I've just returned from the deck. It's a beautiful summer day, waves have calmed down, there are a cloudless sky and an almost full moon. I've been thinking about you, about Helsingfors, about the Black Sea, where I walked on the deck just like now, about the Gulf of Riga, about meeting you in Helsingfors. Everything has changed, only your dear, gentle image has remained the same, just as important to me as before. See more
This evening, after supper, I walked about the deck for a long time, thinking of our navy, of you, and of the dark, unknown future. The night is hazy. See more
Forgive me for the courage with which I decided to send you a few things that one can no longer find in Russia and which, perhaps, will be useful to you. I know that you will be angry with me, but forgive me with you kindness and grace for giving me the pleasure of thinking about you, about your lovely hands that gave me so much happiness. See more
It is my third day in London. I wait in constant expectation of my departure for America. My impressions after leaving Russia and especially in England and London have been very unhappy. You experience something like shame when you see order and convenience of the sort that has lost all representation in your homeland. See more
In the 11 months of my command, I completed my primary task—I achieved complete control over the sea and even eliminated the activities of enemy submarines. But I no longer wish to think about the fleet. Only about you, Anna Vasilievna, my deity, my happiness, my infinitely dear and loved one, I want to think about you as I did in every minute of my command. See more
Dearest Anna Vasilyevna, I have left Petrograd with absolute certainty that disaster for the state is inevitable, and with the recognition that the military-political objectives which determined the entire meaning and content of my work were a failure. I’m at sea again; it’s been two days already, and, as before, I’m sitting down to write to you, but what I have written seems redundant. But I can’t think of anything else to say. It’s all the same, basically. See more