"Since my childhood I had been surrounded by handicapped adults and children, such as my close friend Boris, the engin…"

"An insult is regarded by all communities as an error typical of people who are weak and unintelligent, lacking in cri…"

"Some of the guards often raped the boys, too; this usually happened in the showers. You were allowed to take a shower…"

"There was one disgusting old screw: he had been a guard in an adult prison all his life, and after studying child psy…"

"We Siberians had made friends with the Armenian family. We had known the Armenians from way back; there was a good re…"

"Between Black Seed and us there had always been a kind of tension; they described themselves as the leaders of the cr…"

"[...] to Siberians wearing glasses is like voluntarily sitting in a wheelchair – it's a sign of weakness, a personal …"

"According to the Siberian tradition, homosexuality is a very serious infectious disease, because it destroys the huma…"

"[...] in our culture a 'cockerel' – that is, a homosexual – is an outcast: if he isn't killed he is prevented from ha…"

"The Ukrainians drank a lot, a habit they shared with the rest of the Soviet population, certainly, but they did so in…"