gold
children--25kop.gold
DISDEPOPINSTRUCT [Footnote: That is "District Department for popular
instruction"--in "Russian," _Uotnarobraz_.]
Times: Lent of the eighth year of the World War and of the downfall
of European Civilisation (see Spengler)--and sixth Lent since the
great Russian Revolution; in other words: March, Spring, breaking-up
of the ice--when the Russian Empire exploded in the great revolution
the way Rupert's drops explode, casting off--Estia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Poland, the Monarchy, Chernov, Martov, the Dardanelles---
Russian Civilisation,--Russian blizzards---
--and when---
--Europe--
was:
--nothing but one Ersatz
from end to end--
(Ersatz--a German word
--means the adverb
"instead.")
_Place_: there is no place of action. Russia, Europe, the world,
fraternity.
Dramatis persona: there are none. Russia, Europe, the world, belief,
disbelief,--civilisation, blizzards, thunderstorms, the image of the
Holy Virgin. People,--men in overcoats with collars turned up, go-
alones, of course;--women;--but women are my sadness,--to me who am a
romanticist--
--the only thing, the most
beautiful, the greatest
joy.
All this does after all make itself into some sort of sense, but the
process by which this is at length attained is lengthy, tedious, and
full of pitfalls to the reader who is unfamiliar with some dozen
modern Russian writers and is innocent of "Soviet life.
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