I.e., the completely expendable members of penal battalions, which consisted primarily of convicted military personnel, Gulag inmates, and POWs.—Trans.
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.
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.
An allusion to Solzhenitsyn’s essay “Live Not by Lies” (1974), an appeal for moral courage.—Trans.
Varlam Shalamov’s The Kolyma Tales (1978) and Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago (1973) are classics of Gulag literature.—Trans.
“Zhenya” is the diminutive of “Evgenia.”
“Verochka” is the diminutive of “Vera.”
“Mika” is the diminutive of “Mirra.”
“Alyosha” is a diminutive of “Alexei.”
“Shut up, you asshole!”
“Mitya” is the diminutive of “Dmitry.”