Mikhail Sadovsky - Голубые ступени / Stepping into the blue

Ten years with no outside communication permitted – a Soviet euphemism indicating execution by a firing squad.

It was a common occurrence for families of anyone imprisoned as an ’enemy of the state’ to be ostracized by most of their acquaintances.

Alexander Pushkin – a celebrated Russian poet of the early 19th century, considered by many to be the father of Russian literature.

The Doctors’ plot (in Russian: delo vrachej – literally, «the doctors’ case») – a supposed plot by a number of doctors (many of them Jewish) to kill Stalin, widely held to be a ruse perpetrated by Stalin himself. All the doctors were freed a few days following Stalin’s death in March 1953.

Both Irka and Irochka are diminutive forms of the name Irina, each befitting the respective context.

Чтоб оно всё сгорело… так я думала… ты понимаешь, ты всё понимаешь… и я решила тогда – это конец…

Бабушка, моя дорогая бабушка! Я прошу тебя, живи ещё сто лет!

Господи, ты не забыл про меня – я тут одна осталась? Господи, я прошу тебя… не забудь про меня… я только напоминаю тебе…

Сегодня я тут с тобой, Зяма! Ты не забыл, что за день сегодня? Нет, я верю, не забыл!

Спасибо тебе, Господи! Все здоровы!

Можешь уже подвинуться… я скоро буду… да… да…

During the Stalinist period it was considered a citizen’s duty to avoid all contact with relatives of a declared ’enemy of the people’.

Filippovich – a patronymic, or second name derived from his father’s first name. Its use here all by itself (without the first name) indicates that he enjoyed a high degree of trust and friendship on the part of the people he worked with.

Bauman – the name of a well-known technical institute in Moscow.

Wushu – a category of Chinese martial arts (popular in Russia) with emphasis on athletic and aesthetic performance, in contrast to the more combat-oriented kung fu.