Letter to Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova, May 5, 1900

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May 5, 1900

Your letter of the 2nd with Manyasha’s postscript, I received only today, Mother dearest. I do not know why the letter was delayed (you expected me to receive it on the 3rd or not later than the 4th); it is postmarked “Mail train 2nd” and “Pskov 4th”, so there does not seem to have been any real delay; the letter arrived in Pskov on the 4th and was delivered this morning. A letter is not likely to reach me as quickly from Podolsk as from Moscow.

There is no need for you to worry about me, Mother dearest. My health is much better, I gave up taking the mineral water a long time ago and have never felt any desire or need to return to it. Yesterday I received a certificate from the local Chief of Police to the effect that he has no objection to my making a journey abroad; today I paid the stamp duty (ten rubles) and in two hours’ time I shall receive my passport. And so I shall be moving to warmer parts in summer; I cannot leave here immediately because there are some matters I must settle with editors and with certain publishers of translations and also wind up some financial affairs (I hope, by the way, to get a few coppers from Filippov; if I get none, either from him or Popova, I will write and ask you to send me something). I must, moreover, wait here for an answer to my request to the Department for permission to live in Ufa for six weeks on account of my wife’s illness. I submitted the request on April 20 and there should be an answer in about a week. I shall definitely visit Nadya, but I still do not know whether I shall be able to live with her for six weeks or whether (which is the more probable) I shall have to make do with a shorter period. In any case the receipt of the passport (I have to receive it here in Pskov, my last place of residence) does not restrict me because the law says that I may go abroad any time within three months on a passport issued in the interior gubernias, so that I shall not be late even if I leave Russia on August 5. I am therefore leaving here between the 15th and the 20th, as I wrote you before; I shall try to leave earlier, of course. Please write and tell me what to do with my things; shall I leave them in Moscow (is Mark there and what is his address? will he be in Moscow long? does he visit you often?) or bring them straight to Podolsk (I don’t know if that will be convenient; I suppose I shall have to take everything with me, including books), and I should like Manyasha to write me in detail how to find you in Podolsk.

I embrace you and send regards to all.

Yours,

V. U.

I shall be seeing you soon!

Nadya writes that her health is improving.

I have just received my passport from the Chancellory of the Governor and have enquired about my request to go to Ufa; now it turns out that I have been refused! That is something I certainly did not expect and am now quite at a loss what to do!