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For my next journey I boarded a ship named the Mekhanik Dren. This was a bulk carrier, and we set off from Odessa to Canada in order to take on grain there. Imagine, Russia had to import grain – pure madness! One could not have imagined such a situation even in one’s worst nightmares. Across the country, patients with gastrointestinal diseases were entitled to one white loaf every three days, but only with a doctor’s prescription. If we did not deliver our grain, then many people would go hungry, their bellies would be empty. Bread does not come to the belly, the belly has to go looking for bread. If there was not enough grain in Russia to feed the Russians, then the Russians would have to go looking for grain, however far away that might take them. Thus we were obliged to travel overs
