PREFACE
By Vasilii Spridonov
The manuscript of the autobiography of Sophie Andreevna Tolstoi exists among the documents of the late director of the Russian Book Chamber, Professor Semen Afanasevich Vengerov,[1] which, in accordance with the will of the deceased, have been handed over to the Book Chamber. The Book Chamber is now in the Petrograd Institute of Librarians and the documents form a special section in the Institute under the title: "The Archives of S. A. Vengerov."
The history of the manuscript is as follows:— At the end of July, 1913, S. A. Vengerov sent a letter to S. A. Tolstoi asking her to write and send him her autobiography, which he proposed to publish. We do not know the details of S. A. Vengerov's letter, but from the replies of S. A. Tolstoi which are printed below we may conclude that the late Vengerov enclosed in his letter to S. A. Tolstoi a questionnaire, and that, besides the usual questions which he was accustomed to
- ↑ See Appendix I.
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