In bewilderment I watched the behaviour of those minors. Even thought I didn't fully understand the mumming of the twosomes I heard their dialogues. Their balderdash repelled, their cynicism appalled! Before, I had seen two types of woman «criminals». The first stole a thousandth part of bread they were giving to the state. They picked up a crumble that fell from the table of power taking everything - bread, labour, health, husbands - away from them. They were stamped with the shameful word «thief». The other category were «political offenders», those who had dared to express their disaffection or objection with word, deed or thought. But my God, where do those filthy children corrupt to fingertips come from?
While I was racking my brains over the question the answer came of itself. At first, one of the novice minors frightenedly crowding near the wall on the third tier of plank-beds detached from the wall and timidly scrambled to the edge. The second and the third followed her... Their widely open eyes and mouths showed curiosity and the manner in which they covered their mouths with the palms, strained their cheeks in the hands and whooed displayed fright but at the same time admiration and envy. Children, all of them, are kind and trustful by nature. The problem is they cannot by themselves distinguish the good from the evil. They should be educated. Well, the education of minor delinquents has already started...
Christ used to say, «Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.» But he didn't expect too many millstones would be needed...
The minors, zuchkas (young female thieves), butches... Those abnormities are a brood of cesspool, or prison camps.