Inspired by an [old question by Kevin Lin](https://mathoverflow.net/questions/9171/idea-for-book-translation-project-closed) and the [communal translation of an answer by Laurent Fargues](https://mathoverflow.net/questions/10913/lifting-the-p-torsion-of-a-supersingular-elliptic-curve/11097#11097), I am proposing a communal effort to translate from Russian to English Drinfeld's famous 1988 letter to Schechtman: [typeset](http://math.harvard.edu/~tdp/Drinfeld-Letter.to.Schechtman.on.New.directions.of.work-1988.pdf) and [in the handwritten original](http://math.harvard.edu/~tdp/original.pdf).


I am starting a blank, communal answer below in which to whip up the translation. Thanks in advance for any contributions!



Drinfeld's 1988 letter to Schechtman: translation request
Keith Conrad has kindly produced a translation available [here](https://www.doi.org/10.4171/EMSS/5). It can be cited as



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> Vladimir Drinfeld, *A letter from Kharkov to Moscow.* EMS Surv. Math. Sci. **1** (2014), 241-248. doi:[10.4171/EMSS/5](https://www.doi.org/10.4171/EMSS/5)
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