When it comes to this year’s Winter Olympics, it’s almost Biblical: in the beginning there was Twitter, and the tweets were about toilets. Whether as a result of poor planning and corruption — or whether as a call-back to the uniquely Soviet production quota issues that led to backwards high heels and sticky raincoats — the facilities in Sochi have been the butt of jokes across the internet since the first reporters touched down weeks ago. The issues are legion: there are missing pipes; there are innovative seat covers; and everywhere there are reminders that privacy is a lie.

(Of course, these superficial issues belie much more systemic and widespread problems, and I hope that the journalists decrying the last-minute paint jobs are going to be equally vocal about Russia’s deeply unsettling human rights issues.)

Yet and still, I’ll admit that my Millions colleague Janet Potter and I have indulged our affinity for Schadenfreude by cataloguing some of the more outrageous entries popping up on our Twitter timelines. (The best typically bear the hashtags #SochiProblems and #RatchetOlympics.) All the while, I’ve found myself subconsciously pairing the absurdities with their analogues from the canon of Russian literature. And as I’ve come to learn, the Russian masters saw the writing on the wall well before the Olympic torch made its way to the Black Sea’s coast. Below, I offer a brief compendium of classic quotations paired with some of the more incredible and regrettable sights that Sochi has to offer.

“Such complete, absolute ignorance of everyday reality was touching and somehow repulsive.” – Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot

Sochi menu. Not a joke. pic.twitter.com/OAnXN9h5rk — Eugene Gourevitch (@gourev) February 5, 2014

“Death can only be profitable: there’s no need to eat.” – Anton Chekhov, “Rothschild’s Fiddle“



From this morning's breakfast buffet at #Sochi2014 media housing! pic.twitter.com/8n7qMm9FoM — Liz Clarke (@lizclarketweet) February 6, 2014

“There was no answer to any of these questions, except one, and that not a logical answer and not at all a reply to them. The answer was: ‘You’ll die and all will end. You’ll die and know all, or cease asking.’” – Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

So this is an interesting new addition to the plumbing in my #Sochi2014 hotel room. pic.twitter.com/N2UPeaA6uD — Wayne Drehs (@espnWD) February 6, 2014

“It is no use to blame the looking glass if your face is awry.” – Nikolai Gogol, The Inspector General

#Sochi2014 because who doesn't want to use a public restroom with completely mirrored ceilings? thanks shayba arena! pic.twitter.com/dTcFWseIAu — Steph Stricklen (@StephStricklen) February 6, 2014

“By words a man transmits his thoughts to another, by means of art he transmits his feelings.” – Leo Tolstoy, What Is Art?

No fishing allowed: Check out poor (and funny) conditions at #Sochi2014 Winter Olympics http://t.co/4MMWNfEcEN pic.twitter.com/en4ZNEPYot — The Straits Times (@STcom) February 6, 2014

“’No strangers allowed. Go away.’

‘I don’t understand…’

‘Understanding is strictly forbidden. Even dreams have the right to dream. Isn’t that so? Now go away.’” ― Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, Memories of the Future

The unarmed guards patrolling Sochi are more symbolic than anything else http://t.co/YjrijC3Syf pic.twitter.com/YL6f9GnU4o — The Atlantic Cities (@AtlanticCities) February 6, 2014

“Always to shine,

to shine everywhere,

to the very deeps of the last days,

to shine—

and to hell with everything else!

That is my motto—

and the sun’s!” ― Vladimir Mayakovksy, “An Extraordinary Adventure…”

Fans are wearing light up medals that are controlled to light up in the correct color to coordinate with music. #wow pic.twitter.com/tL46T9cqxp — U.S. Figure Skating (@USFigureSkating) February 7, 2014

“In fact, I’m beginning to fear that this confusion will go on for a long time. And all because he writes down what I said incorrectly.” – Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita

Hahaha! Worth collecting.fulelo: Completely lost in translation – breakfast menu in #sochi2014 pic.twitter.com/9RDGP7Uemy” — Baiba Rubesa (@rubesita) January 25, 2014

“Your health is bound to be affected if, day after day, you say the opposite of what you feel.” – Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago

Russian deputy PM on Sochi (through a translator): "There are no jobless people here." Also said there will be a Russian Disneyland here. — SeanFitz_Gerald (@SeanFitz_Gerald) February 6, 2014

“Are some less lucky, or do all escape?

A syllogism; other men die

But I am not another: therefore I’ll not die” – Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire

I was taking a shower and the door got locked/jammed…. — Johnny Quinn (@JohnnyQuinnUSA) February 8, 2014

…With no phone to call for help, I used my bobsled push training to break out. #SochiJailBreak pic.twitter.com/apZRefgvCO — Johnny Quinn (@JohnnyQuinnUSA) February 8, 2014

“And over the village slipped the days, passing into the nights; the weeks flowed by, the months crept on, the wind howled, and, glassified with an autumnal, translucent, greenish-azure, the Don flowed tranquilly down to the sea.” – Mikhail Sholokhov, And Quiet Flows the Don

For the 1st time at the #Olympics, all ice arenas are within walking distance of each other #sochi2014 #seeyouinsochi pic.twitter.com/VmUxHRgeXo — Sochi 2014 (@Sochi2014) January 29, 2014

“And everything that he saw before him / He despised or hated.” – Mikhail Lermontov, “The Demon” (Note: Russian)

A lot of complaints about the accommodations. This is the foyer of my apartment. #SochiProblems pic.twitter.com/gKnxCywKF0 — Mark Connolly (@MarkConnollyCBC) February 6, 2014

“—The point is Americans are always scared about something—frightened they’ll be kicked out of their job or their wife’s going to get raped or their car stolen…they’re scared stiff the whole time…

—Still, they don’t have these queues.

—No, they don’t have the queues, that’s true.” – Vladimir Sorokin, The Queue

Sochi residents standing in a line to enter live site where opening ceremony will be broadcast. Entry is free. pic.twitter.com/taLBCzibIW — Артем Тихомиров (@tyomson1) February 7, 2014

“Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.” – Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

“If you have pain in one tooth, rejoice that it is not all your teeth that are aching.” – Anton Chekhov, “Life is Wonderful” *

The Olympic rings failed spectacularly during the #Sochi opening ceremony http://t.co/aHrfMzNZrN pic.twitter.com/cvvZZarica — The Verge (@verge) February 7, 2014

* Alternate: “The formula ‘two plus two equals five’ is not without its attractions.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes From Underground

“The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths.” – Alexander Pushkin, “The Hero” (as quoted in Chekhov’s “Gooseberries”)

Good save there with that angle RT @Sochi2014: Awesome – Snowflake Winter Olympic Rings #OpeningCeremony pic.twitter.com/7FgjllWOSB — Aayush Sidd (@ayush_1901) February 7, 2014

“…as I was sifting through a heap of old and new ‘identity cards,’ I noticed that something was missing: my identity.” ― Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, Autobiography of a Corpse