khylov

~ Novy Mirlag... ~ 

"Someday the Russian stage will yet see this sight! And the Russian cinema screen! The pea jackets one color and their sleeves another. Or so many patches on the pea jacket that its original cloth is totally invisible. Or a flaming pea jacket - with tatters on it like tongues of flame. Or patches on britches made from the wrappings of someone's food parcel from home, and for a long while to come one can still read the address written in the corner with an indelible pencil. And on their feet the tried and true Russian "lapti" - bast sandals - except that they had no decent "onuchi" - footcloths - to go with them. Or else they might have a piece of old automobile tire, tied right on the bare foot with a wire, an electric cord. (Grief has its own inventiveness...)

 "And then, in addition, bronze-gray camp faces will appear on the screen. Eyes oozing with tears, red eyelids. White cracked lips, covered with sores. Skewbald, unshaven bristles on the faces. In winter... a summer cap with earflaps sewn on.

I recognize you! It is you, the inhabitants of my Archipelago!"

-Solzhenitsyn; Gulag Archipelago, Vol 2


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