"Dear Mr. Unwin / Permit me to express you my very best thanks for the pamphlets and books concerning the war which you do kindly continue to send me. Most of them are extremely valuable, and some of them I sent to Sasha and Boris to Petrograd; but I do not know yet whether they have reached them. Their letters reach us regularly in 11 or 12 days; but our letters remain sometimes 27 to 28 days on the journey, probably on account of the censorship. All letters coming from Russia are opened by the Russian Military Censorship, but are not delayed in transmission. There is a great awakening in Russia - even in that non-Russian - cosmopolitan and German city of Petrograd; so the previous letters of both Boris and Sasha were very sad on account of the pessimism, or indifferent state of mind at Petrograd. The Court, especially its feminine part, is of course pro-German, and the attitudes of a certain portion of the 'intellectuals' was one of sad pessimism. Thus the latest news from Boris and Sasha speak of a serious awakening and consciousness of the seriousness of the conditions. I think that the success of the Germans in Courland, and the conquest of Poland left indifferent, which the stupid attitude of the Russian Government towards the Ukrainian Autonomist tendencies in East Galicia could only provoke the deepest discontent [...]"..