CHAPTER ONE THE EMIGRANT FROM THE SECOND-CLASS CARRIAGE On this July morning a young man stepped onto the platform of the Lviv Railway Station dressed in a bespoke suit, blue with pale gray stripes. His pants had become crumpled during the journey, bringing to naught the efforts of their owner to iron in some pleats, as dictated by city fashion. The cut did not look very contemporary. And in general, it appeared as if the fellow had not ordered the suit specially from a tailor, as was the custom, but had purchased a ready-made one, because it was cheaper. After this the tailor would have fitted and hemmed the clothes, taken his money, and would have even provided a discount. And both would have been left satisfied. The young man – because he had ended up with a cheap suit which at the same time looked quite decent. And the tailor – because he had finally gotten rid of goods which had been lying around, for which a former customer had not paid. That fellow had complained that he didn’t like it, that the stripes were wrong, while in reality he had lost all his money playing cards, and was sitting in cheap accommodation somewhere in Yamska Street8, waiting for his compassionate parents to respond and send him a little money. In his situation, he obviously was more concerned with finding a bite to eat than thinking about suits... And that was in fact what had happened.
Yamska – a street in Kyiv which runs past Baykove Cemetery, which back then was on the outskirts of the city. During the period described here it was known as the ‘red light district’. Described in A. Kuprin’s novel Yama (The Pit). 8
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