Letter to Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova, July 3, 1899

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July 3

Dear Maria Alexandrovna,

Yesterday I received your letter of June 16. We are getting our letters written today because we had intended to go visiting, but it is doubtful whether we shall make the trip since some “weather” is beginning. Volodya must have praised it too much-the kept saying “lovely, lovely weather” and now it has changed till it is like nothing on earth. There is wind every day that makes the shutters rattle. But it isn’t cold and we take a daily walk as we did before. Although the shooting season has begun, Volodya has not yet got “hunting fever”. He has been shooting only a couple of times. He shot some grey-hen and we made some good meals off them. We keep intending to go visiting, we have permission to go to town, but the permit is lying at the volost centre and we don’t know whether we shall go or not. We were all ready to go when we learned that Vasily Vasilyevich was at the factory and on his way back would call for us to go with him-and we have invited Glob and Zina to come at that time… I want to see Zina and have a chat with her, it is a long time since I last saw her. The only thing is that after all these meetings with comrades one feels somehow dissatisfied. You intend to say everything there is to say but when you meet the talk somehow gets pushed into the background by all sorts of excursions, chess playing, skating, etc. The result is more like fatigue than pleasure. However that may be, it is good to see people. We have heard from Yermakovskoye that Anatoly is very bad, Lepeshinsky’s wife is a nurse and she thinks the end is net far off. The doctor at Yermakovskoye is a great optimist and assures Deminika that there is still hope. About Mikh. Al—he is all alone because his flancée[O. A. Papperek.—Editor ] has postponed her arrival until the end of summer. Yermakovskoye is now the most populated place in our district. I have been wondering all the time whether they will send anybody else to Shushenskoye, but they have not done so. Prominshy’s time will be up in the autumn and the main question for them now is whether they will go home at the cost of the government; it is a big family, eight of them, and they will never manage It on their own resources. In the time we have been here we have got quite used to our Shushenskoye comrades and if for any reason a day passes without Oscar or Prominsky coming we feel that there is some. thing missing …. Why is Lirochka so bored? She wrote to us that she has so much work she has to get up at 5 or 6 in the morning to get everything done. It is true that all her work is the sort that gives her little satisfaction, but that is something she cannot change. Kazachinskoye is no worse than any other place. I should very much like to see her but now I am hardly likely to. If she is transferred to our district, it will be when we are no longer here.

Well, good-bye. Many kisses. Mother, sends very best regards. Has Anyuta left yet? If not, kiss her for me, and kiss Manya, too, many, many times.

Yours,

Yours,

N. Ulyanova