Under the glass of the oval table in the study of Ilya Ulyanov there is a volume of poems by Nikolay Nekrasov — a lifetime edition of the poet, which belonged to the family Ulyanov. The book consists of two parts. It was printed in St. Petersburg in 1863. On the spine of the volume you can see typographic embossing ‘I.U.’ — The initials of the owner Ilya Ulyanov.

Ulyanov senior became interested in the work of Nikolay Nekrasov in his student years: he copied his favorite poems from magazines and willingly recited them. He introduced his children to Nekrasov’s poetry quite early. First, through ‘Native Word’, a book for reading, which was compiled for young children by the teacher Konstantin Ushinsky. Later, he gave children Nekrasov’s collection on display.

Anna Ulyanova-Elizarova wrote in her book ‘Memories of Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov’,

In the volume of Nekrasov, there are dots — censorship exemptions. Since the poet was a revolutionary democrat, his poems were heavily censored. The Ulyanovs inscribed the missing lines in the book: there are numerous notes in graphite and blue pencil on the pages, between the lines, in the table of contents of the book.

On page 82 in the poem ‘Poet and citizen’ in the fragment ‘And the citizen is silent and inclined // Humbly his head’ the word ‘humbly’ is crossed out and the phrase ‘under the yoke’ is inserted, and the censorship deletion is inscribed in pencil:
…But I keep silent, though little.
And among us fate showed
Worthy citizens… Do you know
Do you know their fate? Kneel down!

Her brother Dmitry Ulyanov confirmed the fact that Maria made these notes in 1940 in a conversation with Alexandra Kaverzina, director of the Lenin House-Museum.