A long way from the gulag and Siberia, one of the escapees from Slavomir Rawicz’s group, impressed by the hospitality of the Mongols and Tibetans, reflects that “these people make me feel very humble. They do a lot to wipe out bitter memories of other people who have lost their respect for humanity”. And really, it is hard to imagine how it is possible that filthy, ragged foreigners, with the ghastly appearance of those who have crossed Siberia and the Gobi Desert on foot, grunting strange phonemes in an unknown language, could, as a rule, have been welcomed by peasants as brothers. The East really is special… And although they have also not escaped corruption and evil, the Orientals have never failed to point out the qualities that distinguish them from other animals.