Revolution Square, (continued)

In a corner of Chelyabinsk's Revolution Square, a small crowd looks on with interest as an argument boils over between the communists who gather there every weekend and a couple of passing hecklers.

"You should be ashamed!" scolds a man in glasses, shaking his head in disgust. "How can you actually believe the communists were good? Don't you remember the knocking on the doors late at night, the NKVD carrying off innocent people? How can you forget the millions that died?"

"What millions?" scoffs an elderly woman in a knit hat. "There were no millions! That's a lie made up by politicians! How do you know how many people suffered, and why? You just believe whatever they tell you!"

"How dare you deny the tragedy of those years?" shouts the man in glasses in reply. He turns to confront the listeners pressed around him. "How many people here can say that no one in their family was taken away? How many? Can you? the gathering is silent.

"Speak up!" he cries. "Every one of us had our beloved family members taken from us! You cannot deny it!"

"It's not true," declares another of the communists, a man with a ruddy complexion and booming voice. "Think about it! It can't have been as many as they say..."

A half-dozen voices are raised at once, the argument escalating even as it ceases to advance. All at once, a man in a fur hat thrusts himself into the middle of the circle, where he raises his index finger in the air and leans menacingly toward the red-faced man.

"My father was taken from us when I was just a child. He was taken away from our home and shot, just like so many others were! For what? Because he had one too many roosters, and that made him a kulak. And kulaks had to be eliminated as a class!

"And you dare to stand here and say none of this ever happened?!"



[ DAILY CHRONICLES ] [ ROAD STORIES ] [ IN THEIR WORDS ]
[ SITE DIRECTORY ] [ INTRODUCTION ] [ RUSSIAN ATLAS ]
[TRIP AT A GLANCE] [ MAILBOX ]

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