“No annexations and no reparations”

Markel’s phrase, “no annexations and no reparations,” turns a public formula for peace into a bitterly comic description of everyday collapse. As he welcomes Yurii Andreievich home, he lists the streets left unswept, roofs unrepaired, houses unpainted, and people hungry; the slogan’s promise of peace becomes an ironic measure of how little peace has improved ordinary life.

Context and Use

The phrase appears in Markel’s account of what happened while Yurii Andreievich was away at the front. Markel says that the household and its surroundings were not idle, but his catalogue of neglected streets, damaged buildings, and empty bellies reveals not productive change but disorder. His reference to Lent makes hunger vivid through the image of a season of fasting.

Political Language and Irony

Markel presents the phrase as something people say, attaching the grand promise of “no annexations and no reparations” to conditions far removed from diplomatic settlement. The contrast makes the slogan sound hollow: an end to territorial seizures and imposed payments has not meant repaired roofs, clean streets, or full stomachs. Political language enters the scene not as an explanation of events but as a pointed, ironic shorthand for the gap between public promises and lived hardship.

Place in the Reunion Scene

The line is part of Markel’s exuberant welcome to Yurii Andreievich, whom he greets as a returned member of the household. Its comic phrasing gives the reunion warmth without disguising the damage of the intervening years. Markel’s speech also draws a sharp distinction between his own caustic wit and the other speaker’s suggestion that he performs foolishness to please the doctor: the slogan is both a joke and a compressed report of material deprivation.