Quotes from Evgenia Ginzburg

By way of farewell, I recited Mandelshtam's † melancholy poem: The horses tread slowly, The lamps burn low, And where they are taking me Only strangers know.

Let us give thanks to our father, leader, and creator for our happy lives!" "Stankovskaya, to hear your anti-Soviet talk, one can hardly believe that you were a member of a municipal committee!" "Yes, and to hear you people one can hardly believe that you're not on the prison staff. Why don't you call the guards now and report this conversation? You might get some clean underwear as a reward, and then you wouldn't stink so much.

From that moment, events rushed on with breath-taking speed. I spent the two and a half months until my arrest in tormented conflict between reason and the kind of foreboding which Lermontov called "prophetic anguish.