Litwin
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- #21
In "The Gulag Archipelago", Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn tells the story of a train that leaves Moscow with enough leather to make 10,000 pairs of boots that are to be made by prisoners in the gulags of Far Eastern USSR. The leather travels along the Trans-Siberian Railway, the longest continuous rail line in the world. However, at each stop the cargo is inspected and the manifest is signed off attesting to leather to make 10,000 pairs of boots. But, each apparatchik must have his "beak" sweetened, so a bit of leather is "confiscated." By the time the train reaches the gulag, the manifest says 10,000, but there is only enough leather in the rail cars for 7,500 pairs of boots. The inmates make 7,500 pairs, but only 5,000 get loaded into the rail cars by the time the railroad people and the prison commandants get their "beaks sweetened." At each return stop the cargo is inspected and the apparatchik's "beaks" are sweetened. When the train returns to Moscow, the manifest says that 10,000 pairs of boots are on board and accounted for in the manifest. But only 2,500 pairs of boots are in the rail cars. Since no one wants to be blamed for stealing 7,500 pairs of boots, the manifest is stamped "All accounted for" as 2,500 pairs of boots are put into the warehouse. That is how you "lose" 100,000 military uniforms in the horde . хай живе Україна!
