Dear Andrei!

Thank you for the final announcement. Having received it, I ultimately recognized the extent of my
light-mindedness and I beg to consider my application (or rather my suggestion) nonexistent.
Indeed, to speak on such a subject in front of Kleene and Shanin would be a downright indecency.
The only excuse my thoughtless action I see in the fact that at the time the letter was written I had no
idea that the mentioned persons will take part in the symposium (as you know, the first participants
list didn’t contain their names)…

I also want to point out that that according to specialists near Urgench, in Nukus, there is remarkable
collection of Soviet art. If there are persons interested, I could organize a visit to this gallery with
the aid of V.A. Favorsky family who are on friendly terms with Savitsky – the collection’s
custodian.

…

Yours Kolia Nagorny

August 3, 1979

P.S. I hope to take part in discussion on semantics if there will be any.