Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 9 · column 3 of 7 · from the scan, no model involved
nemorial. It is probably the largest iuch memorial I have seen save that n Volograd, yet the war did not :ome to Novosibirsk. Thousands of ts citizens, however, went to war rom there and did not return.
Huge stone panels have been irected to carry the names of war dctims, and gigantic sculptures to ;he right and left memorialize them ind their bereft relatives. An eternal flame would be impressive after lark, but looks futile in daylight. 3ver all, an immense stone sculp;ure of a standing, grieving woman s an affecting witness. She is carved >o that long shadows convey her sorrow. i
This is the only war memorial we vere directed to during this trip. Formerly, war memorials were featured, and they invariabley had Honor guards of soldiers or teeniged boys and girls, whose military iress and goose-stepping changing ceremonies frightened me. It seemed as if they were worshipping war. We would often see marriage parties come to lay flowers at war memorials. These were sacred places.
The guards have vanished and the bridal couples we eventually saw were on the Kremlin and at the steps of St. Basil’s Cathedral in Red Square. The groom was formally dressed in black and white. The bride had on an elaborate iridescent white dress shimmering with rainbow colors. What a change has come over the society! Further west, beyond the Urals, there was a noticeable improvement in the dress and conditions of people at the stations, When we finally got to Moscow, the city looked positively opulent. Streets were clean, buildings painted and repaired and traffic brisk. I could only think, “This is a colonial capital where the wealth of an empire flows tb enrich the inhabitants at the expense of the rest.”
There is no transcontinental highway system in Russia such as we have in the states. In Siberia, the train is it, and one passes about every five minutes in either direction. Our train was delayed several times, and we had to find a new slot to move in. Our speed somewhat depended on what was happening up ahead.
Outside Perm, an electrical malfunction stopped our engine, causing wheel damage on several cars. It was wonderful to see the readiness with which a night crew was assembled to work in the rain to replace the wheels on two carriages, in one of which I was traveling. I hadn’t expected to learn how a coach is jacked up, the wheel frame, called the truck, detached, the wheels removed and new ones set on the tracks to replace them; new wheels are attached to the old frame, and the frame is pushed under the car and bolted back to the coach and the jacks are removed. About twelve men working all at once, with the aid of a crane, expertly and cooperatively accomplished this operation for which I had a grandstand seat out
87.1%