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End of the line. This statue occupies a nondescript spot on the train platform in Vladkvostok. But the number is signific-
ant: 9288, the number of kilometers traveled from Moscow, where there's a statue marking the zero-kilometer mark. In
between, gallons of tea and dozens of boxes of instant noodles consumed, new friendships formed, and a vast country bet-
ter understood. (
David Gilkey/NPR
)
Sergei and Liubov Klyukin lost their son at age twenty-one when a plane carrying Yaroslavl's pro hockey team went
down in a fiery crash. The couple built a shrine to their son in his bedroom. “There is this belief in our country that
tragedy is a test for people who are supposed to be strong,” the mother told me. “And Sergei and I are strong. That is why
we will get through this.”
This stone, easy to miss fifty yards off a small road in the city of Rybinsk (outside of Yaroslavl), honors those who died in
a Soviet gulag here. The fresher bouquet sitting in the snow had six roses—notable because in Russia an even number of
flowers is given to people who are still grieving.
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