1916
257. To HIS SISTER MARIA
Mile. Marie Oulianoff,
Malaya Gruzinskaya, 7, Apt. 13,
Moscow,
Russia
Ulianow,
Spiegelgasse, 12
(bei Kammerer),
Zürich I
February 20, 1916
Dear Manyasha,
Many thanks for the newspapers you sent me a few days ago. Today I received a notice from the Central Committee of the German Red Cross Unions to the effect that Aaron Rosenfeldt is a prisoner of war at Bütow, 66 Regiment.[1] It has taken more than a year to get the information; neither the Geneva nor the Danish Red Cross could find anything out, but I accidentally came across the address of the German prisoner of war commission and wrote to them. They, too, took more than two months to reply!
Nadya and I are very pleased with Zurich; there are good libraries here—we shall stay a few weeks more and then return to Berne.[2] You may write to this address, the post office will forward the letters.
With all my very best wishes and Nadya’s too.
Yours,
V. Ulyanov
[1] It was later revealed that the information given concerned another man of the same name, A. Rosenfeldt, in whom the Ulyanovs were interested, had been killed at the front.
[2] On February 21, 1916, Anna Ulyanova-Yelizarova wrote this to her sister Maria: “I have had a letter from Nadya who writes that their landlady drove them to desperation; they went all over the place but could not find another room anywhere, then hit upon the idea of going to Zurich for a couple of weeks to work in the local libraries. She wrote about this trip and the little shakeup as of something pleasurable.” Krupskaya’s letter has been lost.