In those terrible years, I got married, that is, went to the civil registry and was married to Khristina Mikhailovna, née Naumova, who was a teacher in Yekaterinoslav (Dnepropetrovsk) but got stuck in 1919 in Alushta, Crimea. She was married to an engineer named Bunin, but he was killed by Makhnovists, and they had a ten-year-old daughter Mushka (I described Mushka’s death from cholera in 1922 in the story “In a Thunderstorm”). My marriage to Khristina Mikhailovna was the greatest luck of my life. Amid all struggles in life, I found in her the best partner one can only dream of without any hope of ever finding such a person in reality. Being an incredibly energetic woman, Khristina Mikhailovna navigated perfectly all the confusing matters of everyday life, which I understood absolutely nothing about, and, most importantly, she saved me from having to deal with those confusing matters, whereas before my straightforwardness led to big fights over this.

To my dearest Ilya Repin — this is me and my wife, the journalist Stanley and Dr. Livingstone, apparently, this is the way we looked on August 10, 1926.

My dear handsome Cossack — Sergey Nikolayevich! Your photographs brought me immense pleasure! How delightful — you look quite like Mr. Danilo Burulbash and Lady Katerina…