Word: valenki
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...Russians have no special tricks for keeping warm. Every man wears a shapka, a fur (muskrat, rabbit, squirrel, fox or Persian lamb) hat with ear flaps. Everyone wears warm boots; the best are the felt valenki favored by villagers. People who work outdoors wear, of course. Soviet Union suits. After a long spell in the cold, they raise spirits with a stiff jolt of vodka and a hunk of fatback...
...oddly asocial. His house was surrounded by a high board fence; in the evenings, music blared inexplicably from loudspeakers on the lawn. He never entertained, made the postman put the mail through a slit in the fence. Until he retired five years ago, Kuznetsov worked as a valenki (felt boots) maker in a commune, dutifully handed in his monthly norm of 15 pairs of valenki per month. For some reason, he insisted on doing all his work at home...
...German. His head was wrapped in a woman's shawl looted from some Russian peasant hut. A threadbare blanket with a hole cut in the middle served him as a poncho. The Red Army men, dressed in the standard winter sheepskin shubas (coats), fleece-lined caps and warm valenki (knee-high felt boots), seized the shivering Fritz as he stood sentry duty over a zigzag trench full of freezing Germans. All he could mumble was "holodno" (cold...
Throughout Russia an estimated 20 to 30 million civilian refugees from occupied areas squeezed into odd corners of already crowded rooms. Valenki (knee-high felt winter boots) and beds were used in rotation by people working on different shifts. Bread rations in central Russia are two pounds of black bread per day for heavy workers, one pound for children. In besieged Leningrad men get 150 grams (5 oz.) of bread a day and little else...
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