"The Endless Steppe", by Esther Hautzig Quiz

Answer: Vilna

Esther and the Rudomin family live in Vilna, in northeastern Poland. (Today it is called Vilnius and is part of Lithuania.) Her family is wealthy and they have a beautiful house and garden.

Answer: family photo album

Esther packs a family photo album in her suitcase, but her mother takes it out to make room for more clothes. Esther begs her to take it, but her mother whispers to her that someone might start asking questions about the people in the photographs.

Answer: Esther's grandfather, Solomon

When the names are called out, Esther, her parents, and her grandmother (Anna) are told to board the first train. Esther's grandfather, Solomon, is told to board the second train. Anna screams and pleads with the soldier to let her go with him, but he tells her to shut up and continues reading names.

Much later in the book, we learn that Solomon was taken to a work camp and died there.

Answer: a gypsum mine

After getting off the train, the Polish deportees are forced to walk over a mile in the hot sun. Several old people faint. Once in town, Esther and her family are taken to a gypsum mine by Comrade Popravka. Esther's grandmother is first assigned to the collective farm, but she begs to stay with the family and is sent to the gypsum mine with them.

Gypsum is "a grayish-white powder that is used to make plaster casts for wounded soldiers." The mining is hard work and takes its toll on the health of the family. Luckily Esther and the other young children are sent to work on the mine's potato farm during the day, which is easier work than mining.

Answer: She is jealous of Esther's long hair.

Esther is seated next to Svetlana, a "very pretty girl with short blond curly hair and eyes the special blue of northern countries." Svetlana is her study partner and has been told to share her books with Esther, but she rebuffs Esther's overtures of friendship.

At first Esther assumes that Svetlana is a snob, but she notices that Svetlana doesn't treat the other poor kids as badly as she does Esther.

Finally, she finds out from another girl that Svetlana is jealous of Esther's long braids, so she begs her mother to let her cut her hair. Her mother eventually relents and cuts her hair, and Svetlana invites her over to her house the very same day.

Answer: The sweater has to be remade because Marya has gotten fat.

After months of hard work (including washing the skirt, unraveling it, tying all the small pieces of yarn together, knitting the sweater, and painstakingly pulling all the knots onto the inside, Esther finally finishes the sweater. She is looking forward to some milk from the woman's "good cow" as payment.

However, when Marya tries on the sweater, it no longer fits her because she has gained several pounds. She tells Esther, with a hint of malice, that the cow is indeed a good cow, because she has gotten fat from her milk!

Poor Esther will have to unravel the sweater and start all over again! We never do find out what happens after that, but it's assumed that Esther completes it.

Answer: "Eugene Onegin" by Pushkin

Esther's teacher, Raisa Nikitovna, announces the declamation contest. The readings have to be chosen off a list which includes odes to Stalin, soldiers, and the Russian people, poems about the Stakhanov workers, and at the bottom of the list, "Eugene Onegin" by Pushkin.

Esther asks to read Tatyanna's dream from "Onegin". Raisa does not like her, and does not like the idea of a poor Polish Jewish girl participating in the contest. She makes a sarcastic comment to Esther, telling her that there are no prizes (implying that Jewish people are only interested in money).

Esther spends a great deal of time practicing: she recites the poem over and over to her mother, her grandmother, and anyone who will listen.

On the day of the contest, she walks into town in her old dress and sweater and is the first one to arrive. Raisa pretends that she can't find Esther's name on the list, and then tells her that she can not participate because she is barefoot.

Esther runs home, grabs her mother's slippers which are too big for her, some string to tie them on with, and runs back into town - dusty, sweaty and bedraggled.

She is the last one to recite, and she is so tired and upset that she gives a horribly wooden reading and loses the contest. But she feels that perhaps she has earned some grudging respect from Raisa.

Answer: rolling paper for cigarettes

The peasants who approach Esther ask to hold the book and feel the pages with their fingers. Esther knows that a lot of the peasants can't read, but she naively assumes that they have a child at home who will read to them. One day she finds out the truth from an old man, who tells her that he and the others are buying the books for smoking!

The peasants are only interested in the books so that they can rip the pages out and roll tobacco in them for cigarettes! Esther angrily doubles the price of the book and runs home clutching it. Esther's mother says, "I hope the war ends before people smoke up their libraries."

Answer: becomes editor of the student newspaper

Yuri is the handsomest boy in school and comes from a wealthy family. Esther somehow gets the idea that she will get to know him better if she gets involved with the school newspaper. She gets elected as editor, but then discovers that Yuri has no interest in writing and is more of a math and science person.

She does try to borrow a ball gown from a theater company that has just produced Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard", but they laugh at her and turn down her request. She borrows a dress from Anya to attend the ball with Shurik, a boy who likes her. At the ball, she is dismayed to see Yuri's rich girlfriend wearing a beautiful ballgown that was borrowed from the same theater company!

Esther does enter the declamation contest, but not to impress Yuri. She knits sweaters for money; not as favors.

Answer: sapogy and fufaika

On March 1, 1946, Esther's family receives word that they may return to Poland on the 15th. Esther is very disappointed because she is going to miss the second declamation contest by three days!

Nevertheless, she goes out to buy her coveted sapogy (boots) and fufaika (quilted jacket), which she has been dreaming about ever since she arrived in Siberia. The sapogy are black, soft and shiny; the fufaika is green.

The train journey takes weeks, but they finally arrive in Vilna and Esther's father meets them at the train station. Esther is wearing her brand-new sapogy and fufaika. He takes one look at her outfit and says they must get her new clothing. The clothes that were so stylish in Siberia are out of fashion in Vilna!