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Moscow Stations

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 A book that comes up often in discussion is Moscow-Petushki, or Moscow to the End of the Line, by Venedikt Erofeev.  It is essentially a drinking book, as Venya, who has lost his job, discusses the sad state of Soviet affairs over multiple bottles of vodka as he makes his way by train from Moscow to Petushki.  For obvious reasons, this book was published abroad in Israel and France before finally finding its way into Russian print in 1989.  I'm not sure if this is the perestroika Gorbacev had in mind, but it seemed to sum up a lot of persons' feelings at the time.

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