and energetic style of a writer, with a hot and capacious word of a publicist. His book allows the reader to understand, to feel, in what incredibly difficult and difficult conditions V. I. Lenin fought for the preservation of the Soviet Union.-

1 Russian translations of his works " The Birth of the French Communist Party. Congress in Tours "(M. 1951) and " Maurice Thorez "(M. 1961).

2 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 55, p. 354.

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to promote and strengthen the revolutionary party of the Russian working class, against international and domestic opportunism of all directions and types. The reader can clearly see Vladimir Ilyich in his "Paris years": there is a political reaction in Russia, the intelligentsia is experiencing confusion and ideological vacillation, and he, Lenin, does not for a moment lose faith in the revolution, in the victory of the proletariat. "Even in the darkest days of emigration, he was always convinced that the revolution would soon release the enormous energy accumulated among the people" (pp. 274-275).

The Soviet reader can't help but be grateful to Zh. To Freville, for having so lovingly collected and systematized so much information about the life of the great leader of the working people in France, he ably emphasized the enduring importance of the principles of proletarian internationalism bequeathed by Lenin to communists all over the world.

Of course, J. Freville is not an expert on the history of the CPSU. And it is not surprising that some errors and factual inaccuracies crept into his book. Thus, the author writes: "In the autumn of 1895, with his (Lenin's ) active participation, the St. Petersburg Marxists formed a single organization, the Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class, the germ of the revolutionary Social-Democratic Party" (p.48). But V. I. Lenin was not only an active participant, but also the main organizer, the founder of the"Union of Struggle". Elsewhere in the book, depicting Lenin's battle with empirio-criticism, the author notes: "It was a new episode of a far from new clash between materialism and idealism" (p.88). However, this struggle on the philosophical front was not an "episode", but an important stage in the history of philosophy. On the following of the exiled V. I. Ulyanov to the Shushenskoe Railway Station. Freville writes: "To Krasnoyarsk by train, then by steamer along the Yenisei to Minusinsk, and finally by cart, accompanied by two gendarmes" (p. 49). In reality, Vladimir Ilyich was traveling to Shushenskoye "without any gendarmes" .3 The wording also needs to be clarified: "Together with him (V. I. Lenin. Krupskaya was arrested and convicted for illegal activities in the "Liberation Union" (p. 50). It is quite obvious that by "the League of Emancipation" here we mean "the League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class." The statement that V. I. Lenin and N. K. Krupskaya were arrested "together"is also inaccurate. Lenin was arrested on the night of December 9, 1895, and Krupskaya was arrested eight months later on August 12, 1896.4

Mention of the First Congress of the RSDLP is accompanied in the book by an explanation: "The official organ of the new party, Rabochaya Gazeta, was immediately banned by the police "(p.52). The named newspaper was not banned by anyone for the reason that it was published illegally: two issues were published, the third was seized by the police .5 The following statement is also objectionable: "At the first Bolshevik conference in Tammerfors in December 1905, Lenin joined the almost unanimous opinion of the conference participants that a boycott of the Duma was necessary" (p.82). But the idea of boycotting the Duma was expressed and justified by V. I. Lenin as early as August 1905 .6 At the Tammerfors Conference, he joined the commission to draft a resolution on the attitude to the State Duma. And there is no doubt that its provisions formed the basis of the adopted resolution "On the State Duma". Consequently, V. I. Lenin did not subscribe to anyone's opinion, but, on the contrary, the conference participants accepted his opinion. I would like to hope that when reprinting the work of Zh. In Freville, these errors will be corrected. It is surprising that the editors of this publication did not help the author in this regard.

Among the many diverse publications that make up Leniniana, in recent years more and more books have appeared that trace Lenin's stay in certain localities of our country and abroad. There are books about his life in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Ulyanovsk, Podolsk, Pskov, Geneva... Now this series has been expanded with the work of J. Freville on the life and work of V. I. Lenin in Paris.

3 See Byloye, 1924, No. 25, p. 129.

4 See V. I. Lenin, PSS. Vol. 55, p. 474.

5 "History of the CPSU", Vol. I. M. 1964, p. 540.

6 See V. I. Lenin, PSS. Vol. 11, pp. 166-174.

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