For several years I have been dreaming of returning to my homeland and working for it in my specialty that is well known to you… Knowing that the Academy of Arts is headed by you, I, as your senior colleague, ask you for assistance. Now I work, perhaps, with more energy and generally more than ever before. While I have my health… Living here, in the cultured Europe which has long been mired in crisis, is difficult, mainly from a moral point of view. I cannot assimilate with other people. I cannot accept the citizenship of a foreign country for me in any way… Instead of giving all my strength to another country, I want to give it to my homeland. It would be ideal for me to teach and at the same time work as an illustrator, as a stage designer, etc.

I remember an exhibition of works by Russian artists was arranged, during which there was a meeting with the Soviet ambassador Potemkin. It was a short meeting and naturally a short conversation. Potemkin asked me what I thought about returning to my homeland. I replied that I did not want some note to be written on my application urging me to submit another application in a year… Potemkin replied that another note could be written to me, but what the word order is, if no one was asking for it; and you, dear Ivan Yakovlevich, know that it is recommended to give such notes only if they are asked for. I spent the rest of the day and the whole night thinking about what the ambassador had told me… A day after the conversation with Potemkin, I went to the Russian embassy and applied to be allowed to enter the USSR for permanent residence…