"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 is number 5 in a sequence of eight Russia letters. In the Autobiography, however, it becomes number 2 as the letters that Colette wrote are not published there. The letter is paginated 10-11. It is initialled "L", BR's pseudonym. The city he is referring to is Petrograd, Soviet Russia, although the letter was not written there or on the date written on the letter. It was written after his return from Russia at the end of June.

The original letter ended up in the possession of Ottoline Morrell. It is number 1563 in the letters to her (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 .007050f2, record 116401 (Autobiography).