Translated from: ru/1912/1912-04-18_pismo_s_berilskomu_18_aprelya_1912.txt

St. Petersburg, 18 April 1912. Paris, to Stanislav Berilsky, Rue St. Jean 268.

Request to inform how they treat people without passports abroad.

Dear Comrade. I need to leave before 25 April. It is very important for me to know whether and how one can get to Paris while avoiding demands for a passport from the foreign police, without having such a passport at all. Traveling through Finland, the question of the Russian police can be resolved. But it would be interesting to know how the Austrians, Germans, English, and French deal with this document. Is it possible to slip past them in general, and in this particular case through London, through the docks? What are their customs at railway stations and docks? Reply immediately by telegram. I live on the embankment, but address your reply to: Petersburg, Vasilievsky Island, Sredny Pereulok 30, to Gorchakovsky. -- Ivanov sends his greetings.

From the archive of V.D. Mochalov.

NOTE

The document was intercepted by the gendarmes. In their estimation, it belonged to Stalin, who had escaped from Vologda exile on 29 February 1912, was preparing the first issue of Pravda for publication, and was seeking a way to travel abroad.