Chapter 22 22. Sergeant Prishibeyev
"Sergeant Prishibeyev! You are accused of assaulting the county policeman Zhijin, the village chief Aliapov, the village policeman Yefimov, and the witness Ivano on September 3 this year. Gavrilov and Gavrilov, and six other peasants, and the first three were insulted in the course of official duties. Do you admit your guilt?"
Prishibeyev, a retired sergeant with wrinkles and thorns on his face, stood at attention with his hands on his trouser seams, spoke a hoarse and low voice, and bit out every word when he answered, as if issuing an order: "Sir, mediate Mr. Judge! Of course, by the terms of the law, the court has reason to require both parties to state the circumstances. It is not I who is guilty, but those other people. The whole incident was caused by a dead body-may his soul ascend! Three On that day, my wife, An Feisha, and I walked quietly and well-behaved, and saw that there were a lot of people of all kinds gathered on the bank of the river. I would like to ask: what right do ordinary people have to gather in this place? What purpose? Is it written in the law that ordinary people can walk in groups? I shouted: Spread out! I began to push the crowd away, asking them to go home, and ordered the village police to grab them by the neck and arrest them. Boom away..."
"I'm sorry, you must know that you are neither the policeman of the county nor the village head, so can you manage things like dispersing the crowd?"
"He's out of it, out of his mind!" shouted the people from all corners of the interrogation room in unison. "He's a mess, my lord! We've put up with him for fifteen years! Ever since he returned home from the army, since then It made people want to run away from the village. He made everyone suffer!"
"That's right, my lord!" the mayor testified. "The whole village is complaining. It's impossible to live with him! Go to church with an icon, have a wedding, or, let's say, go out." What an accident, he is everywhere, shouting and making noise, he has to maintain order. He pulls the young man's ears, follows and monitors the women, for fear that something will happen to them, he looks like their old father-in-law... A few days ago, he went from house to house to order that no singing was allowed, and no lamps were allowed to be lit. He said that there was no law that allowed singing.”
"Wait a moment, please, and you will give your testimony later," the conciliation judge interrupted his work. "Now, let Prishbeyev continue his statement. Speak, Prishbeyev!"
"Yes, sir," said the sergeant in a hoarse voice, "you, sir, just said that it is none of my business to disperse the crowd... Well, sir... But what if the people make trouble? Can the villagers be allowed to run amok? Is it? Which code says that the people can be indulged and allowed to do what they want? I won't allow it, sir. If I didn't break up the crowd and show them a little bit of power, who would stand up? No one Understand the current rules and regulations, so to speak, sir, I am the only one in the village who knows how to deal with ordinary people, and, sir, I can understand everything. I am not a farmer, I am a sergeant officer, a retired military loser I served as a ration officer in Warsaw, and I was still at the headquarters, sir. In the future, please note that I was officially discharged from the army and became a firefighter, sir. Later, due to illness and weakness, I left the fire brigade. Two years as a gatekeeper at a classical boys' junior high school... I know all the rules and regulations, sir. But peasants are rough people who don't understand anything, so they should listen to me, because—that's for their own good too. Let's take this incident as an example... I drove away the crowd, but there was a dead body that was picked up and lying on the sandy shore. I would like to ask: For what reason, the body is lying in this place? Is this normal? What do the police do? I said: Why didn't the police in your county report this to their superiors? Maybe the drowned man committed suicide by drowning himself, but maybe there was something Siberian about the case: maybe it was a criminal case Murder... But the county policeman Rijin didn't care, he just smoked his cigarette. He also said: "Who is this man, why did he come here to criticize him? Who is he here from you? It seems that we have left him I don’t know what to do.” I said, “Since you just stand there and don’t ask questions, you are a fool and don’t know what to do.” He said, “I reported this to the county yesterday. Chief of Police.' I ask: Why report to the Chief of Police? According to which code? When it comes to such cases, such as drowning, hanging, or the like, is it the responsibility of the Chief of Police? I said , this is a criminal case, a civil case... I said, right now I have to send someone to report to the investigator and the judges. I also said that the first step is to write a report and send it to the mediating judge. But he, this county Policeman, just listen and laugh. So did the peasants. Everyone laughed, sir. I swear to God, I was right. Here, this man laughed, that man laughed, and Rikin laughed too. I said, what are you all grinning at, but the county policeman said, 'This kind of case is out of the hands of the mediating judge.' I lost my temper when I heard that. County policeman, is that what you said?" The sergeant turned around. Ask the county police.
"I said so."
"Everybody heard it, that's what you said in front of the crowd: 'These kinds of cases are out of the hands of the mediating judge.' Everybody heard it, that's what you said... I was furious, sir, I was even scared. I said, 'Say it again, bastard, say it again!' He repeated it again... I ran up to him. I asked, 'How can you say that, Mr. Conciliation Judge? You are the county police, How to oppose the government? Ah?' And I said, 'Do you know that Mr. Conciliating Judge can send you, an unreliable element, to the provincial gendarmerie if he wants to! Do you know? With your political Where can the sex speech mediation judge send you?' But the village chief said: "The mediation judge can't do anything beyond his authority. He can only take care of small things." That's what he said, everyone heard . . . I said: 'How dare you despise the government? Hey, don't you joke with me, or else, boy, things won't go well!' I thought I was an errand in Warsaw, a doorman in a boys' high school. That Sometimes, whenever I heard such indecent remarks, I would look up the street for a gendarme. 'Boss,' I yelled, 'Come here!' And I told him all about it. Now in Who are you talking to in the countryside? I am very angry. When I think of the people today who are so presumptuous, they can do whatever they want, and they don’t obey orders. Yes, just hit him lightly so that he won't dare to speak ill of your chief next time... The county police came out to protect the village chief. So I even the county police... one after another... ...I got a whim, sir, hey, you have to know that you can't do otherwise. If you see a fool and don't beat him, then you have no conscience. What's more, when you encounter a murder case...the people make trouble..."
"No! Even if the people make trouble, someone will take care of it. In this regard, there are the county police, the village head, and the village police..."
"The county police can't take care of everything. Besides, the county police don't understand many things better than me..."
"But you have to know, it's none of your business!"
"What, sir? Why is this none of my business? Strange, sir... It's none of my business if someone does something wrong! Do you want me to praise them? They complained to you just now, saying that I forbid singing... this singing What's the good? They know how to sing when they're not doing their business... It's still the fashion these days to sit around with a light on at night. When it's time to go to bed, they gossip and laugh. I've got it all down, sir! "
"What did you write down?"
"Who are sitting around with lamps on?"
After finishing speaking, Prishibeyev took out a piece of greasy paper from his pocket, put on his glasses, and read: The peasants who sat around with the lamps included: Ivan Prokhorov, Sava Miki Forov, Petrov.The soldier's widow, Shustrova, was in private with Semyonov Kislov.Ignat Sverchok practiced sorcery, and his wife Mavera was a witch, who ran out every night to milk other people's milk.
"Enough!" said the judge and began to question the witnesses.
Pushing his spectacles up to his forehead, Prishbeyev looked in amazement at the conciliation judge, who was clearly not on his side.His wide eyes sparkled and his nose became red.He looked at the mediation judge and the witnesses, but he couldn't figure out why there were dissatisfied complaints and suppressed laughter from every corner of the interrogation room.He even couldn't figure out what the final sentence was: one month's imprisonment.
"What crime?" he asked, spreading his hands in bewilderment. "Which royal law have I committed?"
But one thing he knew was that the world had changed and it became impossible to live.Dark, depressing thoughts haunted him.However, when he walked out of the interrogation room and saw a group of villagers gathering to discuss something, his old habit was hard to change, and he couldn't help standing at attention with his hands on the seam of his trousers, and shouted angrily in a hoarse voice: "Common people, spread out!" !No parties! Go home!"
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