The Big Green Tent

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank my dear friends, whose love has been a lifesaver.

I am grateful to Elena Kostioukovitch for her daily support of many years—for the wonderful conversations, sharp criticism, meticulous editorial work, and for her priceless friendship.

Alena Smorgunova and Yuri Freilin, for their participation in writing the book.

My friends the Alexanders—Smolyansky, Okun, and Bondarev—for their attentive and creative reading, copious comments, and unwavering interest in the book.

Sanya Daniel, Vitya Dzyadko, Igor Kogan, and Elena Murina, for being fearless and upstanding witnesses of their era—or perhaps, not completely fearless, which makes them even greater in my eyes. I am grateful to them for our long Muscovite conversations about our shared past.

I am endlessly grateful to my dear friends in Israel for their heartfelt, reliable support during the hot summer of 2010: my guardian angel Lika Nutkevich, Sergey Ruzer, Luba and Sandrik Kaminsky, Igor and Tata Guberman, and Lucy Gorkushenko for their warmth, care, and constant concern.

I am grateful to my beloved, courageous friends Lena Keshman, Tanya Safarova, Ira Yasina, and Vera Millionshikova for our correspondence and conversations, which were so crucial during the summer of 2010 when the work on the book—and my strength—were coming to an end.

A special thank-you to my musician friends who led me through the enchanted forest of music: Vera Gornostayeva, Olesya Dvoskina, Volodya Klimov, and Olga Schnittke-Meerson.

I would like to apologize to those who I have failed to mention at this moment, for which I will surely kick myself later. How could I have forgotten you?

Finally, with gratitude, I would like to remember the dear departed who have served as the inspiration for my characters, the innocents who stumbled into the meat grinder of their time, those who survived, and those who were maimed; the witnesses, the heroes, the victims—in their eternal memory.

LUDMILA ULITSKAYA

November 2010