Chapter 11 Chapter 6 That Spring-2

The battalions of the disbanded Oscintorf's troops also met the fate of going to the partisans or being thrown into the Western Front.In 1943, the "Russian Liberation Army Guards Brigade" of several hundred people was stationed on the outskirts of Pskov (in Stremutka). They had contacts with the Russian population of the suburbs, but the German military prevented them from expanding. The poor tabloids of the Volunteer Army are processed through the ax of the German censorship.The Vlasovites were left to fight desperately, drinking bottle after bottle of vodka in their free time.Fate--that's how they've been throughout the years of war and exile in a foreign land, with no other way out.

Already in retreat everywhere, already on the eve of doom, Hitler and those around him still failed to overcome their stubborn distrust of the independent Russian establishment, and did not dare to allow the shadow of an independent Russia not subordinate to them .Only in the sound of the collapse of the last stage fire, in September 1944, Himmler agreed to form a POA consisting of a complete Russian division-the Russian Liberation Army, and even included a small air force. In November of the fourth year, the last play was approved: the "Committee for the Liberation of the Russian Nationalities" was called.It was only since the autumn of 1944 that General Vlasov had a plausible opportunity for action—an opportunity that was clearly too late.The principle of federalism failed to draw many people in: Bandera, who was released from prison by the Germans (also in 1944), avoided an alliance with Vlasov; regarded as Russian imperialists, unwilling to fall under his control; General Krasnov expressed his refusal on behalf of the Cossacks—it was only ten days before the end of the whole of Germany that Himmler agreed to transfer the Cossack regiments to Vladivostok. Rasoff directs.The Nazi leadership was already in disarray: some commanders allowed the assembly of Russian volunteer troops into the Russian Liberation Army, while others blocked it.In fact, it is very difficult for every such unit that is fighting to be drawn from the front line. Even if they are willing to participate in the "Oriental Workers" of the Russian Liberation Army, it is not easy to draw them out of the labor positions in the rear.The Germans did not rush to release prisoners of war for Vlasov's army, and did the work of releasing them-their machines were not working well.By February 1945, the first division of the Russian Liberation Army (half of whom were from the Lokotsy district) was finally formed, and the formation of the second division began.It was too late to imagine that these divisions would be able to fight in unison with Germany; the long-buried hopes in the Vlasov leadership of a conflict between the Soviet Union and the Allies were now aroused.This is also pointed out in the report of the German Ministry of Propaganda (February 1945): "The Vlasov movement does not believe that it has a life-and-death relationship with Germany. ideas. The movement is not National Socialist, and in general they do not recognize the Jewish question."

This attitude of sitting on the fence was also reflected in the declaration of the "Russian National Liberation Committees" issued in Prague on November 14, 1944 (this is for the sake of the Slavic lands).It is unavoidable to say that "the imperialist forces headed by the British and American oligarchs, the imperialist forces headed by the British and American oligarchs whose great strength is based on the exploitation of other countries and nations" and "they use the slogan of defending democracy, culture and civilization to cover up their criminal purpose" -- but none of the direct flattery of National Socialism, anti-Semitism, or Greater Germanicism, just referring to all the enemies of the Allies as "peace-loving peoples" and welcoming "Germany help on condition that the honor and independence of our motherland are not affected." And looking forward to a "glorious peace" with Germany--whatever it may be, but certainly no worse than the Brest Peace Treaty--it It is higher than the Brest Peace Treaty in terms of status, but it should still be revised according to the All-European Peace Treaty.In the manifesto, he also vigorously declared that he was a democrat and a federalist (guaranteeing the freedom of national separation), and the little claws of the quasi-Soviet social thought that was not mature at all at that time and did not have self-confidence crawled carefully between the lines: What about the "old tsarist system", what about the economic and cultural backwardness of old Russia, what about the "people's revolution of 1917", etc... Only anti-Bolshevism is thorough.

All this was celebrated on a small scale in Prague, attended by representatives of the "Protectorate of Bohemia", that is, third-class German officials.I heard the manifesto and the accompanying program on the radio at the front—the whole impression: an ill-timed doomed drama.This manifesto has attracted no attention at all in the Western world, and has not increased a sliver of understanding-but it has a great effect among the "Oriental Workers": I heard that applications for joining the Russian Liberation Army are pouring in like snowflakes (Sven Sternberg The article says 300,000 copies) -- these were the hopeless months of Germany's apparent collapse, and these unfortunate outcast Soviets could only count on the strength of their loathing of Bolshevism to survive Resist the overwhelming Red Army.

What plans could this forming army have?It seems to be: rush into Yugoslavia, join forces with the Cossacks, Russian troops and Mikhailovich there, and defend Yugoslavia from communism.But first: would the German command have been able to successfully form a separate Russian army behind them in their most difficult months?They dragged these troops to the Eastern Front without haste - now an anti-tank detachment (I. Sakharov-Lansdorf) to Pomerania, now the entire 1st Division to the Oder --How about Vlasov?Hand over obediently one at a time, once the concession line is adopted, this becomes the general rule, although handing over the only division at present makes the whole army building plan meaningless.There was always an argument to help: "The Germans don't trust us. Once the 1st Division convinces them with their achievements, the formation of the Russian Liberation Army will speed up." But the progress was poor.The second division and a reserve brigade, with a total of 20,000 people, until May 1945 were still a group of unarmed people-not only had no artillery, but almost no infantry weapons, and even clothing could not be provided.The 1st Division (16,000 men) was used in a hopeless, fatal operation, and it was only the general collapse of Germany that allowed Division Commander Bunjachenko to withdraw it from the front and break through the resistance of the generals Pull the team into the Czech Republic. (Soviet prisoners of war were liberated along the way, and those people also participated-"Russians want to be together".) Arrived in the outskirts of Prague in early May.At this time, the Czechs who revolted in the capital on May 5 called them to come to support, and Bunyacchenko entered Prague on May 6, and saved the uprising and the city in the fierce battle on May 7.This is really a joke, in order to prove the foresight of the most unsightly Germans, the 1st Vlasov's division with its first and last independent action just happened to give ... the Germans a blow , which gave vent to all the bitter hatred and resentment against the Germans that the unfree Russians had gathered in their breasts during these three years of cruel stupor. (The Czechs greeted the Russians with flowers, they knew that in those days, but did everyone remember later, which Russians saved their city? We now think that Soviet troops liberated Prague, yes, Churchill was in no rush to supply the Praguers with arms these days as Stalin wished, the Americans slowed down their advance to allow the Soviets to take Prague, and Joseph Smurko, then leader of the Communist Party in Prague who knew nothing about the distant future Vlasovsky is yelling at the renegade Vlasovites, who only hope to be liberated from the Soviets.)

In the past few weeks Vlasov has not acted like a commander in chief, but has been in a state of confusion and helplessness.He did not command the 1st Division in the Battle of Prague, leaving the 2nd Division and some scattered troops at a loss, and no one could find the troops scheduled to join the Cossacks in the fast passing time.Vlasov just consistently refused to escape alone (waiting for a plane to Spain), seemingly in a paralyzed state.His only active activity in the last few weeks was to send secret deputies to seek contacts with the Anglo-Americans.Other members of the command are doing the same.

For the Vlasovites, their long hang in the German noose took on a new meaning, and that is now, at the last moment, their usefulness to the Allies.Always harboring, nay, burning with the hope that the war is over and that the moment will come when the mighty Anglo-Americans will demand Stalin change domestic policy--armies from the West and the East are approaching, and they will happen to the crushed Hitler conflict! --Isn't it beneficial for the West to preserve and utilize us at this time?Don't they understand that Bolshevism is the enemy of all mankind? No, they don't quite understand!Oh, the dementia of Western democracy!What?You say you are political opponents?Is there any opposition in your country?Why was it never publicly announced?If you are satisfied with Stalin, then you go back to your country and elect him in the first general election. This is the right way.Why take up arms, and they are German weapons?No, it is our duty now to hand you over, it would be dishonorable and would ruin relations with our heroic allies.

Defending our freedom and keeping it for ourselves in WW2 drove us (and Eastern Europe) into the abyss of slavery twice as deep. Vlasov's last attempt was to issue a statement that the leader of the Russian Liberation Army was ready to stand trial in an international court, but extraditing the army to the Soviet authorities to face certain death would be as contrary to international law as extraditing members of the opposition movement ---No one heard these squeaks, and most of the American military officials heard that there were some Russians, not Soviets, and were even surprised, and handed them over according to the Soviet attributes. It's a natural thing.

The Russian Liberation Army did not simply surrender to the U.S. military, but also begged for their surrender, as long as they promised not to extradite to the Soviet Union.Middle-ranking U.S. military officers who don't understand big politics sometimes naively agree to them. (All these promises were later broken, and the prisoners were duped.) But the entire 1st Division (Pearson, May 11) and nearly the entire 2nd Division were turned away by force by the Americans: Denied Capture them and refuse to let them into their occupied areas: In Yalta Churchill and Roosevelt signed an agreement that all Soviet citizens, especially prisoners of war, must be repatriated. The agreement did not mention whether the repatriation was voluntary or forced, because what else on earth place, what kind of motherland is its sons and daughters.Unwilling to return voluntarily?The whole myopia of the West is condensed in the signature pen at Yalta.

The U.S. military was not surrendered, and the Soviet tanks were only a few kilometers away.It was left either to fight the last battle, or... Bunyachenko and Zverev (2nd Division) made the same deployment: no fight. (This is also the character of the Russians: maybe? ... After all, they are - their own people... From the stories I heard in prison, I know many such cases of rashly drunken surrender to - their own people. On May 12th, the fully armed First Division was ordered to march into the forest: "Disband!" Put on the clothes of ordinary people, tear off the rank marks, burn the documents, and shoot himself. The roundup of the Soviet army began at night. About 10,000 people were killed and captured alive, the rest stormed into the US occupation zone, but a large part of them was handed over to the Soviet army, as did the 2nd Division, the Air Force, separate detachments. Some others were in American POW camps Squatting for many months (Miandrov's group). I don't know if it's the contempt of the Americans, or hinting that they "fleeed on their own". They still starve them, kick them with their feet, and use gun butts like the Germans did before. Hit--and the guards were loose. Some fled, but a large number stayed! Is it trust in the United States? Is it believed that the Americans could not betray them? They have been condemned by Soviet propagandists, condemned by themselves, by Depressed and disintegrated, they remained to await their terrible fate, -- and then, one by one, generals, officers, soldiers, in 1945 and 1946, were handed over to the Soviet Union (On August 2, 1946, Soviet newspapers announced the verdict of the Military Department of the Supreme Court against Vlasov and his eleven cronies: hanged.) Also in May 1945, The British also completed a step loyal to their allies in Austria (which was not published in our country out of customary modesty): they extradited to the Soviet command the Cossack regiments (40,000-50,000 people) who broke out from Yugoslavia. This extradition Insidious, traditionally characteristic of British diplomacy. The situation is that the Cossacks are determined to fight to the death, or to go beyond the ocean, even to Paraguay, even to Indochina, and refuse to surrender alive. And the British offer them generous rations, issued with the best British uniforms, promised to serve in the British Army, are already being inspected. So when they asked the Cossacks to hand over their weapons under the pretext of uniform equipment, no suspicion arose. May 28 All the officers above the cavalry company commander (more than 2,000 people) were called to the city of Judenburg alone, as if to discuss the future of the troops with Field Marshal Alexander. On the way, the officers were fooled and were closely guarded (the British beat They were bloodied), and then let the convoy be surrounded by Soviet tanks step by step, and then drove into the semicircle of "crow cars" in the city of Judenburg. The escort team with the list was already standing next to the "crow cars". Most of the extradited generals were Russian expatriates who were allies of the Americans during the First World War. The British did not have time to pay them during the Civil War and are now paying their debts. The British continued to defraud ordinary soldiers in the following days He was also extradited—in a train surrounded by barbed wire. (On January 17, 1947, Soviet newspapers announced the execution of Peter Krasnov, Shkuro and several other generals by hanging .)

At the same time, a train of 35,000 people came from Italy, the "Cossack camp", and stopped in the Linz valley on the Drava River.There were Cossacks fighting there, but there were many old people, children, and women -- none of them wanted to go back to the Cossacks' native riverside.Yet the hearts of the British were not trembling, nor were their democratic reason blinded.Major Davies, the British garrison commander (whose name must now at least be written in Russian history), a man who could be soft in need and ruthless in need, after cheating the officers away, publicly declared that Forced extradition on June 1.Thousands of people answered him with a chorus of shouts: "We are not going!" Black flags appeared over the refugee camp, and uninterrupted prayers were going on in the church of the march: the living people were saying a funeral mass for themselves! ... British tanks and soldiers came.Order to get into the truck through the loudspeaker.The crowd sang the lullaby, the priests raised the cross, and the young formed a human wall around the old people, women and children.The British beat them with rifle butts and clubs, dragged people out and threw them into trucks, pocketing the wounded.The wooden platform on which the priest stood was crushed by the retreating crowd, and later the walls of the refugee camp also collapsed. People poured onto the bridge over the Drava River. British tanks blocked the road. Some Cossack families threw themselves into the river. Catch and shoot the fugitives. (The cemetery of the beaten and trampled remains in Linz.) In the same few days, the British handed over thousands of Yugoslav Communists' enemies (their allies in 1941) to the Yugoslav Communist Party - to be shot and exterminated without trial. In Great Britain, where there is a free independent press, no one has been willing to tell of this betrayal for the past twenty-five years, without arousing public alarm. Roosevelt and Churchill are revered in their own country as pinpoints of political wisdom, and Britain may one day be littered with monuments to the great man.And to us, in the talk of Russian prisons, the usual myopia and even stupidity of the two men was startlingly apparent.From 41 to 45 years, how come they failed to ensure the independence of Eastern Europe?How could they surrender vast areas of Saxony and Thuringia for such a ludicrous thing as a quartet of Berlin, their future Achilles' heel?What military and political reasons do they have for handing over hundreds of thousands of armed Soviet citizens who were determined not to surrender to Stalin's hands to die?It is said that this was the price they paid Stalin for his pledge to participate in the war against Japan.Already have the atomic bomb in hand, but pay the price to Stalin, so that he will not refuse to occupy Manchuria, consolidate Mao Zedong in China, and consolidate Kim Il Sung in half of North Korea! ... Isn't this incompetence in political calculations?Later, when Mikovajcik was pushed out, Benes and Masaryk were finished, Berlin was besieged, Budapest was on fire and extinguished, North Korea was full of smoke, and the Conservatives fled through the Suez Canal—could it be? Had the best memory among them not at this moment recalled even the extradition of the Cossacks? And even these are just the beginning.Throughout 1946 and 1947, the Western allies loyal to Stalin continued to hand over Soviet citizens to Stalin against their will to persecute them—there were former soldiers and ordinary people, and they only wanted to take these Those who can't figure it out should be unloaded as burdens.They are being sent from Austria, Germany, Italy, France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and from the occupied areas of the United States.Concentration camps have remained in the British occupied areas these years, probably not inferior to Hitler's. (For example, the Wolfsberg concentration camp in Austria: order the women to bend over, but not to squat, to cut the grass one by one with small scissors, and bind the eleventh grass with the twelfth into a bundle ", for hours on end. The fact that such things can happen in the presence of British parliamentary traditions forces one to think about how thick the shell of our civilization really is.) Many years after the war many Russians lived in the West with false papers , living in heavy fear of being handed over to the Soviet Union, of the Anglo-American authorities as they had been of the NKVD.Where there is no extradition - there are a large number of Soviet agents moving around unhindered, stealing living people in broad daylight, even in the steel streets of Western capitals. In addition to the "Russian Liberation Army" that is being formed, there are still many Russian detachments wearing German uniforms without special signs and continuing to dawdle inside the German army.They ended the war in different ways in different theaters. I was also shot by Vlasov elements a few days before my arrest.There were also Russians surrounded by our army in the encirclement of East Prussia.One night at the end of January, a detachment of theirs, unprepared for artillery, broke through our lines westward in silence.There was no continuous line of defense, and they quickly penetrated deep, flanking one of my listening artillery batteries jutting forward, which I managed to pull out of the last remaining way.But then I went back to salvage the wrecked car and saw before dawn they were massing in the snow wearing camouflage fluid and suddenly jumped up and yelled "Ulla" to the artillery near Adrig Schwinkiden The fire positions of the battalion (152 mm guns) swooped in and threw grenades at the twelve heavy guns, preventing them from firing a single shot.Chased by their tracer bullets, the last small group of our people ran three kilometers at a stretch in the snow-covered fields, and retreated to the bridgehead of the Basag River.They were blocked there. Soon I was arrested, and now, on the eve of the Victory Parade, we sit together on Butirka's bunk, I smoke half their cigarettes, they smoke mine, and I talk to them The two of them carried out the six pail-capacity iron toilet together. Many of the "Vlasovites", like the "spies of the hour", were young men, born between 1915 and 1922, the very busy Lunachar The "strange younger generation" that Ski was eager to welcome in Pushkin's name.Most of them were brought into the new army by the wave of chance, just as their companions in the neighboring concentration camps were accidentally spies—depending on where the recruiters came from. The recruiter explained it to them sarcastically -- sarcastically, if not for the truth! --"Stalin has abandoned you!" "Stalin doesn't take you seriously!" Soviet law had placed them outside its own protection before they had placed themselves outside Soviet law. So, they signed up... some just to get out of the death camps.Others—planned to defect to the guerrillas (and defected, and later fought for the guerrillas!—but according to Stalin's standards, they should not be sentenced to light sentences for this in the slightest).Yet there were always those who resented the disgraceful April 1941 and the spectacular defeat after years of bragging; there were always those who believed that Stalin was the chief culprit for keeping them in these inhuman concentration camps.So they also want to show themselves.Show your majestic experience: they - they are also part of Russia and want to influence its future, not to be someone else's wrong plaything. The word "Vlasovite" sounds like "dirty stuff" to us.Like words, it seems that we will dirty our mouths just by making these sounds, so no one dares to say two or three sentences with "Vlasovite" as the main word. But history isn't written that way.Now, a quarter of a century later, with most of them dead in labor camps and those who survived dying in the far north, I would like to use these pages to draw attention to the importance of Historically speaking, this phenomenon is quite unprecedented: hundreds of thousands of young people in their twenties and thirties form an alliance with the country's worst enemy and take up arms against their country.Perhaps this should be considered: who is more at fault-these young people or the white-haired motherland?Biological rebellion cannot explain this phenomenon, there must be social reasons. Because, as the old adage goes, a horse can't find food when there's feed in the trough. Picture this: a field--some hungry, frenzied horses running around looking for food, neglected. There were also many Russian exiles squatting in the cells that spring. It's almost like a dream: the return of past history.The history of the Civil War has long been written and closed, its problems solved, its events included in the textbook chronology.The activists of the White Party movement are no longer our world's contemporaries, but phantoms of a past that has vanished.The Russian émigrés are more fragmented than the Israeli offshoots, and in our Soviet conception, if they still linger somewhere, it is as dulcimer ghosts in low-class restaurants, as servants, washerwomen, beggars, morphine Cancer and cocaine cancer patients become dying corpses.Before the outbreak of the war in 1941, we could find nothing in our newspapers, high literature, art reviews to suggest (nor did our fat masters help us to discover) that foreign countries Russian Overseas Chinese—This is a huge spiritual world, where Russian philosophy is developed, where there are Bulgakov, Berdyaev, Frank, and Losky.Russian art fascinates the world.There are Rachmaninoff, Chaliapin, Benoit, Diaghilev, Pavlova, and Zarov's Cossack choir, where Dostoevsky is deeply studied (At the same time, he was scolded in China.) There is an unprecedented writer Nabokov-Sirin. Bunin is still alive and has also created something in the past 20 years. He has published literary magazines, staged plays, and held fellowship Yes, speaking there in Russian, the male Russian bridge has not lost the ability to marry female Russians, and the female Russians still have the ability to have children-that is, to reproduce our peers. The notion of the émigrés which has been formed in our country is so false that if a popular quiz were taken: Who did the émigrés support in the Spanish war?Who did you support in World War II? --Everyone will answer in one breath: Support Franco!Support Hitler!It is not yet known in our country that there are far more White Russian exiles fighting on the side of the republicans.Vlasov's divisions and von Panniewitz's Cossack regiments ("Krasnov regiments") were composed of Soviet citizens, not exiles at all - they did not go to Hitler.Merezhkovsky and Gibius, who sided with Hitler, were therefore isolated among them.It's a joke that's not a joke: Denikin was so eager to fight Hitler for the USSR that Stalin was at one point almost ready to bring him back (not as a fighting force, obviously, but as a symbol of national unity ).During the French occupation, large numbers of Russian expatriates, old and young, joined the resistance, and after the liberation of Paris, they flocked to the Soviet embassy to apply to return to their motherland.Whatever Russia is - but it's Russia! -- that's their catchphrase, and that's how they prove that they didn't lie when they said they loved it (they were almost happy in prison for four, five or four or six years, because these bars, these guards -- all My own people are all Russians; they are surprised to see the Soviet boys scratching the back of their foreheads and saying: "Why should we come back? Are we crowded in Europe?"). But, according to Stalin's logic, any Soviet citizen who lived abroad should be sent to a labor camp. How could these exiles avoid this fate?In the Balkans, in Central Europe, and in Harbin, as soon as the Soviet troops arrived, they were arrested immediately, from their apartments and on the street, just like domestic people.For the time being, only men are arrested, and not all men for the time being, only those who have shown political manifestations (their families were deported to Russian exile after a while, and some stayed in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia).In France, they were first accepted as citizens of the Soviet Union, held a grand ceremony, presented flowers, and then sent back to the motherland in comfortable conditions, and only after they arrived did they start to hump them in--it took a long time to deal with the Russians in Shanghai-- In four or five years, we still couldn't reach there.But the Soviet government sent a representative there and read the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet: forgive all exiles.Yeah, how can you not believe it?The government can't tell lies! (Whether there really was such a decree or not - at least it is not binding on the agency).The Russians in Shanghai were overjoyed.They were promised to take as much and as much as they wanted (they took a car with them, which would be useful to the Motherland), and to live wherever they wanted in the Soviet Union; According to their profession.They were loaded onto the ship from Shanghai.The fortunes of the ships were already varied: some had no food at all for unknown reasons.Fate after disembarking from the port of Nakhodka, a major deportation point in the Gulag, is also varied.Almost all the people are loaded onto freight trains, just like prisoners, but there are no strict escort teams and police dogs yet.Some were transported to habitable places, transported to cities, and they were actually allowed to live there for two or three years.Others were sent directly to the labor camps by train, and they were unloaded somewhere in the forests of the Transvolga region, carrying white grand pianos and flower baskets down the steep embankment of the embankment.From 1948 to 1949, all the surviving returned overseas Chinese from the Far East were imprisoned. When I was a nine-year-old child, I was more interested in reading B.B. Shulkin's little blue book, which was casually stored in our country's bookstores, than Jules Verne.This is a voice from a world that has disappeared without a trace, so even the most wonderful imagination cannot guess that in less than twenty years, the footsteps of the author and I will be in the invisible dotted line. The silent corridors of the Great Lubinka criss-crossed.It is true that I did not meet him personally then but another twenty years later, but in the spring of 1945 I had time to observe carefully many exiles, old and young. I had a physical examination with Lieutenant Borshi and Colonel Mariyushkin, and their wrinkled dark yellow naked bodies remained forever before my eyes. They were no longer living bodies but two mummified corpses.They were arrested before fast-moving into the coffin, and brought thousands of kilometers away to Moscow, where, in 1945, their anti-Soviet regime in 1919 was most solemnly The event was scouted! We have grown so used to the irrationality of investigation and trial that we no longer distinguish between them.This cavalry captain and this colonel are the backbone soldiers of the Tsarist Russian army.They were both in their late forties when the news came by telegram that the Emperor had been overthrown in Petrograd, and having served twenty years in the army under the oath of allegiance to the Tsar, they were now resolute ( Perhaps secretly said in his heart: "Go away! Down!") and swore an oath to the Provisional Government.Besides, no one asked them to swear allegiance to anything else, because the army was disintegrated.They didn't like the order of tearing epaulets and killing officers at that time, so they naturally wanted to unite with other officers to fight against this order, and the Red Army naturally wanted to fight them and drive them into the sea.But in a country where legal thought is even somewhat rudimentary, what reason is there to try them, let alone a quarter of a century later? (During this period, they have been ordinary people. Malyushkin did not do anything until he was arrested. It is true that Borshi was caught in the Cossack train in Austria, but he was clearly not in the armed forces, but in the train among the old men and women of the team.) However, in our judicial centers in 1945 they were charged with; they did not immediately leave the country); help the international bourgeoisie (they have never seen such a thing in their dreams); serve in various counter-revolutionary governments (under the same generals to whom they have served all their lives).All these subarticles (1, 2, 4, 13) of Article 58 belong to the Penal Code, which was adopted in 1926, that is, only six or seven years after the end of the Civil War! (A classic and insane example of the retroactive effect of law.) Furthermore, Article 2 of the Code specifies that it applies only to citizens detained on Soviet Russian territory.But the iron hand of the state security agencies has picked out the full non-citizens one by one from all the countries in Eurasia.Not to mention the statute of limitations: there is a flexible provision on the statute of limitations, that is, it does not apply to Article 58 ("Why settle old scores? . . . "); The civil war wiped out many times as many executioners bred at home. At last Malyushkin remembered the past clearly enough to tell the details of the evacuation from Novorossiysk.But Borsch seemed to be a boy again, and he murmured innocently how he celebrated Easter in Lubinka: for two weeks before Easter he ate only half his rations, kept the other half, and gradually Fresh swaps for stiff ones.In this way he saved up seven rations for breaking the fast, so he ate for three days on Easter. They are being prosecuted and tried today - without any evidence of their past crimes.It was simply an act of vengeance by the Soviet state: for their rebellion against communism a quarter of a century ago, even though they have lived the rough life of homeless exiles since then. Colonel Konstantin Konstantinovich Yasevich was not the helpless mummy among these exiles.For him, the struggle against Bolshevism clearly did not end after the end of the Civil War.By what, where and how he fought - he didn't tell us.But it seems that he still has the feeling of continuing to fight in the cell.In the minds of most of us, the concepts are confused, and the vision is blurred and distorted, but he obviously has a clear and clear view of the surrounding things. Because of his clear standpoint in life-his body often remains strong, elastic, and energetic.他的年纪已在六十以上，脑袋完全秃了，不剩下一根头发，他熬过了侦查（像我们大家一样正等待着判决），当然从哪里都得不到帮助--却保持着年轻的、甚至红润的皮肤，在全监室中只他一个人做早操，在水龙头下冲冷水（我们大家则舍不得浪费监狱配给口粮提供的热量）。当板铺间空出一条走道时，他就抓紧时间--在这五六米的地方，用板正的步伐、板正的身姿，来回走步，手交叉在胸前，明亮而年轻的眼光好像透过墙壁望着狱外。 我们大家都为我们所遭遇的事情感到吃惊，他却觉得周围发生的事情都在意料之内--正因如此，他在监室中是完全孤独的。 我一年后才理解了他在监狱中的行为：我又回到布蒂尔卡，在七十个监室之中的一间里我遇见了亚谢维奇的一些年轻的同案人，他们都已判了十年和十五年。在一张卷烟纸上印着他们整个集团的判决，不知何故却落在他们手中。名单上的第一名就是亚谢维奇，给他的判决是--枪决。原来他从桌子到门之间来回踱步时，用那没有衰老的眼光透过墙壁所看到的、所预见到的是这个呀！但是，忠于生活道路的毫不后悔的意识给了他以不寻常的力量。 在流亡分子中间也有我的一个同龄人伊戈尔?特朗科。我同他交上了朋友。两人都是衰弱的、干枯的，灰黄色的皮肤包着骨头（当真我们为什么这样垮了下来？我想是由于精神上的惘然失措）。两个人都是瘦长条儿，在布蒂尔卡放风的院子里，一阵夏风吹来就会摇晃，我们老是在一起迈着老年人的小心步子，谈论我们生活的对比。我与他在同一年生于俄国的南方。当我们两人还在吃奶的时候，命运之神就从他的破旧的袋子中掏出了一根短稻草塞给我，而给了他一根长的。于是他的小圆球儿就滚到了海外，虽然他的"白卫分子"父亲只是一个普通的贫穷的报务员。 通过他的生活设想一下在国外的我这一代同胞的情况，使我感到强烈的兴趣。尽管家庭收入颇为有限甚至十分拮据，他们仍是在良好的家庭督导下长大的。他们都受到完美的教育，并尽可能地得到了深造的机会。他们是在不知道恐惧和镇压的环境中成长的，虽然在他们还没有壮大以前，各种白党组织的某种权威的压力曾经悬在他们头上。他们长大了，但没有染上那些笼罩整个欧洲青年的时代恶习（犯罪率高，生活态度轻率、无所用心、放荡）--这是因为他们好似在家庭的不可磨灭的不幸的阴影下长大的。他们生长在不同国家，但是都把俄国当做是自己唯一的祖国。他们的精神教育来自俄国文学，由于他们的祖国仅止于文学，文学的背后并不存在第一性的实体的祖国，因而更受他们珍爱。他们接触的现代出版物比我们范围广泛得多，内容充实得多，而偏偏苏联的出版物他们见到的很少，他们对这个缺陷感觉得最尖锐，他们以为，正是由于这个缘故，他们才不能理解关于苏维埃俄国的主要的、最崇高最美好的东西，而他们所获知的都是歪曲、谎话、不完全。关于我们真实的生活他们只有最贫乏的概念，但怀念祖国之情是那么深切，如果在一九四一年对他们发出一声召唤，他们便会纷纷加入红军，甚至会感到去死亡要比活下来更为甜蜜。这批在二十五到二十七岁的青年已经有了并坚持了某些与年老将军和政治家们的意见不相符合的观点。例如，伊戈尔的小组是"非预决派"。他们宣称，没有与祖国分担过以往几十年的全部复杂重负的人，对于俄国的前途便没有任何决定权，甚至没有提出任何建议的权利，只能前去为人民所决定的东西贡献力量。 我们一起在板铺上躺过了许多时间。我尽可能地理解了他的世界，这个会见向我揭示了（以后其他的会见也证实了）一个观念，即内战时期相当大一部分精神力量的外流，从我国带走了俄罗斯文化的一个巨大而重要的分支。而每一个真正热爱俄罗斯文化的人都将力求使这两个分支--本国的和国外的--重新结合起来。只有那时，它才是完全的，只有那时，它才能显示出健康发展的能力。 我幻想着活到这一天。 人是软弱的，软弱的。归根结底连我们中间最固执的人在那年春天也想得到宽恕，决意牺牲许多东西来换取一小块生命。流行过这样一个笑话："被告，你的最后陈述！""送我到什么地方都可以，只要那里有苏维埃政权！还有--阳光……"我们不会有失去苏维埃政权的危险，倒是有失掉阳光的危险……。谁也不愿意到最远的北极地带去，不愿意去得坏血病，去得营养不良症。在监室里不知为什么特别盛行关于阿尔泰的传说。极少数以前去过那里的人，尤其是没有去过的人，把同监难友引入一场美梦：阿尔泰可是好地方！既有西伯利亚的辽阔，又有温和的气候。小麦堆满岸，蜜糖流成河，草原和山岭，羊群、野物、鱼虾。人烟茂盛的富裕的农村…… 囚犯们关于阿尔泰的憧憬--是否是旧时农民对它的憧憬的继续？在阿尔泰曾经有过所谓内阁的土地，因为这个缘故，它与西伯利亚其他地方有所不同，对移民在长时间内是比较不开放的。--但农民们最向往的正是上那里去（并且不断地向那里移居）这种持久的传说是否由此而来的呢？ 啊，往这个安静地方躲起来吧！听听雄鸡在清新空气中的清脆响亮的歌声！抚摸抚摸善良严肃的马胜！一切伟大的问题统统见鬼去吧，让别的什么人，傻一点的人去为你们伤脑筋吧。躲开侦查员的骂娘和对你全部生活的厌人的盘诘，躲开监狱门锁的响声，躲开监室里令人窒息的闷热，在这里好好休息休息。我们都只有一次生命，它是渺小短促的--而我们却作孽地把它塞到别人的机枪下面去，或者带着它，带着这纯洁无暇的生命钻到政治的肮脏垃圾堆里去。那里，在阿尔泰，似乎可以住在靠近森林的村边上最低矮最黑暗的小房子里。不是为了检树枝，不是为了摘蘑菇，而是随便往森林里走走，搂住两根树干：我的亲爱的！我再也不需要什么了！ ... 那一年的春天本身就呼唤着人们的善心：它是如此浩大的战争结束的春天！我们看到，数以百万计的我们这样的囚犯正流入监狱，还有大大超过此数的囚犯在劳改营中等着我们，取得空前伟大的世界性胜利之后，怎么可能把那么多的人留在监狱里？现在把我们关着大概只不过是吓唬吓唬，好使我们记得牢些吧。当然会颁布大赦，我们大家很快就会被放出去。有人甚至赌咒发誓说，他亲自在报上读到过，斯大林回答美国记者（姓名吗？--我记不得了……）时说，战后我国将实行一次世界上从未见过的大赦。侦查员也确实亲自对什么人说过很快要宣布普遍的大赦（这些传闻对侦查员是有利的，它们能够削弱我们的意志：算了，签字吧，反正不会呆久的）。 但是--对于善心需要有理智。 我们中间少数头脑清醒的人说什么四分之一世纪以来，从未对政治犯实行过大赦--而且永远不会，我们听不进去这类丧气话。（一个熟知监牢掌故的眼线还跳出来回答："在一九二七年，十月革命十周年前夕，所有的监狱都空了，在上面挂起了白旗！"这种监狱上挂白旗的惊人景象--为什么是白旗？--特别使人动心。）我们没有理会我们中间那些明白事理的人的解释：正是因为战争已经结束，所以我们几百万人才去蹲在这里--前线再也不需要我们，对于后方，我们是危险分子，而在遥远的建筑工地上没有我们连一块砖也放不上去（我们心里还有个人利益作怪，所以不能领会斯大林的纵然不是恶毒的，至少也是简单的经济上的打算！现在有谁在复员以后还愿意抛弃家庭、房子，到那还没有道路，还没有房屋的科雷马去，到沃尔库塔去，到西伯利亚去？这已经几乎是国家计委的一项任务：给内务部下达抓人的控制数字）。大赦！我们等待和渴望着的宽大、广泛的大赦！据说，在英国甚至在加冕周年纪念都有大赦，就是说每一年都有大赦！ 在罗曼诺夫皇朝三百周年纪念日曾经大赦了许多政治犯。在取得了一个世纪甚至超过一个世纪规模的胜利后，难道现在斯大林的政府还将这样斤斤计较地记仇，还将对自己每个小小公民的每个差错和失足那么念念不忘吗？ ... 一个简单的真理，但要悟出它也需要饱经痛苦：值得祝福的不是战争中的胜利而是战争中的失败。胜利为政府所需要，失败则为人民所需要。在胜利后还想胜利，在失败后则想自由--而且一般能够争取自由。失败之为人民所需要，正如苦难和灾祸之为个别的人所需要一样：它们迫使他深化内心的生活，使他在精神上变得崇高。 波尔塔瓦的胜利对俄国是一个不幸：它引起了两个世纪的极大紧张、破坏、不自由--以及一次又一次的新战争。波尔塔瓦的失败却使瑞典人得救：失去了打仗的愿望后，瑞典人成了欧洲最繁荣昌盛和自由的民族。 我们已经那么习惯于为我们对拿破仑的胜利而自豪，以至忽略了一个情况：正是由于这个胜利，农民的解放才没有早半个世纪发生（法国的占领对俄国并非一种现实的可能性）。而克里米亚战争却给我们带来了自由。 那年春天我们相信大赦--这毫不新鲜。你同老囚犯们谈谈就清楚：这种对仁慈的渴望和对仁慈的信仰从来没有离开过监狱的灰色墙壁。十年接着十年，各种来源的囚犯总是期待、总是相信：要么会有大赦，要么会有新的法典，要么会有对案件的普遍复查（而且传闻总是得到机关的巧妙谨慎的支持）。十月革命的某个周年，列宁的纪念日和胜利纪念日，红军纪念日或巴黎公社纪念日，全俄中央执行委员会的每届例会，每个五年计划的结束，最高法院的每次全会--凡是囚犯的想象力能为期待着的解放天使下凡安排的日子都安排到了。而且囚犯们的成分越是希奇古怪，囚犯来源之广泛越是离奇荒唐，--他们也就越多产生对大赦的信仰，而不是头脑清醒的估计。 所有的光源都可以在某种程度上与太阳相比。而太阳则同什么都不能比较。同样，世界上的一切期待都可以与期待大赦相比，而期待大赦则同什么都不能比较。 一九四五年春天，每个新来的人一进监室，大家首先就问他听到过什么关于大赦的消息没有？如果两三个人拿着东西从监室被带走--监室里的行家们马上对照他们的案情推断说，他们的案情最轻，当然是带去释放的。这就开始了！在厕所里，在洗澡房里，在囚犯的邮局里，我们的积极分子到处找寻大赦的痕和记载。突然，在布蒂尔卡洗澡房著名的紫色前室里，我们于七月初读到了用肥皂在比人头高得多的地方的紫釉砖上写的预言（说明是站在别人肩上写的，免得很快被擦掉）： "乌拉！！！七月十七日大赦！" 我们是多么兴高采烈呀！（如果他们不确实知道，就不会写出来！）心脏、脉搏、血液，在欢乐的冲击下都停了下来，牢门快打开了…… 但是--对于善心需要有理智…… 七月中旬，我们监室中的一个老头儿被走廊看守派去打扫厕所，在那里，看守同情地望着他的一头白发，私下（如有第三者在场他未必敢说）问他："老爷子，犯的是哪一条？"家里老少三代为他哭泣的老头儿心里一阵高兴："五十八条。"看守叹口气说："不在里面。"瞎说--监室里一致断定--这个看守根本没有水平。 在这监室里有一个年轻的基辅人瓦连金（姓不记得了），他有着一对大大的女人似的漂亮眼睛，侦查把他吓得魂飞魄散。他无疑是一个预见者，这个本领也许只是在当时的兴奋状态下产生的。不止一次，他早上在监室里走一圈，指指这个指指那个：今天你和你将被带走，我梦见了。果然他们给带走了！正是他们！话又说回来，囚犯的心灵是那么倾向于神秘主义，以至见到预言的应验几乎不觉得奇怪。 七月二十七日瓦连金走到我身边说："亚历山大！今天是我和你了。"接着向我讲了一个带有监狱梦境一切特征的梦：混浊的小河上架着一座小桥，十字架。我开始收拾起东西，真地没有白做：在喝了早茶以后就把我和他叫走了。全监室以热闹的良好祝愿欢送我们，许多人担保说，我们准是给带去释放的（从对我们的轻微案情进行比较后得出的结论）。 你可以真心地不相信这个，不允许自己相信，你可以说几句笑话挡回去，但是，地球上最热不过的一把火红的铁钳突然夹紧你的心：要是真的呢？ ... 从不同的监室里提出来二十来个人，起先把我们带进洗澡房（在每个生活的转折点上囚犯首先应当经过洗澡房）。在那里我们有一个半小时光景的时间去猜测和思考。然后，热出了一身大汗、遍体感到舒服的我们--被带过布蒂尔卡内院的一个苍翠的小花园，那里的鸟儿（多半只是麻雀）叫得似乎要震破我们的耳鼓，树木绿得使不习惯的眼睛感到难以忍受地鲜明。我的眼睛从来没有像在那个春天里那样强烈地感受到树叶的绿色！我一生中从来没有看到过比布蒂尔卡小花园更接近于天堂的东西，而沿沥青小道走过这个花园从来也没有超过三十秒钟！ 把我们带到了布蒂尔卡"车站"（接收和发送囚犯的地方；名称很中肯，而且那里的主要前厅颇像一个不错的候车室），赶进了一间宽敞的大隔离室。里面光线半明半暗，有清洁的新鲜空气：它唯～的一扇小窗开得很高，不带笼口。它就向着那个阳光明媚的小花园开着，经过打开的气窗，卿卿喳喳的鸟叫声使我们耳朵发聋，一根碧绿的树枝在气窗孔里晃动，给我们大家以自由和回家的希望。（真好呀！这样好的隔离室我们从来还没有蹲过！--这不会是偶然的：） 我们大家都是属于特别庭管辖的。如此说来，我们的案子全是区区小事。 三个小时谁也没有来管我们，谁也没有来开门。我们在隔离室里走来走去，走累了就在瓷砖砌面的长椅上坐下来。而树枝老是在窗孔外晃呀，晃呀，麻雀发了狂似地对叫着。 突然，门轰隆一声打开了，传唤我们中间一个三十五岁上下的安静的会计出去。他走了出去，门又锁上。我们更加起劲地在我们的匣子里来回走动，像热锅上的蚂蚁。 又是开门的响声，传走了另一个，送回原来那个。我们向他拥过去。但这已经不是他了！他脸上的生命停止了，他睁开的眼睛什么也看不见，他恍惚地在隔离室的光滑地板上摇摇晃晃地移动。他受到脑震荡吗？他被烫衣服的板子打昏了吗？ "什么？什么？"--我们屏息地问（如果他不是刚坐过了电椅，那至少已经向他宣布了死刑判决）。他用宣告宇宙末日来临的那种声调挤出了两个字： "五！！年！！！" 门又响了--回来得那么快，好像上厕所去解了个小手。这个人喜气洋洋地回来了。显然是把他释放了。 我们怀着失而复返的希望聚集在一起问："怎样？怎样？"他甩了一下手，笑得喘不过气来： "十五年！" 这真是太荒唐了，荒唐得难以马上相信。