Svetlana to Dad Sept. 2 1935 (she's about 10 here I think)
Hello, my dear daddy!
I'm sending you a hello from Moscow. I got here fine. We went to Zubalova [CD -- their dacha] straight from the train station. The next day was Heaven. The weather is great here. It's warm and sunny for whole days. I brought the sun with me from the south.
Three days went by in Zubalova in a second. In the 31st I had lunch in Moscow. On September 1st we started school again.
We have the same teacher as in the first and second courses. We have two new subjects, geography and sports, and we'll have history after the beginning of the second course. Yesterday we got our books but we there weren't any lessons. The teacher just talked with us. Today real lessons started and we got homework.
Dear daddy, I want to be the best student this year and get only Excellents, maybe a few Goods but never ever a Satisfactory. I have never gotten an Unsatisfactory and try hard so I never get one as long as I am in school.
Marfa Peshkova [CD -- granddaughter of Gorky, future wife of Sergo Beria] is sitting next to me.
Good buy, dear daddy! I wish you everything good, especially health.
I'll try to write you more often and about more things.
I kiss you soft!
Your Svetlana
Reply from Dad, Oct. 8 1935:
Mistress!
I got your letter and postcard. It's good you're not forgetting your dad, I'm sending you some pomegranates. In a few days I'll send mandarin oranges. Eat and be happy... I''m not sending Vasya [CD -- Svetlana's brother] anything, since he's become a bad student. The weather is good here. I'm only sad because my Mistress isn't with me. But anyway, Mistress, everything's good. I kess you hard.
Your dad
17 years later, Feb. 10 1952:
Dear dad!
I would very much like to see you so that I can describe how I am living at the moment. I would like to tell you everything eye to eye. I've wanted to do it many times before, but I did not want to be a bother, because you were either having health problems or were very busy.
I'm very satisfied with the studying facilities in the Academy... This is very important for me, since study in this favorite and interesting subject may help me in my domestic problems.
Yury Andreevich Zhukov and I have decided to finally get a divorce. This is a completely logical decision, after which we have had nothing more to say to each other for nearly half a year. He has given me to understand not just with words, but with his actions, that I mean nothing to him and he does not need me, and has for the second time demanded that I leave him my daughter. I have had it up to here with this dry professor, this heartless "scholar." He needs to bury himself in his books, he doesn't need a family or a wife, which his work will completely be able to replace.
In short, I do not regret that we have gotten divorced, I am just sad that I gave by true feelings up to him, to this -- wall of ice.
Therefore some material questions have arisen about which I would like to ask your advice, as I have nowhere else to look for help (I do not wish to be dependent on the generous-souled Yury Andreevich).
This isn't just about money. I have enough of what you've sent me. I will tell you about other events that have taken place here. But they are not as important.
And so, dear dad, I very much hope that I can see you again, and please don't be angry that I am telling you about these things I have mentioned post factum [CD -- in Latin in original]
I kiss you with all my heart.
Your worried daughter
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