"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 eight Russia letters. In the Autobiography it became number 2 as the letters that Colette wrote are not published there.

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 number "5" does not appear on this transcription; it has been taken from other versions.

The original letter ended up in the possession of Ottoline Morrell (document .001563, record 18770).

There are three other transcriptions of the letter: document .200649, record 19654 (carbon of this transcription); document .052458, record 99934 (different typing); Autobiography chapter "Russia", document .007050f2, pp. 149-50, record 116401.