"I am here at last, in this city which has filled the world with history, which has inspired the most deadly hatreds and the most poignant hopes." This was number 5 in a sequence of 8 "Russia" letters. In the Autobiography, however, it became number 2 as the letters that Colette wrote are not published there; number 2 appears before the letter in this version, which is a typescript carbon of the Autobiography. The letter is on pp. 149-50.

The city he is referring to is Petrograd, Soviet Russia, although the actual letter was not written from there or on the date written on the letter. It was written after his return from Russia on 30 June 1920.

The number 5 has been taken from other versions.

The original letter ended up in the possession of Lady Ottoline Morrell. It is number 1563 in the numbered sequence of letters to Ottoline, document .001563, record 18770.

There are three other transcriptions of this letter:

Document .052467, record 99953 (ribbon copy);
Document .200649, record 19654 (carbon copy);
Document .052458, record 99934 (a different typing).