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From the translator, John Woodsworth... "...The three introductory stories (especially “Mitenka”) sharpen our own sensors of curiosity and prepare our thought to spend an extended period observing post-war Russian life through the eyes of one lad in particular. Thanks to Mikhail Sadovsky’s literary talents, by the end of our year-long ‘stay’ in this Moscow suburb, we feel we have come to know, on an individual basis, not only his young hero Venka but, through Venka’s perceptive sensibilities, a miniature cross-section of Russian life of the late 1940s in both the Jewish and non-Jewish communities...."