On the Old Arbat, my beloved Arbat, I found peddlers selling matryoshka dolls, samovars, icons, and portraits of the Tsar and the royal family. Portraits of White Guard generals—Kolchak and Denikin,*3 next to busts of Lenin…There were all sorts of matryoshkas: Gorbachev matryoshkas, Yeltsin matryoshkas. I didn’t recognize my Moscow. What city was this? Right there on the asphalt, on top of some bricks, an old man sat playing the accordion.
