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??? ?????? ??? ???. ????? ?????? ? ?????????, ???? ?? ??? ????? ???????? ????. [?????.] ?????????, ???: ??? ???, ?????? ? ??? ???? ?????? ???? ???????????, ????????? ?????? ??????, ? ??????? ? ?????? ????? ? ????, ? ??????? ??????, ? ??????? ?????? ?? ?????? ?? ??? ???????????? ????????, ??????? ?? ?? ??????? ???????. . . ??????? ?????? ?????? — ???? ??? ?????????? ???? ???, ?????? ?????? ? ?????? ???????, ??? ??? ???? ????, ??, ???? ??? ?? ?????????, ??? ?? ?????? ? ????, ?? ????? ????, ?? ???? ??? ?????, ??????? ?? ?? ???????? ?????? ????????… ?? ??????? ?? ??????? ???? ??? ?? ??????, ? ??? ??? ??? ????? ??????, ??? ????????????? ????????? ? ????????, ?? ?????? ?????????????, ???????? ?? ????? ??? ???? ?????. ???? ??? ????, ????? ?????? ???? ? ?????????, ???? ??????? ???????? ???? ???????, ????????? ? ???, ? ???????? ??? ????? ?????? ??????????, ?????? ???????????, ??????????? ??????.
All Russia is our orchard. The land is great and beautiful, there are many marvellous places in it. [Pause.] Think, Anya, your grandfather, your great-grandfather, and all your ancestors were serf-owners, they owned living souls; and now, doesn’t something human look at you from every cherry in the orchard, every leaf and every stalk? Don’t you hear voices . . . ? Oh, it’s awful, your orchard is terrible; and when in the evening or at night you walk through the orchard, then the old bark on the trees sheds a dim light and the old cherry-trees seem to be dreaming of all that was a hundred, two hundred years ago, and are oppressed by their heavy visions. Still, at any rate, we’ve left those two hundred years behind us. So far we’ve gained nothing at all–we don’t yet know what the past is to be to us–we only philosophize, we complain that we are dull, or we drink vodka. For it’s so clear that in order to begin to live in the present we must first redeem the past, and that can only be done by suffering, by strenuous, uninterrupted labor.
–Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, ????ë??? ??? (The Cherry Orchard), act ii (1904)(Trofimov)
More from Scott Horton:
No Comment — April 12, 2013, 11:11 am
A new report from Seton Hall University exposes government surveillance of attorney-client conversations
No Comment, Six Questions — March 18, 2013, 9:00 am
Rashid Khalidi on how the United States sustains the failure of the Israel-Palestine peace process
No Comment, Six Questions — February 4, 2013, 9:00 am
Alex Gibney on his documentary investigating the Roman Catholic Church’s handling of child sex-abuse cases


Minimum number of baboons forced to smoke crack in a 1989 study testing the efficacy of cigarettes as a drug delivery device:

A reduction in distrust toward atheists was documented among pious Canadians who are reminded of the Vancouver police.

A Missouri cinema apologized for hiring an actor dressed in body armor and carrying a fake rifle to appear at a screening of Iron Man 3.
Winner of the 2012 Olivier Rebbot Award for best photographic reporting from abroad in magazines or books