Russian bath

About halfway through “Flash Count Diary: Menopause and the Vindication of Natural Life,” the American novelist Darcey Steinke describes lying down for a massage at a Russian bath house in Paris and coming to an exceedingly belated realization: “I was in a place where women took money for sex.”

“The best traditional banya, or Russian bath, is arguably Sanduny,” Mr. Kryuchkov told me.

Hence, there is an element of danger in the Russian bath—a danger to sudden death similar to sunstroke.

Epstein came to the bath-house with a party of friends at 2 A. M., in quest of a Russian bath.

Inside, mats were placed against the broken windows, the walls were rough logs, the floor of mud, with pigs and children disputing its possession, and the master and mistress stood in special need of the purifying influence of a Russian bath.