In his telling the story, the author uses geographical and given names that have meaning, which he sometimes explores in his vivid descriptions. To simply translate the proper names, would have taken away from the story's historic and cultural significance, while a transliteration, by itself, would have left an English language reader wondering what he or she is missing. In the present translation, I have chosen to use transliterated proper names throughout the text. Some proper names have no obvious meanings in modern Russian, and are therefore not so explained. Much of the story is written in passive voice.
Some sentences are painfully long and appear to be run-on.
The author often uses colloquialisms, changes tense, style, interrupts himself taking a detour or changes a voice in which the story is being told, at times in the middle of a sentence. This adds character to the story, and is therefore an integral part of it. I hope that you find this translation flavorful, yet readable. Sincerely, Evgeny Jake Berzon. Some will say, that this is a coincidence, others will see a symbol here, but everything happened just like this.