Letter to Maria llyinichna Ulyanova, April 22, 1914

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Maria Ilyinichna Ulyanova,

Samarin’s House, Apt. 3,

Moskovskaya Street,

Vologda,

Russia

April 22

Dear Manyasha,

I have had news that you are annoyed at my prolonged silence. I am indeed at fault as far as letter-writing is concerned—it is very difficult in our situation (in yours and in mine especially) to carry on the correspondence one would like....

Yesterday we received a letter from Mother addressed to me and to Nadya. Give Mother many kisses for me. Perhaps you will be better off in summer than in winter.

I recently received information about the exiles at Olonets. They have collected material about the situation there and who the exiles are—most of them are workers, new people (post-revolutionary people), out of 150 people in the uyezd there are two liquidators and a few Left Narodniks. Apparently there are great changes in the composition of the exile groups—it would be of interest to collect the data and publish them occasionally in Prosveshcheniye. Nadya has written to you and intends to write again.

In a fortnight or so we are again going to Poronin—there are mountains there and I hope that Nadya’s thyroid trouble will pass—mountain air is good for people suffering from this disease. The weather here is wonderful and I frequently go cycling.

No matter how provincial and barbarous this town of ours may be, by and large I am better off here than I was in Paris. The hurly-burly of life in the émigré colony there was incredible, one’s nerves got worn down badly and for no reason at all, Paris is an inconvenient place to work in, the Bibliothèque nationale is badly organised—we often thought of Geneva, where work went better, the library was convenient, and life was less nerve-racking and timewasting. Of all the places I have been in my wanderings I would select London or Geneva, if those two places were not so far away. Geneva is particularly fine for its general cultural level and the conveniences that make life easier. Here, of course, there can be no talk of culture—it is almost the same as Russia—the library is a bad one and extremely inconvenient, although I scarcely ever have to go there....

Autumn in the Tatras (the mountains near where we live in Poronin) is marvellous—at least, last autumn was delightful after a rainy summer. Your time will be up in autumn, won’t it? I sometimes have dreams of our seeing one another in autumn. If it is fine in autumn we are thinking of staying in the country in October, too.

All the best,

Yours,

V. U.