First published in Russian in 2013.

Chronology -- Remarks from an accomplice -- I. The Consolation of Apocalypse -- Snatches of street noise and kitchen conversations (1991-2001) -- Ten Stories in a Red Interior -- On the beauty of dictatorship and the mystery of butterflies in cement -- On brothers and sisters, victims and executioners...and the electorate -- On cries and whispers...and exhilaration -- On the lonely red marshal and three days of forgotten revolution -- On the mercy of memories and the lust for meaning -- On a different Bible and a different kind of believer -- On the cruelty of the flames and salvation from above -- On the sweetness of suffering and the trick of the Russian soul -- On a time when anyone who kills believes that they are serving God -- On the little red flag and the smile of the axe -- II. The Charms of Emptiness -- Snatches of street noise and kitchen conversations (2002-2012) -- Ten Stories In The Absence of an Interior -- On Romeo and Juliet...except their names were Margarita and Abulfaz -- On people who instantly transformed after the fall of communism -- On a loneliness that resembles happiness -- On wanting to kill them all and the horror of realizing you really wanted to do it -- On the old crone with a braid and the beautiful young woman -- On a Stranger's Grief that God has deposited on your doorstep -- On life the bitch and one hundred grammes of fine powder in a little white vase -- On how nothing disgusts the dead and the silence of dust -- On the darkness of the evil one and "the other life we can build out of this one" -- On courage and what comes after -- Notes from an everywoman.