An upheaval of purges at the moment,
at the highest levels of the slippery
slope of the New American Government,
can claim no comparison with the ar-
duous labors of disposing of Stalin's
enemies in the mid-1930s, championed
up to a point by his court liquidator,
Genrikh Gregoryevich Yagoda. The set-
ting was the subterranean punishment
blocks, a catacombs of remodeled sew-
ers, now resembling empty swimming
pools with uncountable pockmarks in
their walls, and a darkening at their
drains. But it was tiring work - not
to be besmirched as tiresome - given
the urgency of preserving loyalty to
that embodiment of the government, it-
self, the very master of its betrayal.
No. No resemblance can be claimed, be-
tween these indelicate orgies, and the
splendidly ventilated cells of Twitter.
Meanwhile, our own servants do not tire,
but retire under ritual humiliation by
show trial, in the same fastidious venue.
Svetlana Alexievich
Secondhand Time
The Last of the Soviets
An Oral History
2013
Bela Shayevich
translation
Random House, 2016©
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