The Last Man in Russia: The Struggle to Save a Dying Nation Read Online Free

you’re standing
    around.Whatareyoudoing?’
    She looked friendly, so I
    explained the nature of my quest: I
    was looking for relatives of Father
    Dmitry, and wanted to understand
    h o whis upbringing had made him
    thewayhewas.Sheshookherhead.
    There were no Dudkos round here.
    But she had nothing much to do for
    the next few hours so she took my
    hand and marched me across the
    baked plain of the yard to meet her
    mother.
    ‘I’mcalledGalya,’shesaid.
    Itwasonlyafterwehadrungher
    mother’sdoorbellforsometimethat
    she remembered that it was a
    Saturday. Her mother, it transpired,
    was a Seventh Day Adventist and
    would be praying with her sister,
    Galya’s aunt. We marched back
    down the staircase and across to a
    secondapartmentblock–theground
    in between was full of vegetables
    ripening early in this intense heat –
    where we found the old women.
    They
    wore
    headscarves
    and
    cardigans,andweresittingonanold
    sofa with the Book of Revelation
    openinfrontofthem.
    They had never heard of any
    Dudkos, and had lived here all their
    lives.
    This
    was
    not
    good.
    Nonetheless,Idecidedtocomeaway
    with
    something
    and
    got
    my
    notebook
    out
    anyway.
    Anna
    Vasilyevna, Galya’s aunt, was born
    in 1922 – the same year as Father
    Dmitry. Nina Vasilyevna, who had
    twelve other children besides Galya,
    was three years younger. This, I
    thought,couldatleastbeachanceto
    findoutaboutlifeunderoccupation.
    This whole area was taken by the
    Germans at the very start of Hitler’s
    war. Father Dmitry had spent two
    yearsunderGermanoccupation,and
    alloldpeoplewouldhavesharedhis
    experiencesofforeignrule.
    Except they did not want to talk
    aboutthat.Theywantedtotalkabout
    their faith, and about grandchildren
    –inthatorder.
    ‘IstartedtobelieveinGodinthe
    wartime. The bullets were flying.
    Our uncle Matvei brought the faith
    back from the army. He did not
    drink or smoke. He gave up vodka,
    and he stopped stealing or lying,’
    saidtheaunt.
    I looked round at Galya, who
    was giggling silently. I began to
    suspect this was a practical joke she
    hadsetuptopassthetime.
    ‘Theywillburneverything.Now
    there is freedom of religion, if we
    live long enough the pope of Rome
    willcomeandkillus.’
    She looked pleased, as if this
    would be a very satisfactory way to
    end her life. Then Galya’s mother
    startedrecitingnames.
    ‘Vita, he’s first. Write it down.
    ThenOlyaandNatasha.’Ilookedat
    Galya, confused. She mouthed the
    word ‘grandchildren’. I blinkedand
    wrotethethreenamesdown.‘Tanya,
    Sveta, Ira, Nina, Zhenya, Vasya,
    Yulia, Maxim, Igor, Denis.’The list
    went on and on until it finally
    finished: ‘Nadya, Veronika, Misha.
    Howmany’sthat?’
    I counted them. There were
    twenty-eight.
    ‘Exactly.
    Twenty-eight. And
    eighteengreat-grandchildren.’
    An argument ensued about
    whether there were eighteen or
    nineteen.Wewentoverthelistthrice
    more.The aunt’s husband had been
    killed in the war, so she had no
    grandchildren and she eventually
    tired of such a sterile debate. She
    turned back to the faith, and my
    mind drifted a little. I looked at the
    generations:
    thirteen
    children,
    twenty-eight
    grandchildren
    and
    eighteengreat-grandchildren.Thatis
    the kind of contraction happening
    everywhere in Russia. If every
    couple has just one child, then the
    generation size halves, which is
    more or less what had happened
    here.
    It could not have been more
    differentwhenthesetwooldwomen
    were born. Industry and railways
    had brought unprecedented mobility
    to Russia in the years before the
    revolution, but the villages where
    they started their lives had still
    changedlittlesincetheMiddleAges.
    The fertility level was high –
    comparabletothatofSomaliatoday,
    where each woman has more than
    six children – and 80 per cent of
    Russia’spopulationwerepeasants.
    Although serfdom – the slavery
    that tied peasants to the villages and
    gave landlords almost limitless
    powers to punish them – was
    scrapped in 1861, the