Finally, I am in Kiev. In my mind and imagination, I have always longed to travel there, as to the Promised Land. This city, since my childhood years, has engaged my fancy—nourished me with thoughts of great deeds of valor and piety in centuries past and with the eternal beauty of nature on the red banks of the Dnieper. My dear mother, who was born in poetic Malorussia and grew up in Kiev, inflamed my soul with this spark of love and respect for southern Russia, for the ancient, sacred city of Kiev. Plaintive songs of Malorussia lulled me to sleep in the first days of my existence. Kiev, with all its beauties, legends, popular beliefs, was the fairytale land my childish imagination sought. And the very language of Malorussia was familiar and dear to me. Even in later years, I could only with difficulty give up using some Malorussian words—so emphatic and soulful—in writing …

I cannot express the pleasure, rapture, affection, with which I arrived in Kiev, a city beautiful in every respect! After traveling through dark towns with tall Gothic houses, with narrow streets, after seeing dirty settlements inhabited by slovenly Jews, I found myself in spacious, open heights, on wide, clean streets lined with small, pretty houses.

Shall I describe Kiev? For those who have been there, my description will be weak and lifeless; for those who have not, the passing glance of a traveler who spent three days in this city will not satisfy their curiosity. It is only in this place that I could share what excited my soul, what aroused the sacred awe of great recollections. Do you want to enjoy the truly beautiful? Go to Kiev. It is located on sloping hills from which the wonderful view changes continuously. The old Dnieper draws its streams amid wide sandbanks. Look from the porch of St. Andrew's Cathedral or from the triangular platform in the Palace Garden at Podil, the lower part of the town, as it appears gradually out of the grey-haired fog! … And I enjoyed these views in the middle of October! How beautiful it must be here in the spring and summer, when the Dnieper floods all these temporary little islands.