"... I hope to kiss you soon ..."

The letter was sent on March 21, 1937, on the third day after the arrest. It is written on a fragment of the state form of the NKVD (probably the form of the protocol of the interrogation of the accused/witness).

Dear Lucy

I feel good, don't worry. Grow sashka. At all costs, a device with an apartment-sell something. Write a statement about a request for a date with me. They came to me light tobacco, tobacco paper, matches, jumper and other products. Sheet. I kiss you tightly, Tasya and Fomka.

Always your Borya.

PS Zoshchenko Hello, if you can take him from him. B.K.

My dear, write to dad and mom so that something is sent. Do not write about my arrest. Well, I hope to kiss you soon. Submit the application immediately and the transmission - how you will receive this letter. Write to me at ul. Voinova, 25 DPZ. II Corps, 90 to me. Write as your well -being, what you are doing and in general.

Well, again - a smack.

Borya

On the back of the sheet :

Bread of different up to 3 kilos
meat products up to 2 kilos
Fat 400 gr.
eggs 10 pcs.
Sucky cucumbers 10 pcs.
sugar. Sand and candy 400 gr.

* * *

The letter is commented by Irina Borisovna Basova:

“On April 28 [2020] I received a letter from my cousin, the St. Petersburg director Mark Bornstein:“ Irochka, dear! Using a quarantine, I analyze my mother’s archive, to whom Boris K. just came from prison <...> I want to send you everything with a parcel ... ”

I immediately answered:

“Marik, dear, great news. At least the scan of Boris’s letter K. came to me !!!”

My mother and father Mark are a sister and brother.

Boris K. - Boris Kornilov, Russian poet. My father.

I was born on August 21, 1937.

My mother: Lucy-Lyudmila (Tsipa) Grigoryevna Bornstein (Basova for the second husband, whose surname was transferred to me), was born on April 30, 1913 in St. Petersburg , died on January 7, 1960 in Alupka.

Mom miraculously escaped the arrest. The fact that the arrest was prepared is known from the list of the Supreme Court of the SSR, convicted by the Military Collegium of the SSR on UNKVD LU Affairs in February 1938 (Leningrad Martirologist. Volume 8. - St. Petersburg: 2008). In the column “Note” opposite the name of B. Kornilov it is written about his wife: “The arrest is issued. Ost [Avna] n [OD] P [ODGE] about the non -bankrupt.

* * *

Griboedova Canal, 9 - the address of the famous “Writing House” on the Griboedov channel. The other side of the house goes to the small stable (then Sofia Povskaya St. From 1934 to 1937, Boris Kornilov and Lucy lived in this house.

"Bread of different ..." from the letter of Lucy, addressed to his mother B. Kornilov - T.M. Kornilova: “Dear Taisiya Mikhailovna, you ask about those difficult days. It was very scary. <...> Even those 60 rubles that Boris had to be worn every month (it was no longer possible), and then it was necessary to get it, selling one or the other. The first time was spent a lot, because For the day of the transfer, he cooked fried meat, and jam and oil, but you will go on this day, and the order - except 60 rubles, do not accept anything. ” Hereinafter, a letter dated 1956 is quoted from the publication in the book “Boris Kornilov:“ I will live until old age, to glory ... ”” (St. Petersburg: 2012).

"Grow sashka." When Kornilov was arrested, Lucy was pregnant. From the letter of Lucy, addressed to his mother B. Kornilova: “That Olya knew Olya (O. Bergholz. - I.B. ), because when I arrived in Leningrad, she met me in the store and, asking what I called my daughter, was offended by Irina, and I called her so, because Boris, when he left, then asked that if a son was born, then call Sasha, and if a daughter, then Irina. And in his only letter that he wrote to me from there a month later (memory error, the letter was sent on the third day. - I.B. ), asked for “take care of Sashka”. We are talking about the letter from the "trellis" published here. Olga, as Lucy writes, was “offended” because her first daughter was also called Irina who died in 1936 and Kornilova.

“At all costs, a device with an apartment ...” The house was cooperative. Probably, we are talking about the next contribution.

"Write a statement about a request for a date with me." There was no date.

"... I kiss you, Tasyu and Fomka." Probably, we are talking about a housekeeper and a dog.

"Zoshchenko Hello, if you can take him from him." Kornilov lived in apt. 123. M.M. Zoshchenko lived in those years in the square. 122 (the first of the three apartments in which the writer lived at different times). From the letter of Lucy, addressed to his mother Boris Kornilov: “When Borya left, we had no money, and I had to take a debt from the housekeeper to give him a small amount.”

“... write to dad and mom ...” Peter Tarasovich and Taisiya Mikhailovna Kornilov lived in the city of Semenov, the Nizhny Novgorod region.

DPZ is a preliminary house. The notorious “trellis”, in which the first wife of B. Kornilova O. Bergholz will be a year later. Located at: st. Sparenaya (then Voinova St.), 25.

Publication of Irina Basova
Comments Irina Basova, Natalia Sokolovskaya

These photos were taken by Dmitry Konradt on May 12, 2012, a few months before the repair of this part of the house. Published for the first time.