“Since childhood, I’ve been willful and unbending. Otherwise, perhaps I wouldn’t have survived: if I’d been quiet and obedient, unable to protect myself, I might have been gone from this world long ago. You see, I’m from the ‘official’—from the Orphanage for Babies. And such children, until they grow up, have to endure a lot. As very small children, they send them to villages near St. Petersburg—often to the Chuhns. It’s at least good if you get a caring wet nurse, but if not—when she has her own five—when would she think about someone else’s child…”