It is only through luck that I am able to find Maxim. He has no fixed address, no one place where I can get in touch with him. I call the communal apartment where his parents and sisters live, but the man who answers is not a relative and is rather unfriendly. He tells me that the family is not there and will not be back for weeks. I have the telephone number of Maxim's grandmother, which he. gave me three years ago, but nobody answers when I call. Finally, I run into a young man who knows Maxim, and although he has not seen him in a long time, he assures me that he will find him. Rumor has it, this young man tells me, that Maxim no longer lives with his grandmother and has moved in with a "jriend"-he uses the feminine noun ending deliberately, and smiles.