Translated by Sofia Arenzon





«The mountains are clothed in gardens. Narrow valleys, broad plains between the mountains. “These mountains were naked rocks before,” the older sister says. “Now they are covered with a thick layer of soil, and groves of the highest trees grow on them between the gardens; below in the moist hollows are coffee tree plantations; above – date palms, fig-trees, vineyards are mixed with sugar cane plantations; on the fields there is wheat as well, but more of rice.”

“So what is this land?”

“Let’s rise higher for a minute, you will see its borders…”

“But we are in the middle of a desert? Says Vera Pavlovna, surprised.

“Yes, in the middle of a former desert, - this side is called New Russia”

“This is where Odessa and Kherson are?”

“Once they were, and now, look, here is where the New Russia is.”»





N. G. Chernichevsky “What to do?”

Petropavloskaya Fortress, 1862

