It Stuck in My Memory

The collection includes three memoirs about our recent past. The first of them, "Panyka," tells readers about how ordinary workers lived in the early 1960s - those who lifted the country from the ruins after the Great Patriotic War, their unpretentious joys and sorrows, and how next to them live people in abundance, seemingly unaware of the disgraceful poverty right under their noses; at the center of the narrative is the tragedy of one hardworking woman from the first metro builders, kind and unassuming. The second story, "Kalinka-Malinka," is an engaging monologue of a young woman, a guide for Intourist in the seventies, revealing a glimpse into the "kitchen" of working with foreign tourists in the Soviet Union during those years. The third story, "In Valentina's Dacha," can be called a sketch of one summer at the dacha in the early fifties - but how many destinies, characters, and events will be presented on this canvas! And most importantly, what captivates in all these works is the simplicity and elegance of the exposition, as well as sincerity and warmth, which is not so often encountered nowadays.