“Miracles do not happen in nature and history, but every abrupt turn of history, along with every revolution, gives such a rich content, developing such unexpectedly peculiar combinations of forms of struggle and power relations of the combatants, that in the mind of a Philistine many things can appear as miracles. For the overthrow of the Tsarist monarchy to be possible within a few days, the combination of a whole series of factors of world-historical importance was necessary.” (From the first Letter written by Lenin on March 20, 1917. It was published in summary on March 21 and 22 in the newspaper Pravda and was first published in full in 1949 in the 4th edition of his Collected Works.)

The brochure Letters from Afar includes the four Letters of Lenin written from March 20 to 25 and also the fifth unfinished letter he wrote on the eve of his departure from Switzerland (April 8, 1917). The peculiarity of these Letters is that they concern organizational and guiding issues for the course of action of the Bolshevik Party.

These are texts published in Pravda during the days when news of revolutionary events arrived, and telegrams announced the composition of the Provisional Government and the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet of workers and soldiers' deputies. During those very days, Lenin begins preparations for the publication of Pravda, placing special emphasis on the enlightening and organizational-guiding character that the newspaper should quickly acquire.