The empty lots between Charkow's Saxonian barracks are like bare ribs that suggest the ancient presence of flesh. The blank spots are the spots the Germans didn't bother to stitch up after the war ended. They were culture houses, theaters, and schools, care homes, bars, and narrow parks. They are shortcuts on the way to work now.

But the Charkow Tractor Plant, now rebuilt, is still the cornerstone of the city's economy. The Reichskommissariat needs tractors, trucks, rollers, subsoilers, swathers, and combine harvesters to trim and renew the wan yellow flatness. Charkow machines are in almost every farm in the Reichskommissariat, but most of the harvest is sent west to Germany. In Rostow, rake-thin Ukrainians work and eat day-to-day. Time blurs. Bones ache. Days are measured on shrinking mouldboard stacks. The blocky machines the Ukrainians make serve to remind that nothing occurs in the city except by the Germans' dispensation. That is why Charkow still makes tractors, and it is why Charkow will probably still make tractors tomorrow.