“There are as many towns like this in Rus' as you want. And one is more beautiful than the other. Even the gray panel five-story buildings that tried to solve the eternal housing problem at the height of Soviet power could not spoil them. Because in the center there still remained houses from the century before last, and a square paved with paving stones, and white-stone, ancient chambers of commerce, and a church that had survived everything from the Tatar-Mongol yoke to developed socialism. In the post-Yeltsin era of stabilization, they also tried to demolish the church, making way for a very profitable shopping and entertainment center project. But the townspeople, not believing in the official conclusion about its historical significance, took to the streets, and the hungry retreated: that’s what stabilization is for, so as not to go to extremes. Moreover, even without a church there is enough to warm your hands on..."