Continuing to fulfill the promise given to @pluszysta , I've translated a citation from a notorious book of a modern Russian writer Juriy Brigadir, named "Mesencephalon" (2008). The story itself is an autobiography of an #alcoholic. The excerpt in question is about #drinking #cologne in the #USSR(/ #Russia ). In square brackets [] I added my explanatory comments to some things. (...) marks indicate omitting some text. Enjoy the Part 1.
"A long-long time ago I have been building BAM. [Baikal-Amur Mainline, a railway in Siberia, a giant infrastructure project of the USSR] (...)
I was building Severomuysky tunnel. No, I wasn’t actually allowed inside, I was working as a woodman. We did a giant number of tables, stools and other useful furniture. Orderly rows of courageous komsomol [komsomol or VLKSM - All-Union Leninist Young Communist League – the youth communist organization in the USSR designed to add extra level of control and exploitation of young citizens. Similar to Hitlerjugend in Nazi Germany and other similar organizations in other repressive regimes. The membership was formally volunteer, but in fact necessary to reach at least minimal feasible level in that society.] building squads went out from each landing plane. With guitars, songs and other stuff. These dickheads should be urgently housed in that long, barracks-type dormitories. And, obviously, they had to eat on something, sit on something and rip their throats with their songs on something. (...)
So. The tunnel had two portals. An East one (where I lived) and a West one (approximately twenty kilometers from us).
On the West portal everything was normal. And on the East one there was Prohibition. Why – nobody knows. There was no logic. Why, tell me please, it was possible to drink vodka on the West portal, but not on the East one? A nuance of sense, aberration. In other words, fuck knows. Transcendence.
And komsomoltsy [members of “komsomol”. The grammar form “komsomoltsy” is nominative plural, the corresponding nominative singular forms are: komsomolets for a man or “komsomolka” for a woman (obviously, homosexual, transgender or non-binary options were impossible in the USSR, sometimes prosecuted or treated by repressive psychiatry)] are up to drinking. It means, like it very much. Definitely. Girls. And boys – obviously.
And there is no vodka.
There is completely no vodka.
If you have a marriage – well, then get a confirmation from the authorities and you can buy...em...say, a box. Or two. But it is anyway too few, because your marriage will be visited by everybody who wants to have a drink. Let alone vine.
This is only for holidays. Just to wet lips. But one wants to drink.
And then I saw for the first time, how komsomoltsy drank cologne.
They bought whole boxes. Each box has twenty flasks. Surely, the best were “Shipr” or “Troynoy” [literally: “Triple”]. But it was also fine to have “Gornyj Khrustal” [literally: “mountain crystal”], and “Krasnaya Moskva” [literally “Red Moscow”], and “Gvozdika” [literally: “pink” (flower)]. There was a special cologne glass in each room of the barrack. If whoever doesn’t know – it is impossible to wash out cologne from dishware. It is adsorbed so heavily that no soap will help. So a komsomolets had his personal cologne glass somewhere in his bedside table. Or maybe one per a room. It depended. Some folks drank not so much. And some folks had got no physiological ability to drink cologne, therefore moved to the West portal and drank pure alcohol there."
