Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets

by Svetlana Alexievich

In writing, I’m piecing together the history of “domestic,” “interior” socialism. As it existed in a person’s soul.

“A communist is someone who’s read Marx, an anticommunist is someone who’s understood him.”

Where do I want to live, in a great country or a normal one?

Tsarist Russia, as you can read in the memoirs, slipped away in three days, and the same went for communism.

I can do without a lot of things, the only thing I can’t do without is the past.

I’m a communist…I supported the putschists, or rather, the USSR. I was a fervent supporter because I liked living in an empire.

You shouldn’t put so much stock in what people say, in human truth…History records the lives of ideas. People don’t write it, time does. Human truth is just a nail that everybody hangs their hats on.

Our country has a tsarist mentality, it’s subconsciously tsarist. Genetically. Everyone needs a Tsar.

Investigators are confident that Marshal Akhromeyev’s grave was not desecrated for political reasons but for financial gain. The uniforms of high-ranking military officials are in especially high demand among antiques dealers. A Marshal’s uniform is bound to go like hotcakes…

Herostratus was a fourth-century B.C. arsonist who burned down the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus in Ancient Greece, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

You need a lot of energy for love, and I’m a different person now. I’ve grown ordinary.

“A poet has to die early or else he’s not a poet. An old poet is just silly.”

War and prison are the two most important words in the Russian language.

Our entire tragedy lies in the fact that our victims and executioners are the same people.”

“How did the Russian soldier manage to reach Berlin?” “By not being brave enough to retreat.

We…we also dreamt of freedom. But what is it? Our idea of freedom was purely theoretical…We wanted to live like they do in the West. Listen to their music, dress like them, travel the world.

He will never understand me or my mother because he didn’t spend a single day of his life in the Soviet Union. My mother—my son—me…we all live in different countries, even though they’re all Russia.

Calm down, comrade. You know that people speak much more kindly about the USSR these days than they did twenty years ago. I recently visited Stalin’s grave, and there were mountains of flowers there. Red carnations. —The devil knows how many people were murdered, but it was our era of greatness.

Democracy! That’s a funny word in Russia. “Putin the Democrat” is our shortest joke.

We had gotten used to the idea that Russians don’t want to be rich, they’re even afraid of it. So what do they want then? The answer is always the same: They don’t want anyone else to get rich. That is, richer than they are.

The commander told us: “Just don’t shoot yourself. It’s easier to deduct personnel than it is to account for missing ammunition.”

I know what it looks like when freedom falls into inexperienced hands.

Russia has loved its prisoners since the dawn of the ages—they’re sinners, but they’re martyrs, too.

According to Darwin’s theory, it’s not the strongest who survive, but those who are the best adapted to their environment. Average people are the ones who survive and carry on the human race.”

“My dear students! Just remember that money solves all problems, even differential equations.”