In the First Circle

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr. In the First Circle. Translated by Harry T. Willetts. New York: Harper Perennial, 2009.

first written '55-'58

in their way to prison camp, intelligentsia, essentially political prisoners

"Swinging the compressed mass of bodies to and fro, the gaily painted orange-and-blue truck swished along the city streets, passed one of the stations, and pulled up at a crossing. A dark red car was  held up by traffic lights at the sam road junction. It belonged to the Moscow correspondent of the newspaper Liberation, who was on his way to a hockey match in the Dynamo stadium. The correspondent read the words on the side of the truck: Myaso/Viande/Fleish/Meat


He had made a mental note of several such trucks seen in various parts of Moscow that day. He took our a notebook and jotted down in dark red ink:

'Every now and then, one encounters on the streets of Moscow food delivery trucks, spick-and-span and impeccably hygenic. There can be no doubt that the capital's food supplies are extremely well organized.'"

(740-741)