YASNAYA POLYANA,
30 JULY, 1913.
MUCH-RESPECTED SEMEN AFANASEVICH: I received your letter to-day,
and hasten to tell you that I will try to answer all your questions
soon; but in order to do it fully, I need a little time. I shall
hardly be able to write an autobiography, even a brief one. At any
rate, _whatever_ I may communicate to you, you have my permission
to cut out anything that you think superfluous. As to your
questions about my family, my sister, Tatyana Andreevna Kuzminskii,
could answer you better than I; she and my first cousin, Alexander
Alexandrovich Bers, have devoted a good deal of time to this matter
and have, in particular, tried to trace the origin of my father's
family, which came from Saxony. We have the seal with its
coat-of-arms: a bear (hence _Bers_, i. e. _Baer_ in German) warding
off a swarm of bees.[B] I will write to my sister to send me this
information, and I will let you have it.[C] Please also let me know
roughly when you expect me to send you the information you desire.
The most difficult thing for me will be to fix the moment and the
cause of our _differences_[D]. It was not a _difference_, but a
gradual _going-away_ of Leo Nikolaevich from everything in his
former life, and thus the harmony of all our happy previous life
was broken.
Of all this I will try to write briefly, after having thought it
over as well and as accurately as I can.
Accept the assurance of my respect and devotion for you,