More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
For over seventy years, they’d told us that money wasn’t happiness, that the best things in life were free. Like love, for example. But the minute someone from the podium said “Sell and prosper!” all of that went out the window. Everyone forgot the Soviet books. These people were nothing like the ones I’d been staying up all night with, strumming the guitar.
Those were the times…when people started changing everything…absolutely everything. Starting over from scratch. Some left, changing homelands. Some changed their convictions and principles. Others changed their possessions, buying all new stuff for their homes. Throwing out everything old and Soviet, and replacing it with everything new and imported…The shuttle traders had already brought it all over: electric kettles, telephones, furniture…refrigerators…Mountains of goods materialized out of God knows where.
laughing…I overheard someone say, “If I can’t go to the concert tomorrow because of the tanks, I’ll never forgive them.”
When our friends get together…Not a word about politics. Everyone came to this by their own path. We all live together: the gentlemen and the comrades. Reds and Whites. But no one wants any more shooting. There’s been enough blood.
That’s the response to all the great utopians! …It was a beautiful idea! But what are you going to do with human nature? Man hasn’t changed since the days of ancient Rome…
And now, I told you the story…I don’t like the word “hero.” There are no heroes in war. As soon as someone picks up a weapon, they can no longer be good. They won’t be able to.
I don’t know why I’m crying…I already know all this…I know what my life was like.
No one thinks about anything great…or sublime…We’ve had it up to here with greatness! We want something on the human scale. Normal. Mundane…you know, everyday stuff!
Having a VCR was tantamount to having your own personal helicopter.
And finally, Russians don’t want to just live, they want to live for something. They want to participate in some great undertaking. You’ll sooner find a saint here than an honest and successful man. Read the Russian classics…
He’s an old man now, but old age has taken him unawares. He should be savoring every moment, gazing up at the sky, admiring the trees. Playing chess or collecting stamps…matchboxes…Instead, he’s glued to the television: parliamentary sessions, leftists, rightists, rallies, demonstrations with little red flags.
