ANNOTATION ON A LETTER FROM ACTRESS N. NIKULINA
September 3, 1920

Deeply Respected Vladimir Ilyich, Only a hopeless situation compels me to trouble you with the most humble request.

I am 74 years old, and for 51 of those years I have served, to the best of my ability and knowledge, the city of Moscow that is dear to me... Knowing how cramped the living conditions are for the population, I myself willingly made concessions and surrendered several rooms in my little house. Only the rooms necessary for me or unsuitable for habitation—cold, drafty passageways—remain.

Now I am threatened with the seizure of even these rooms from me. I beseech you, help me... A few words written by your order will be sufficient guarantee for me.

With true respect, Honored Actress of the State Maly Theatre
N. Nikulina

*On August 31, 1920, the Council of People's Commissars instructed the secretariat "to circulate the draft to all Commissariats and oblige them to submit their conclusions no later than Tuesday at the Council of People's Commissars" (Protocol No. 383, item 7).

** On September 7, 1920, the Council of People's Commissars adopted the following decree: "Instruct the commission composed of representatives of the Commissariat of Nationalities, the Commissariat of Internal Affairs, and the Commissariat of Justice to revise by Tuesday, September 14, in final form the draft decree on the Turkestan Soviet Socialist Republic, asking all Commissariats to submit their amendments to this commission within a two-day period" (Protocol No. 384, item 6).

Check and confer: leave her in peace.