(5 of 5)
How did I earn the food to eat? I did some odd jobs here and there, like unloading coal. I prepared an army colonel for his entrance exam in math to an institute of higher learning, and he gave me some money. Later I lived in a barracks for ten years. A shed with one corridor and rooms on either side, 20 rooms and five of us in one room, not to mention the goat that slept next to us. When someone turned on the record player in the end room ((Yeltsin interrupts himself to break into verses from an old civil-war song)), the whole barracks started singing. So there has been a whole variety of different experiences in my life, unusual ones. That's without mentioning that I played in the top volleyball league for Sverdlovsk for five years. I am still keen on sports, but now I play tennis.
Q. Do you play well?
A. I can't say I do. I am no longer 20, but I could play with you.