word of the day: zek

The word of the day is zek:

Etymology:  < Russian, probably representing the pronunciation of z/k, abbrev. of zaklyuchënnyĭ prisoner. 

In Russian-speaking contexts: (originally) a person confined in a forced labour camp in the U.S.S.R. (hist.); (now) a person held in a Russian prison. (OED)

"At the same time, Snyder also asks us to extend our circles of compassion, making us see that the child dying in the gas chamber was no different from the one being starved to death in the siege of Leningrad, or that the fate of the zek in the Gulag was not very different from that of the Russian prisoner in a German lager."

 - Adam Gopnik, "Faces, places, spaces: the renaissance of geographic history", 29 October & 5 November The New Yorker

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6HDnsclThe

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6HDnscl

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6HDnscl

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6HDnscl

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6H9DRj1

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6H9DRj1

The West made history, but the East drove it. Though Europe saw itself as the pilothouse of fate, in truth it was more like a fort, which had been shaped by the constant assault of those horsemen.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/10/29/121029crat_atlarge_gopnik#ixzz2D6H9DRj1