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“No one had taught us how to be free. We had only ever been taught how to die for freedom.”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets

“The most important thing is spiritual labor...Books...You can wear the same suit for twenty years, two coats are enough for a lifetime, but you can't live without Pushkin or the complete works of Gorky.”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Czasy secondhand. Koniec czerwonego człowieka

“I don’t like the word “hero.�� There are no heroes in war. As soon as someone picks up a weapon, they can no longer be good. They won’t be able to.”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets

“Let time be the judge. Time is just, but only in the long term—not in the short term. The time we won’t live to see, which will be free of our prejudices.”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets

“People are constantly forced to choose between having freedom and having success and stability; freedom with suffering or happiness without freedom. The majority choose the latter.”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets

“How did you make it out of there alive?�� “My parents loved me a lot when I was little.�� We’re saved by the amount of love we get, it’s our safety net. Yes…only love can save us. Love is a vitamin that humans can’t live without—the blood curdles, the heart stops. I”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets

“Pretty soon, I'll be decomposing into phosphorous, calcium, and so on. Who else will you find to tell you the truth? All that's left are the archives. Pieces of paper. And the truth is... I worked at an archive myself, I can tell you first hand: paper lies even more than people do.”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Czasy secondhand. Koniec czerwonego człowieka

“In five years, everything can change in Russia, but in two hundred—nothing. Boundless”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets

“The soul will fly home of its own accord, but shipping a coffin is pretty expensive.”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets

“Today, no one has time for feelings, they’re all out making money. The discovery of money hit us like an atom bomb��”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets

“As my physics teacher always said, “My dear students! Just remember that money solves all problems, even differential equations.”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets

“Instead of lullabies, my mother would sing us songs of the Revolution. Now she sings them to her grandchildren. 'Are you nuts?' I ask her. She replies, 'I don't know any other songs.”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Czasy secondhand. Koniec czerwonego człowieka

“My life has always been like a change jar. It’s full, then it’s empty, then it’s full again, then it’s empty again.”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets

“I'm afraid of freedom, it feels like some drunk guy could show up and burn my dacha at any moment.”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Czasy secondhand. Koniec czerwonego człowieka

“Our people need freedom like a monkey needs glasses. No one would know what to do with it.”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Czasy secondhand. Koniec czerwonego człowieka

“Instead of a Motherland, we live in a huge supermarket. If this is freedom, I don't need it. To hell with it!”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Czasy secondhand. Koniec czerwonego człowieka

“Защо не осъдихме Сталин? Ще ви отговоря�� За да осъдиш Сталин, трябва да осъдиш роднините си, познатите си. Най-близките си хора.”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Czasy secondhand. Koniec czerwonego człowieka

“The mysterious Russian soul... Everyone wants to understand it. They read Dostoevsky: what's behind that soul of theirs? Well, behind our soul there's just more soul.”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Czasy secondhand. Koniec czerwonego człowieka

“Мъжът на моя позната беше пилот, командир на ескадрила. Уволниха го като запасен. Когато тя загуби работата си, веднага се преквалифицира �� беше инженер, стана фризьор. А той си седи у дома и пие от негодувание, пие, защото той, бойният пилот, оставил Афганистан зад гърба си, трябва да прави каша на децата. Та така�� На всички е обиден. Злобее. Ходил във военното окръжие, питал дали не могат да го пратят някъде на война, със специална задача �� отказали му. Пълно е с желаещи. Ние имаме хиляди безработни военни, такива, които познават само автомата и танка. Непригодни за друг живот. На нашите жени им се налага да бъдат по-силни от мъжете.”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Czasy secondhand. Koniec czerwonego człowieka

“У дома рядко идваха бивши лагерници, той не ги търсеше. Когато се появяваха вкъщи, аз се чувствах като чужденка, те идваха оттам, където мен още ме е нямало. Знаеха за него повече от мен. Открих, че той има и някакъв друг живот�� Разбрах, че жената може да разкаже за своите унижения, а мъжът �� не, на жената ѝ е по-леко да признае, защото някъде дълбоко в себе си тя е готова за насилието, вземете дори самия полов акт��. Всеки месец жената започва живота наново�� тези цикли�� Самата природа ѝ помага. Сред жените, които са били в лагерите, много са сами. Малко такива двойки съм виждала, при които и двамата �� и той, и тя, да са оттам. Тайната не ги обединява, а ги разединява.”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Czasy secondhand. Koniec czerwonego człowieka

“truths. History is concerned solely with the facts; emotions are outside of its realm of interest. In fact, it’s considered improper to admit feelings into history. But I look at the world as a writer and not a historian. I am fascinated by people.”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets

“Today, people just want to live their lives, they don’t need some great Idea. This is entirely new for Russia; it’s unprecedented in Russian literature. At heart, we’re built for war. We were always either fighting or preparing to fight. We’ve never known anything else—hence our wartime psychology. Even in civilian life, everything was always militarized. The drums were beating, the banners flying, our hearts leaping out of our chests. People didn’t recognize their own slavery—they even liked being slaves. I”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets

“The strongest and most aggressive started doing business. We forgot all about Lenin and Stalin. And that’s what saved us from another civil war with Reds on the one side and Whites on the other. Friends and foes. Instead of blood, there was all this new stuff�� Life! We chose the beautiful life. No one wanted to die beautifully anymore, everyone wanted to live beautifully instead. The only problem was that there wasn’t really enough to go around��”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Second-hand Time

“More often, people were irritated with freedom. “I buy three newspapers and each one of them has its own version of the truth. Where’s the real truth? You used to be able to get up in the morning, read Pravda, and know all you needed to know, understand everything you needed to understand.�� People were slow to come out from under the narcosis of old ideas. If I brought up repentance, the response would be, “What do I have to repent for?�� Everyone thought of themselves as a victim, never a willing accomplice. One person would say, “I did time, too��; another, “I fought in the war��; a third, “I built my city up from the ruins, hauling bricks day and night.�� Freedom had materialized out of thin air: Everyone was intoxicated by it, but no one had really been prepared. Where was this freedom? Only around kitchen tables, where out of habit people continued to badmouth the government. They reviled Yeltsin and Gorbachev: Yeltsin for changing Russia, and Gorbachev for changing everything. The entire twentieth century. Now we would live no worse than anyone else. We’d be just like everyone else. We thought that this time, we’d finally get it right. Russia was changing and hating itself for changing. “The immobile Mongol,�� Marx wrote of Russia.”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets

“Why didn't we put Stalin on trial? I'll tell you why...In order to condemn Stalin, you'd have to condemn your friends and relatives along with him. The people closest to you...our neighbor Yuri turned out to have been the one who informed on my father. For nothing, as my mother would say...When Yeltsin came to power, I got a copy of his file, which included several informants' reports. It turned out that one of them had been written by Aunt Olga...his niece...a beautiful woman, full of joy...It's not just Stalin and Beria, it's also our neighbor Yuri and beautiful Aunt Olga...”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Czasy secondhand. Koniec czerwonego człowieka

“There is no more pressing or torturous task for man, having found himself free, than to seek out someone to bow down to as soon as he can…someone on whom to bestow that gift of freedom with which this unhappy creature was born��”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets

“So...Well...Life went by...The only thing money can't buy is time. Weep before God or not, you can't buy it. That's just the way it is.”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Czasy secondhand. Koniec czerwonego człowieka

“Witnesses can be manipulated, too. They’re not robots. They are manipulated by television, newspapers, friends, corporate interests…Who has the real truth? As far as I understand, the truth is something that’s sought out by specially trained experts: judges, scholars, priests. Everyone else is ruled by ambition and emotions. [A pause.] I’ve read your books…You shouldn’t put so much stock in what people say, in human truth…History records the lives of ideas. People don’t write it, time does. Human truth is just a nail that everybody hangs their hats on.”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets

“При немците заживяхме по-добре, отколкото при съветската власт.”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Czasy secondhand. Koniec czerwonego człowieka

“Устройвахме комсомолски сватби. Без свещи и без венци. Без попове. Вместо икони �� портрети на Ленин и Маркс. Годеницата ми имаше дълга коса, а за сватбата я подстрига късо. Презирахме красотата. Разбира се, това беше грешка. Както се оказва, отиване в крайност�� […] Когато ни се роди син, го кръстихме Октомври. В чест на десетата годишнина от Великия октомври.”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Czasy secondhand. Koniec czerwonego człowieka