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

This typescript is paginated 17-19. It is initialled "L", BR's pseudonym. The number "8" is typed on it.

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

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

The original letter is number 1565 in the numbered sequence of letters to Ottoline Morrell (document .001565, record 18772). It somehow ended up in her possession. In the Auto. Russell writes that this and the other letters were "antedated letters to Colette", i.e. Constance Malleson. There are four other transcriptions of the letter:

document .052461, record 99939 (carbon of .200651)
document .052469, record 99955 (ribbon copy)
document .200652, record 19657 (carbon copy of .052469)
Autobiography chapter "Russia", document .007050f2, pp. 151-52, 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, pp. 13-16; record 116404.)