photo of Moscow Rizhsky railway station (now the Riga railway station)

From which Sorokin and his wife left for Riga, Latvia; Prague; and overseas:

On a gray afternoon September 23 1922 the first group of exiles gathered at the Moscow railway station. I carried our two valises into the Lettish diplomatic car. “Omnia mea mecum porto” I could say of myself. In a pair of shoes sent me by a Czech scientist a suit donated by the American Relief Administration and with fifty rubles in my pocket I left my native land. All my companions were in a similar plight but none of us worried very much. In spite of prohibitions of the authorities many friends and acquaintances came to see us off with gifts of flowers handclasps and tears. We all devoured with our eyes their faces the disappearing streets of Moscow the last glimpse of the fatherland.

Next day we reached Sebage the boundary line of Russia. Half an hour later we passed a Red flag-and Soviet Russia was behind us. That night after five years we lay down to sleep without asking ourselves the question ‘Will they come tonight or not?”

— A Long Journey: The Autobiography of Pitirim A. Sorokin, pg. 196

— posted by Roger W. Smith

July 2022

Photo courtesy my good friend and fellow scholar Yuri Doykov

Author: Roger W. Smith

Roger W. Smith is a writer and independent scholar based in New York City. His experience includes freelance writing and editing, business writing, book reviewing, and the teaching of writing and literature as an adjunct professor at St. John’s University. Mr. Smith's interests include personal essays and opinion pieces; American and world literature; culture, especially books and reading; classical music; current issues that involve social, moral, and philosophical views; and experiences of daily living from a ground level perspective. Sites on WordPress hosted by Mr. Smith include: (1) rogersgleanings.com (a personal site comprised of essays on a wide range of topics) ; (2) rogers-rhetoric.com (covering principles and practices of writing); (3) roger-w-smiths-dreiser.site (devoted to the author Theodore Dreiser); and (4) pitirimsorokin.com (devoted to sociologist and social philosopher Pitirim A. Sorokin). View all posts by Roger W. Smith