Leningrad

Serge's section on the siege is deft and poetic, even more so that Vollmann's treatment of the same in the Shostakoch section of Europe Central. The ruminations at the end of section one and the beginning of the second trace a characterization that Russia is indelibly Asiatic and that all considerations about prospect and predisposition should incorporate such. This reminds me of Mr. Crankshaw and his own arguments to that end.