Ossip mandelstam epigramm stalin

Osip Mandelstam's epigram about Stalin is a powerful and daring piece of poetry that ultimately led to his arrest and eventual death in a Soviet labor camp. The epigram reads:

"We live without feeling the country beneath us,

our speech at ten paces inaudible,

and where there are enough for half a conversation

the name of the Kremlin mountaineer is dropped.

His thick fingers are fat like worms,

and his words certain as pound weights.

His cockroach whiskers laugh,

and the tops of his boots shine."

This poem is a scathing critique of Stalin's oppressive regime and the fear and censorship that permeated Soviet society at the time. Mandelstam's boldness in speaking out against Stalin ultimately cost him his freedom and his life, but his words continue to resonate as a powerful testament to the importance of free expression and the dangers of authoritarianism.