Hello, Tatka!

I received the photographs ("playing gorodki"). Very funny and interesting. I am sending them back (they might get lost here).

I did not write to you last time -- now I want to make up for what I missed.

I received the metallurgy books. I also received letters from Vasya and Setanka. Give them a kiss from me -- they are good children.

I shall be home soon. So you may stop the correspondence.

Since September 25, the weather in Sochi has taken a sharp turn for the worse. There was, as they say here, an "unprecedented" storm. For two days a gale blew with the fury of a maddened beast. On our dacha, 18 (eighteen) large oaks were uprooted. Three giant oaks right in front of the dacha on the hill (at Puzanovka) were uprooted. The soil temperature on September 28 dropped to 4 degrees Reaumur. Now the weather is beginning to improve, but we have to stoke the stove.

Well, that is all for now. Goodbye.

Kisses, many.

Iosif

29/IX-31

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Source: Iosif Stalin in the Embrace of the Family. From the Personal Archive, pp. 39-40.

AP RF F. 45. Op. 1. D. 1550. L. 67.