Moscow Impressions

A sentry watches two Japanese women enter a Moscow hotel. A maid describes her failing lungs while working embroidery beside the stairs. At Easter, the churches fill with candles while young Communists dance beneath antireligious decorations.

Miyamoto Yuriko’s 1928 account follows the texture of ordinary Soviet life: crowded rooms, street vendors, newspaper readers, shortages, lectures, a cooperative apartment, and a spring book fair. Her fascination with Russia is inseparable from questions about its history, its new institutions, and the immense difficulties of transformation. A child’s question about welcoming a foreign king brings political contradiction directly into the home.

This new English translation presents the complete supplied essay, including its postscript, concluding date, notices of suppressed passages, and the author’s later explanation. Thirty-nine concise notes identify cultural and literary references, explain Russian expressions, and distinguish reported claims from historical discrepancies. The result preserves both the vivid street scenes and the force of Yuriko’s personal, argumentative voice.