One time, I went to the market and at this time the bombing started. We were not permitted to walk in the streets during the bombing raids, and I decided to hide in the vestibule of a big building. A lot of people were already there and they did not want me because they said that they were already so crowded that they could not breathe. I did not want to argue, and I went to the other side of the street and I stood under the gate of another building. Ten minutes later, I heard the whistling of a bomb and it fell on the building from where I got expelled. All the people who were in the vestibule died. I was in shock, and I could hardly go home to the children. I could not believe that I was still alive.
As we head back past the crazy randomness of flea market treasure, searching for Lawyer Misha, Kirill changes to his favorite unfavorite subject, "Of course I understand why the masses might support Putin. Because he has the power, he's strong, it's a case of might over right. They want to be on the winning side, the side with the powerful fist. Me, I suffer from all of this. How am I supposed to present my art in a country where I understand that the leaders are swindlers and crooks? How can I throw my pearls before this swine? Hey! What a great corduroy jacket! True, it's tan, but I'll dye it red. How much?" And so Kirill picks up the jacket for $3.00, and we find Misha snagging records by Alan Parsons Project, Pink Floyd, Genesis, and Deep Purple for $20 each.
Now it's back to Misha's heated apartment where, happily, his wife, Spanish Teacher Tanya has baked a large meat pie and delicious toasty apple crepes.
-- Anna Khodikel, Memoir of the Leningrad Blockade
What luck! What fate! How to account for the unexpected choices -- or decisions forced upon us -- that change a life in unforeseen directions? Anna was an incredible winner in Petersburg roulette. Not only did she come through the bombing attack unscathed, but amazingly she and her four children survived the three long years of Blockade. Where did they find the food? For along with falling bombs, the main survival concern was food. There was simply nothing to eat. People keeled over dead in the streets in the thousands, malnourished, exhausted, frozen. The Blockade of Leningrad resulted in the worst famine ever in a developed nation -- over a million people died.
Meanwhile, Red Kirill and I leave the bullet-pierced helmets behind, and head to the food section of the flea market. It's a plentiful cornucopia. Piles of cookies, cheeses, yogurts, sausages, breads, coffee, tea, candy, and chocolates lay stacked on tables and in large boxes on the ground. Kirill packs his bag full of staples, saying "Now I have food for a month. I won't have to leave the apartment, it's hunkering down time. Yes, batten down the hatches! Who can go outside anyway when it's so freezing?"
What luck! What fate! How to account for the unexpected choices -- or decisions forced upon us -- that change a life in unforeseen directions? Anna was an incredible winner in Petersburg roulette. Not only did she come through the bombing attack unscathed, but amazingly she and her four children survived the three long years of Blockade. Where did they find the food? For along with falling bombs, the main survival concern was food. There was simply nothing to eat. People keeled over dead in the streets in the thousands, malnourished, exhausted, frozen. The Blockade of Leningrad resulted in the worst famine ever in a developed nation -- over a million people died.Meanwhile, Red Kirill and I leave the bullet-pierced helmets behind, and head to the food section of the flea market. It's a plentiful cornucopia. Piles of cookies, cheeses, yogurts, sausages, breads, coffee, tea, candy, and chocolates lay stacked on tables and in large boxes on the ground. Kirill packs his bag full of staples, saying "Now I have food for a month. I won't have to leave the apartment, it's hunkering down time. Yes, batten down the hatches! Who can go outside anyway when it's so freezing?"
Books, skates, clothes, shoes, lampshades, electronics -- there really does seem seem to be everything here.
As we head back past the crazy randomness of flea market treasure, searching for Lawyer Misha, Kirill changes to his favorite unfavorite subject, "Of course I understand why the masses might support Putin. Because he has the power, he's strong, it's a case of might over right. They want to be on the winning side, the side with the powerful fist. Me, I suffer from all of this. How am I supposed to present my art in a country where I understand that the leaders are swindlers and crooks? How can I throw my pearls before this swine? Hey! What a great corduroy jacket! True, it's tan, but I'll dye it red. How much?" And so Kirill picks up the jacket for $3.00, and we find Misha snagging records by Alan Parsons Project, Pink Floyd, Genesis, and Deep Purple for $20 each.
Putin seems to understand the psychology of the masses per Kirill's diagnosis. This election billboard reads:
"V. Putin 2012. A great country deserves a strong leader!"
Now it's back to Misha's heated apartment where, happily, his wife, Spanish Teacher Tanya has baked a large meat pie and delicious toasty apple crepes.
"Who am I supposed to vote for?" Tanya asks, as we warm up over cognac with "Smoke on the Water" blasting from the record player, "not Putin, of course. But I can't vote for Zyuganov, he's a communist and the communists killed my grandfather. Prokhurov -- he's rich, he'll help the 5%. What's that going to do for us in the 95%? Zhirinovsky is a clown, what a farce. And Mironov is also compromised, a flip-flopper. No, there is simply no one." She sighs as she reaches for another crepe, "you know, I don't think I'm even going to vote."
In fact, that seems to me the attitude of most of my friends. They are against Putin, they are for no one -- and so they won't be voting. No wonder Putin has the winning edge.
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