Abramovo
A post station about 8 miles from Boldino, to which Pushkin asked that his letters be sent in 1830.
Today: Lukoyanov District, Nizhny Novgorod Region, Russia
An Island Surrounded by Quarantines
Alexander Pushkin, letters from Boldino, 1830, in his Works, vol. 6, edited by S. A. Vengerov (1915) · October–November 1830
Братъ мнѣ непишетъ, пологая что его письма по обыкновенію, для меня неинтересны—Въ чумное время дѣло другое; радъ письму проколотому; знаешь что покрайней мѣрѣ живъ—и то хорошо. Если вы въ Калугѣ, я пріѣду къ Вамъ черезъ Пензу; если вы въ Москвѣ, т. е. въ Московской деревнѣ то пріѣду къ Вамъ черезъ Вятку, Архангельскъ и Петербургъ. Ей богу не шучу — но напишите мнѣ гдѣ вы а письмо адресуйте Лук: Уѣздъ въ село Абрамово для пересылки въ Болдино. Скорѣй дойдетъ. Простите. Цалую ручки у матушки; кланяюсь въ поясъ сестрицамъ.
My brother doesn’t write to me, thinking that his letters, as usual, don’t interest me. In a time of plague it’s a different matter. You are glad to get a letter even with holes punched in it. At least you know the writer is alive, and that’s something. If you are in Kaluga, I will come to you by way of Penza. If you are in Moscow, that is, at your family’s estate near Moscow, I will come to you by way of Vyatka, Arkhangelsk, and Petersburg. So help me God, I’m not joking. But write and tell me where you are, and address the letter: Lukoyanov District, village of Abramovo, to be forwarded to Boldino. It will get here sooner. Goodbye. I kiss your mother’s hands, and bow low to your sisters.
Изъ Моск. Вѣдомостей, единственнаго журнала доходящаго до меня, вижу любезный и почтенный Михайло Петровичъ что вы не оставили Матушки нашей. Дважды порывался я къ Вамъ, но карантины опять отбрасывали меня на мой несносный островокъ откуда простираю къ Вамъ руки и вопію гласомъ велимъ. Пошлите мнѣ слово живое, ради Бога. Никто мнѣ ничего непишетъ. Думаютъ что я холерой схваченъ или зачахъ въ карантинѣ. Не знаю гдѣ и что моя невѣста. Знаете-ли вы, можете-ли узнать? ради Бога узнайте и отпишите мнѣ: въ Лукояновскій Уѣздъ въ село Абрамово, для пересылки въ село Болдино.
From the Moscow Gazette, the only paper that reaches me, I see, my dear and esteemed Mikhail Petrovich, that you have not left our Mother Moscow. Twice I have tried to break through to you, but the quarantines threw me back again onto my unbearable little island. From here I stretch out my hands to you and cry out with a loud voice. Send me a living word, for God’s sake. No one writes to me at all. They think I’ve caught the cholera or wasted away in quarantine. I don’t know where my bride is or how she is. Do you know, or can you find out? For God’s sake, find out and write to me: Lukoyanov District, village of Abramovo, to be forwarded to the village of Boldino.