"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 Autobiography, however, it became number 4 as the letters that Colette wrote are not published there.

The letter was not written from the Volga or on the date written on the letter. It was written after Russell's return from Russia on 30 June 1920.

The number 8 does not appear on the letter; that number comes from copies of the letter. It is number 1565 in the numbered sequence of letters to Ottoline. It somehow ended up in Ottoline's possession. In the Autobiography Russell writes that this and the other letters were "antedated letters to Colette", i.e. Constance Malleson. When Julian Vinogradoff (Ottoline's daughter) wanted to publish this letter in 1955, Russell refused permission, writing that "these were not personal letters to your mother, but were sent to various people" (document .053309, record 13763).

There are five transcriptions of the 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)
Autobiography chapter "Russia", document .007050f2, pp. 151-2, record 116403.

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; record 116404).