An Anonymous Story

“Why are we worn out? Why do we, who start out so passionate, brave, noble believing, become totally bankrupt by age of thirty or thirty-five? Why is it that one is extinguished by consumption, another puts a bullet in his head, a third seeks oblivion in vodka, and a fourth, in order to stifle the fear and anguish, cynically tramples underfoot the portrait of his pure beautiful youth? Why is it, that once fallen, we do not try to rise, and having lost one thing, we do not seek another? Why?”

Equally applicable to both the Russian intelligentsia and the Russian serfs. Why are we Russians just bred to suffer? Intelligent enough to recognise it, and even intelligent enough to perhaps know what to do, but there exists this insurmountable gulf....