1.   I remember going into one and coming out with a hat that made me look as if I should have been herding goats on the Russian steppes.

2.   The grown-ups, or at least many of the most powerful ones, have disappeared from this provincial capital on the arid Russian steppe.

3.   The hospital itself is surrounded by Russian soldiers and armored personnel carriers filling the side streets of this little flat town on the Russian steppe.

4.   What is the name of the humus-rich soil characteristic of the Russian steppe?