"On the Volga. Our boat travels on, day after day, through an unknown and mysterious land."

This was number 8 in a sequence of eight Russia letters. In the published Autobiography, however, it became number 4 as the letters that Colette wrote are not published there.

This letter was not written on the Volga or on the date on the letter. It was written after his return from Russia on 30 June 1920. In this Autobiography typescript it has no number; it is on pp. 151-2.

The original letter ended up in the possession of Lady Ottoline Morrell. It is number 1565 in the sequence of letters to her (document .001565, record 18772).

The number 8 comes from other copies of the letter.

In the Autobiography Russell writes that this and the other letters were "antedated letters to Colette", i.e. Constance Malleson.

There are four other transcriptions of this letter:

Document .200651, record 19656 (ribbon copy);
Document .052461, record 99939 (carbon of .200651);
Document .052469, record 99955 (ribbon);
Document .200652, record 19657 (carbon copy of .052469).

There is also a handwritten version of the letter with the tense changed in The Problem of China at the end of Chapter 1 (ms., Rec. Acq. 1027, box 7, pp. 13-16, record 116404).