•   CONTENTS                                                                                 Before
                          Comrade Grandmother                                                Paphos
           Art Gallery
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                          By Naomi Kritzer, illustration by                                  by Loretta
           Articles
       o                                                                                     Casteen
                          Marge Simon
           Columns
       o                                                                                     8 January
                          2 September 2002                                                   2007
           Fiction
       o
                          "--glorious Soviet -- soon bring Hitler -- complete defeat.      It starts
           Poetry
       o
                                                                                           again. The
                          Heavy casualties -- Dnieper River--"
                                                                                           baby begins
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                          The voice from the radio faded into the deafening hiss of        to cough
                          static. Nadezhda knelt to adjust the tuning dial again, but lost and choke.
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                          the transmission completely. Her temper flared and she
•   ABOUT US              smacked the box in frustration, then thought better of it and Locked
                          returned her attention to the dial. "Please," she muttered. "We Doors
           Staff
       o                  need to hear this."
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           Guidelines
       o                                                                                   Stephanie
                          The other workers from the steel mill waited silently, their
                          faces stony. Nadezhda brought in another minute or two of Burgis
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                          speech: a different voice spoke about patriotism, sacrifice,
                                                                                           1 January
                          Mother Russia. Anastasya, the supervisor of their group,
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                          reached over and switched the radio off. "Go on," she said. 2007
           Banners        "Back to work."
       o
                                                                                           You can
                                                                                     never let
•   SUPPORT US            They're coming, and we won't be able to stop them.
                                                                                     anyone
      o Donate      No one dared to speak the words. Nadezhda had to bite her suspect, his
                    tongue to keep from speaking them -- but it was better not to mother told
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      o
                    invite trouble. She retied the kerchief she wore to keep the him. That
                                                                                     was the first
      o Merchandise sweat from her eyes and her hair out of the machinery. For
                    days now there had been no real news. The official reports rule she
•                   spoke of great Soviet victories, but these victories somehow taught him,
    COMMUNITY
                                                                                     and the last,
                    happened closer to Moscow each day.
      o Forum                                                                        before she
                    Nadezhda returned late to the apartment she shared, pulling left him
      o Readers'    off her shoes in the cold stairway so as not to wake the         here alone
        Choice      others. Stepping over sleeping women, she picked her way to with It.
                    the kitchen in stocking feet. As quietly as she could, she boiled
                    water for tea, then sat down by the window to stare out into Heroic
                                                                                     Measures
                    the darkness.

                                                                                              by
                          The Dnieper River was the last natural barrier before
                                                                                              Matthew
                          Moscow. And if Moscow fell. . . . Closing her eyes,
                          Nadezhda could see the face of her lover, Vasily, before he'd Johnson
                          left with the militia to fight. "We'll fight them to the end," he'd
                          said, speaking softly to avoid being overheard. "We'll make 18
                          them pay in German blood for every inch of Russian soil. But December
                          if Moscow falls, we'll be fighting a lost war." Vasily's blue eyes2006
                          had been hard with fear, but he'd pulled loose her kerchief to Pale as he
                          stroke his fingers through her hair one last time before he         was, it was
                          boarded the train that would take him to the front. Vasily had
                                                                                              hard to
                          no real military training -- that he'd been sent to fight spoke of believe he
                          the Red Army's desperation far more loudly than a thousand would
                          radio broadcasts.
                                                                                              never rise