A hundred years ago, Marina Tsvetaeva moved to the attic of Mr. Saska's house in the village of Mokropsy near Prague. In this modest room with a small diamond-shaped window, she spent a month and a half of her emigrant life. The attic, unsuitable for comfortable living, became the second permanent address of the famous Russian poet in Czechia.

Initially, Tsvetaeva lived in a forester's cottage in the neighboring village of Chernolice, three kilometers from the nearest train station, which she had to walk uphill to reach. At the first opportunity, she moved closer with her family. The exact date of the move to the attic is unknown, but by September 23, 1922, she was already living there. The poet's ten-year-old daughter, Ariadne, described the move in her diary: "We are loading things into the cart that the owner will carry, and we are happy that we are not carrying them ourselves. I put on my coat, stuff some coins in my pockets so they won't be left for the owners, we say goodbye and leave."

The owner carried the cart, while Marina with a lamp and alcohol for the primus, and Ariadne with kerosene and a coffee pot walked alongside. They reached the shop with the owner's name "Marianna Saskova," turned towards the back entrance, and the owners helped carry the things upstairs. The room was dark, with a slanted window, two tables, two beds, and three chairs.

On the first floor of the house was the shop of Mrs. Saskova, the only one in the village. On the second floor lived the owners and Alexandra Zakharovna Turzhanskaya with her son Oleg, the former wife of the famous director Viktor Turzhansky, who became a close friend of Tsvetaeva. The uninhabited attic was given to Marina Ivanovna's family. From the window, one could see the local church and the hills.

Ariadne wrote in her diary: "Now we live here. Marina lets the sun and moon in through the window. She sits and writes, unless she is at the primus. From the window, colorful trees on the hill are visible. There are two cats living there, a black one and a gray one, which are impossible to catch."

In this attic, Marina Tsvetaeva celebrated her 30th birthday and wrote two poems from the cycle "Factory Poems," the first dedicated to Prague. Ten days after moving in, she created the poem "Save Lord, Smoke!" reflecting her emigrant experiences:

Save Lord, smoke!, Smoke, God with it! But the main thing is dampness!

With the same fear with which

One moves from an apartment:

With that same lamp, right to the point, A lamp of poverty, student life, outskirts.

If only a little tree for the children!, And what kind of owner is there?

And is that neighbor too strict?

The one in beads, in coins, in mists,

Unyielding as fate

Before the cramping of pockets.

And what kind of neighbor is there?

It would be good if he were single, but quieter!

There is no sweetness in that old house, and we have breathed it in

The house, soaked through!

The smell of our mustiness! Like with cotton

In the ear, it has sung, it has merged!

Not strangers: captured by our own!

Old is old, rotten is rotten,

But still dear… And here: the numbers, after all!

How they are born into the world

I do not know: but this is how they die.

September 30, 1922

In the draft of the poem, there was a stanza about the staircase to the attic of Mr. Saska's house:

Sticking out my chest

(Arch of distinctions of such a year…)

It would be good to slip

Quietly through the back entrance!