Trafika Europe 13 - Russian Ballet

Naum Vaiman

good at determining an exact age then – fair-haired, tastefully dressed, a short haircut with a bang across her forehead, a la Mireille Mathieu, it even seemed to me that she was coming from “a date”. What proceededwas a somewhat confused and awkward first introduction with Vera Petrovna, who also appealed to me; that evening, she looked quite younger than her years, and, having told, before the curtain came down, the joke about the difference between Englishmen and Jews, that Englishmen take leave without saying goodbye, and the Jews say goodbye but never leave (this joke also evoked Pyotr Naumovich’s wild delight,) I made my bows and the entire way home, happy with myself, smiling from ear to ear, joyfully repeated, like a chorus, the following trifle: the Mom isn’t so bad looking herself, very attractive! Major general Pyotr Naumovich Kharitonov, until recently, still a teacher of war history at the Military Academy, led a reclusive existence, going out of his house only to the book flea market, where from time to time he would get close to various geeks, principally – Jews, who owned the books and materials he was in need of. The thing is that Pyotr Naumovich was writing a book about the decisive, yes-yes, precisely decisive role of Jews in the victory over Hitler’s Germany. The principal thesis of the book was supported by substantial data, even though it wasn’t clear how it was gathered.

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