Notes

1

I.e., the completely expendable members of penal battalions, which consisted primarily of convicted military personnel, Gulag inmates, and POWs.—Trans.

2

Enrolling in a higher-education institution with a military chair was (and remains) a way for young males to avoid otherwise compulsory military service.—Trans.

3

The first and third installments, respectively, of Brezhnev’s ghostwritten memoir trilogy, for which he was awarded the Lenin Prize for Literature in 1980.—Trans.

4

An allusion to Solzhenitsyn’s essay “Live Not by Lies” (1974), an appeal for moral courage.—Trans.

5

Varlam Shalamov’s The Kolyma Tales (1978) and Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago (1973) are classics of Gulag literature.—Trans.

6

“Zhenya” is the diminutive of “Evgenia.”

7

“Verochka” is the diminutive of “Vera.”

8

“Mika” is the diminutive of “Mirra.”

9

“Alyosha” is a diminutive of “Alexei.”

10

“Shut up, you asshole!”

11

“Mitya” is the diminutive of “Dmitry.”

Загрузка...