Letter to Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova, September 24, 1915

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September 24, 1915

Dear Maria Alexandrovna,

Every day we are expecting a letter from you, but for a long time there has been no news of you, or of Anya, or of Manyasha. The last letter we had was about your going to the country for the summer.[By the way, a letter came later saying that Manyasha is visiting you—NK]

You must be back in town by now. It will he September 11 by the Russian calendar …. Did you have a good rest in summer? I should very much like to know how you are keeping, my dear. Are you quite well?

There are no changes here. We shall soon be returning to town. The mountains do me a lot of good. The thyroid trouble seems to have gone altogether. This last week we have been having magnificent weather and Volodya and I have been up all the nearby mountains. Twice I climbed the Rothhorn, 7,500 feet, which gives you an excellent view of the Alps, without getting a bit tired, and that is something not every healthy person can manage. In view of this I regard my illness as eliminated and em assuming the status of a healthy person.

Now I have a request to make of Anya. During the winter I studied pedagogy quite a let and during the summer have been writing a pamphlet on education. It is almost finished. It will be quite ready in a month and will amount to nearly a hundred pages. The subject is “The Elementary School and Democracyୁ. I have managed to collect quite a lot of interesting material, very little of which has been analysed before. Do you think some publisher might snap it up? I don’t know the present situation on the book market or whether a publisher can be found. I will try writing to Gorbunov, although the subject is one that is only of partial interest to his publishing house.

Today I received the last issue of Rech (August 31), which we have recently been reading with particular interest, it’s a pity we shall not be getting it any more. We don’t receive any other Russian newspapers. In general things are bad as far as Russian newspapers and journals are concerned. In town they are available in the readingroom, but there is a great demand for them and If you come a bit late there’s nothing left; apart from that it is not always convenient to go to the reading-room. So viemenny Mit was sent to an acquaintance from another town for one day. Altogether, on account of the post and the general breakdown everybody gets newspapers by chance.

We are thinking of returning to town in a week. If the weather is very good we shall try to stay a little longer. After all, it does not matter where we live.

Well, I must close. Many kisses for you and Anya and I embrace you both.

Yours,

Nadya