at the drop of a hat | без колебаний (My generation didn’t experience the mass repressions and purges; didn’t experience the show trials in which the wrathful public demanded the executions of traitors to the Motherland; didn’t live in an atmosphere of universal horror; didn’t learn how to change our worldview from one day to the next, to believe in the insidiousness of yesterday’s allies and the good intentions of yesterday’s enemies at the drop of a hat, to justify fratricidal wars.) |