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Chapter 21 Chapter 1 The Ship of the Islands-1

Gulag Islands 索尔仁尼琴 17867Words 2018-03-21
Thousands of islands in an archipelago controlled by magic, dotted across a vast area almost from the Bering Strait to the Bosporus Strait.These islands are invisible, but they do exist.People also use the same invisible method to transport invisible prisoners of flesh, size and weight from island to island without interruption. Where to ship?What means of transportation do you use? There is a specially designed large port - the deportation prison; there is also a simple port - the deportation point of the labor camp; there is a special closed steel hull ship - the "prisoner's carriage".It was not sampans and motorboats that picked them up at the anchorage, but a well-functioning "crow car" with the same closed steel hull. "Prisoner carriages" run according to the railway timetable.Also, when necessary, long convoys of convoys--trains of red tank wagons for cattle--were sent out from port to port, diagonally from one end of the archipelago to the other.

What an orderly system it is!It had been built over decades without haste, by well-fed, well-dressed, unhurried people.Every single day at 17:00, the Kineshma Escort Team receives the prisoners from the "crow carts" of the Butyrka, Presnya and Taganka prisons at the Moscow North Station.Every two days before 6:00 a.m., the Ivanovo escort team arrived at the station, took them out of the carriages, and took charge of guarding the transfer prisoners going to Nerekhta, Bezhetsk, and Bologoye. All this is happening right next to you, next to you, but you can't see it (of course you can close your eyes).These untouchables get on and off the trains, and at the main station, they are far away from the passenger platform, only the road movers and road patrolmen can see them.On smaller stations, it is also to find a secluded passage between two warehouses. The "Crow Car" backed up towards the "Zek Car", with the pedals aligned with the pedals.Prisoners spend a lot of time turning their faces to look at the station room, you, and other cars.He only had time to look at the pedals (sometimes the lowest step was as high as his waist, and he didn't even have the strength to climb up), and the narrow passage between the "crow car" and the "convict car" was full of guards on both sides .They kept yelling: "Quick! Quick!... Go! Go!...", and some even waved their bayonets.

You led the children, carrying suitcases and net bags, and hurried past on the platform. Naturally, you had no time to pay attention: Why is there an extra luggage cart on this train?This section of unmarked carriages does look like a luggage cart.Its windows are also nailed with iron bars.It was dark inside.I just don't know why there are soldiers in the car - the guards of the motherland.And every time the car stops, there are always two soldiers patrolling both sides of the car whistling, while squinting at the bottom of the car. The train moved on.Do you know that along the same winding track, following the same puff of soot, crossing the same field, flying over the same row of telephone poles and haystacks, the miserable fate of hundreds of prisoners A tortured heart walks with you.They even cross this stretch of road seconds before you—but the misery that flickers across the air outside your glass windows leaves less traces than fingers across the water.In the familiar monotony of train life (bedding bags with their mouths open, tea delivered on a tray), can you comprehend what a gloomy and horrific scene passed through the place you are now only three seconds ago? in this Euclidean space?There are a total of four passengers in the private compartment of your carriage. You find it crowded, and you are quite dissatisfied.But can you believe it, can you believe the following lines?Fourteen people were seated in a private room of the same size that had driven through this space a moment earlier.And what if there were twenty-five people?What if there were thirty?

"Zek Carriage" - what a loathsome shorthand!The abbreviations invented by the executioners are nothing less than that.They want to explain that this is the carriage for transporting prisoners.But this word, except in the documents of the prison, has no place to hold water.Prisoners used to call it the "Stolyhu" carriage, or simply "Stolypin". With the popularization of railway transportation in our country, the way of escorting prisoners is gradually changing.Prior to the 1890s, prisoners sent to Siberia were still on foot or on horseback.When Lenin was exiled to Siberia in 1896, he already took an ordinary third-class passenger car (with free people).He also once yelled at the train conductor that the car was too crowded.Yaroshenko's famous painting "Life is Everywhere" shows us a fourth-class bus that has been hastily refitted for transporting prisoners: everything is still intact.The prisoners sat inside like ordinary people, except that there were bars on the inside and outside of the windows.Such carriages have been running on Russian railways for many years.Some people remember that when they were distributed in 1927, they took this kind of carriage, but the men and women were separated.On the other hand, Trushin, a Socialist Revolutionary, recalled that as early as the Tsarist era, he had been dispatched on the "Stolypin", but it was still in accordance with the old rules of the Krylov era, six people shared a room. house.

The history of this carriage is as follows.It really ran on the railway for the first time during the Stolypin period: it was designed in 1908, but it was used to transport immigrants going to the east of the country, when there was a strong immigration wind, and the carriages not enough.This type of carriage is lower than ordinary passenger carriages, but much higher than truck carriages, and it has auxiliary space for storing household items or poultry (i.e., today's "semi" private rooms, confinement rooms) - but of course without any fences, Either inside or on the windows.The fence was erected by an inventive mind, I tend to think of the Bolsheviks.But this carriage bears the name of Stolypin.... The minister demanded a duel with the Duma deputies for calling the noose "Stolypin's tie", but he could not stop this posthumous slander up.

Remember that the officers who cannot accuse the Gulag used the term "Stolypin" - no, never "Zek's carriage".This is us prisoners, out of conflict with the official name, we want to give a rough name according to our own meaning, and we are tricked into seeing the senior prisoners (one can tell that they are prisoners in the 1920s). This nickname for us.Who might be the author of the nickname?It will not be a "counter-revolutionary", they cannot associate the Tsarist Prime Minister with the Cheka.It can only be "revolutionaries" who are suddenly pulled into the Cheka meat grinder without thinking of themselves: either Socialist Revolutionaries, or anarchists (if the nickname appeared in the early twenties), or Trotskyites (if it was in the late twenties).In the past, the great Russian activist was slain with the mouth of a viper, and his name was tarnished with foul language after his death.

But since this type of carriage came into preference only in the twenties, and its general and exclusive use began in the thirties, when everything in our country became uniform (by then many new carriages of this kind must have been made), then it is It is only fair to call him "Staicai" rather than "Storyhu". The so-called "Zeke carriage" is an ordinary private passenger car.It's just that five of the nine compartments in the car are used by prisoners (this is like everywhere in the archipelago, and half of the facilities are used by guards) instead of partitions, they are separated from the corridor by fences.This is for the convenience of monitoring. The iron bars of the fence are crossed diagonally, like the fence of the small garden of the station.Its height directly reaches the roof, thus canceling the luggage cabinet on the roof of the corridor that opens to the private room.The windows on the corridor side are normal, but a slanted fence has also been added.There are no windows on one side of the private room where the prisoners ride, but at the level of the second storey there is an air hole covered by a fixed shutter, and a fence is nailed to it (we think this wagon looks like a luggage car, precisely because it has no windows).The door of the private room was pushed open to the side, and it was an iron grille door.

It all adds up to a corridor that looks a lot like a zoo: behind a long row of fences, wretched, half-human creatures huddle on the floor and planks, staring at you imploringly, begging for a drink. , to eat.But animals are never packed so tightly together in a zoo. According to the calculations of the engineering personnel outside, a "Stalin" private room can seat six people in the lower berth, and the middle berth (it is connected as a whole berth, leaving only a gap for climbing up and down near the door) It can sleep three people, and the two luggage racks above can sleep two people.Now, in addition to these eleven, eleven more were poked in (the last were kicked in by the watchman as he closed the door). --Look!This is the completely normal capacity of the "Stalin" private room.On the upper floor, there are two people half-lying and half-sitting grinning on each luggage rack, and there are five lying on the middle floor. They must have been sleeping there), and there were thirteen people underneath: five on each side of the lower bunk, and three in the aisle between their legs.Other places - in the crevices of people, on people, under people - put their things.Just like this, I sat with my legs curled up and squeezed together day and night.

No, this is not intentional torture!A convicted prisoner is a socialist labor fighter, why should he be tortured?It is to be used for construction.However, you will also agree that he is not visiting his mother-in-law's natal house, and he can't entertain so much that everyone outside is jealous.At present, our country's transportation is difficult: they can reach their destination, and they can't die. Since the 1950s, the trains have been running at regular times, and the time the prisoners are on the road is not too long, that is, one or two days, two or three days.During the war and a few years after the war, the situation was worse: the "Stalin" carriage may travel seven days and nights from Petropavlovsk (Kazakhstan) to Karaganda (each compartment contains 25 people O!); from Karagand to Sverdlovsk - eight days and nights (twenty-six people per private room).Even during the distance from Kuibyshev to Chelyabinsk, Suzi sat in the "Stalin" carriage for several days and nights in August 1945.They packed 300,000 in one private room.It's really people on top of people.All people are constantly struggling and struggling.And in the autumn of 1946, when H.B. Timofeyev-Lesovsky went from Petropavlovsk to Moscow, there were as many as thirty-six people in the private room.For several days and nights he hung among the crowd without touching the ground.Then people started to die -- dead bodies were dragged from under people's feet (not immediately, of course, but after a day) -- and it loosened a bit.It took him three weeks to go to Moscow this time. (But when we arrived in Moscow, a miracle happened in the land of miracles. Timofeyev-Lesovsky was carried out of the carriage by the officers himself and picked up in a sleeping car: it turned out that he was brought here to have him Promote the development of science in our country.)

Thirty-six -- is it the limit?We have no evidence of the Thirty-Seven.But according to the only scientific method, educated to fight the "limitists", we should give this answer: never!By no means the limit!Maybe it's the limit elsewhere, but not here.As long as there are still a few cubic decimeters of undisplaced air in the private room, even under the planks, even between the shoulders, legs, and heads, the private room is perfectly suitable for receiving more prisoners!If you want to set a limit number, it is the number of carefully stacked undisassembled corpses that can be accommodated in the entire space of a private room.

The compartment in which B.A. Korkhaneva set off from Moscow contained thirty female prisoners, mostly debilitated old women who had emigrated for their religious beliefs. , all lying in the hospital).None of them died on the way, because some of them were young, plump, beautiful girls who were imprisoned for "hooking up foreigners", and they kept humiliating the escort team: "You escort these old women like this, don't Are you ashamed? They're your mothers!" It's not so much the girls' moral arguments as their attractive looks that helped the escort.A few old women were put in... brigands.And confinement in the "Zek carriage" is not a punishment, but a blessing.Only four of the five prisoner compartments were group cells, and the fifth was split in half—two long, narrow halves, each with a lower bunk and an upper bunk, like a conductor's compartment.These confinement rooms are used to isolate prisoners; three or four people share one room, which is convenient and spacious. No, it was not intentional to torture prisoners with thirst.During these tired and crowded days in the carriages, there was never a hot meal, only salted herring and dried painted mullet (in Siberia and Ukraine, from the thirties to the fifties, every year, winter and summer So, this kind of thing doesn't even need an example).It wasn't intentional to torture them with thirst.Otherwise, please tell me yourself, what should be used to feed these wastes on the road?It was against the law to serve them hot food in the compartment (it is true that there was a private room in the "Zeck compartment" that was used as a kitchen, but it was reserved for the convoy).You can't send them raw wheat flour, can you?Can't let them eat raw eel?Give them canned meat -- won't they choke?Salty fresh fish!Nothing could be more fitting than that, and a morsel of bread--what more could they want? Just take it, take your half salted herring.As long as people post it, you should be happy!If you are a smart person, don't eat this adult fish right away, but bear with it for a while, hide it in your pocket, and kill it at the deportation station where there is water.It is more difficult to deal with the soggy Azov sea knife fish sprinkled with coarse salt.You can't keep this thing in your pocket.Quickly catch it with your skirt, handkerchief, or the palm of your hand, and eat it immediately.The saury is distributed on someone's clothes, while the dried catfish escorts are directly dumped on the floor of the private room, and then distributed on the seats or on people's laps. Yakubovich ("In the World of the Abandoned", Moscow, 1964, Vol. 1) describes the scene of the last century: In those terrible times, on the way to Siberia, each person spent a day Ten kopecks were given for board.A local loaf of wheat flour (three kilos?) costs five kopecks; a crock of milk (two kilos?) costs three kopecks. "Life is pretty easy for the prisoners," he wrote.However, prices in Irkutsk are a bit higher, at ten kopeks a pound of meat.So "the prisoners were literally starving".Is it not the same as half a herring to give a man a pound of meat a day? ... If the fish has been sent to you, then the bread will not be suspended, and maybe a pinch of sugar will be sprinkled on you.The worse situation is that the escort team members came over and announced that we will not be working today, and your rations have not been distributed.It may also be that it was not sent out: the number was filled in the wrong place on the accounting office of a certain prison.It may also be the case: the hair was distributed, but the escort team members did not have enough rations (their stomachs are usually not so full), so they decided to take some bread from the prisoners' mouths.But if the prisoner was only given half a fresh fish and no bread, it would arouse suspicion. Of course, this is still not intentional to make the prisoner suffer: after eating fresh fish, they are not given drinking water (never given), not even raw water.You have to understand: the escort team has a limited establishment, some of them are on guard in the corridors, on duty at the passing platform of the carriages, and climb up and down outside the carriages when they are parked to check for holes.The other part was cleaning the gun.Moreover, political study and combat doctrine study always take up some time.There are also some people who are not on duty who need to sleep. The legal eight hours of sleep must be guaranteed. Now the war is over.Besides, it took a long way to carry a bucket to fetch water, and I still felt suffocated in my heart: why should a Soviet soldier carry water like a mule to serve the enemies of the people?Sometimes the "Zek carriage" was dragged out of the station (in order to avoid people's eyes and ears) for a whole day because of train formation and rerouting, and there was no place to fetch water for the Red Army kitchen.To be sure, there was a solution: scooping up the muddy, yellow, oily water from the locomotive's tender, which the prisoners would have liked to drink.Anyway, I couldn't see anything clearly in the semi-dark private room (their side had no windows, no lights, only a little light from the corridor side).Also, it takes a long time to make water.The prisoners didn't have their own jars, and they confiscated any they had, so they had to use two public jars for drinking.At this time, you have to stand there, scoop and pass, and pass the scoop until they drink enough. (The prisoners themselves also set up some rules: what is given to those who are not sick first, then to those who are suffering from tuberculosis, and finally to those who are suffering from syphilis. It seems that the next private room does not start from scratch: first give to those who are not sick... ) Well, even if the escort team endured all this, it would be fine if the group of plague pigs were filled with water and didn't ask to be relieved.But the result was always the same: They were not given water for a day and a night, and they did not ask to relieve themselves.If you give water once, you need to relieve your hands once; if you can pass it on to them.Give water twice.It needs to be solved twice.This calculation is easy to make, but it is better not to give water. The reluctance to let them relieve their hands is not because it is a pity for the toilet, but because the responsibility is so great that it is even equivalent to a combat operation: it takes a long time to complete with one private and two privates.Two posts need to be set up, one at the door of the toilet and the other at the other end of the corridor, to prevent them from rushing there.Put one back in first, and then let the one out.The ordinance again allowed one person to be released at a time, in case they rushed out together to prevent a riot.In this way, when one person goes to the toilet, the 30 people in the private room and the 120 people in the whole car have to wait, and the escort team on duty also has to wait! "Hey! Hey! Hurry up! Hurry up!" he said as he walked to the lavatory as the corporals and privates kept stepping at him.So the man staggered forward, making it look as if he was running to snatch the hole in the toilet from the state. (In 1949, in Moscow-Kuibyshev's "Stalin" carriage, a one-legged German, Schulz, understood the meaning of the Russian's haha, and used one leg to hop around quickly when going to the toilet back, causing the guards to laugh. They told him to jump faster. During one release, the guard pushed him in the aisle in front of the toilet, and Schultz fell down. The guard got angry and beat him up. He. Schultz couldn't stand up under the punches and kicks, so he had to crawl into the dirty toilet. The other escorts watched and laughed again.) To prevent prisoners from escaping during the few seconds they are in the toilets, and to allow for a quick turnaround, the toilet doors are left open.While standing at the passageway to observe the process of releasing your hands, the escort will help you with force: "Hey! Hey!... It's done! It's done! At the beginning of the interrogation, he ordered you: "Only the little hands are allowed to be released!" "The soldier on guard at the passage at this time will never allow you to do anything else. As for the hands, of course, they are never washable: there is not enough water in the tank, and there is no time. All the prisoner touches is the little plug on the pipe for washing his face." , The escort immediately yelled from the passing platform: "Hey, don't move, let's go! "(Even if someone has soap and a towel in his bag, he's too embarrassed to take it out: that's too much of a "Fullie" foolishness.) The toilet is filthy inside. "Come on!hurry up! "The prisoner squeezed into the private room with stinky mud soup on his feet, stepped on other people's arms and shoulders to climb to the upper bunk, and then his two dirty shoes dangled from the third bunk, hanging on the second bunk, dripping water. When a female prisoner is relieved, the guard service regulations and common sense require that the toilet door be kept open, but not all escort members insist on this, and some connive at them, telling them: Forget it, close the door! (Afterwards, a female prisoner was called to clean the toilet, and the escort had to stand by to prevent her from escaping.) Even at such a high speed, it would take more than two hours for the 120 people to relieve themselves—more than a quarter of the duty time of the three escorts!And there is no way to satisfy them anyway!Anyway, after half an hour, there will be another hourglass-like old man crying and trying to relieve himself.Of course he would not be allowed to go, but he was dragged in his private room, which would cause trouble for the private officer: he was forced to put it away with his hands and carry it out. In the final analysis: they must relieve less!This means - to drink less water.Food is also given sparingly, so that they don't get upset and don't poison the air.Otherwise, is it still plausible?I couldn't breathe in the car! Give less water!But the stipulated adult fish should be sent according to the regulations!Not giving water is a reasonable measure, not sending salted herring is a crime of malfeasance. No one deliberately tortured us!The behavior of the escort team is in line with clean-up.But our situation is like the ancient Christians in a cage, and people sprinkle salt on our bloody tongue. Similarly, the escort team never had any special purpose (occasionally did have) to mix prisoners belonging to Article 58 with thieves and ordinary prisoners in the same private room during the deportation process. There are too few private rooms, and time is too tight-how can I find time to figure out these things?One of the four private rooms is reserved for female prisoners, and even if the personnel in the other three rooms have to be classified, they can only be divided according to the arrival station to facilitate getting off the train. Was Christ crucified between two murderers because Pilate intended to insult him?No, it just happened to be the day when these men were to be crucified, and there was only one of Golgotha, and time was short, so he was listed among the criminals. I don't even dare to imagine what I might have experienced if I were in the position of an ordinary prisoner... The officers of the escort team and the deportation station treated me and my companions with courtesy and courtesy... As a political prisoner, I went to serve hard labor The journey was relatively comfortable - at the deportation station, I lived in a room separate from the criminals, and there was a cart, on which my one-pound heavy luggage was placed... ... I omitted the quotation marks in the above paragraph, in order to enable readers to better understand the meaning.Because the quotation marks are not used to express sarcasm, but to express the meaning of others.Now that the quotes are removed, that sounds kind of weird, doesn't it? The above is Yakubovich's description of the 1990s.The book, now in reprint, aims to use that dark age to educate readers today.We know from the book that even on barges, political prisoners have special cabins, and there are special ventilation areas on the deck. (The same is described in the book. The outsider, Prince Nechrudolph, can also go to the political prisoners and talk to them.) Just because "the word political prisoner with magical powers was left out" after the name of Kubovich on the list (In his own words), at Ustkala he was received "by the Inspector of Hard Labor ... as a common criminal - with a Zulu, arrogance, and insolence".However, fortunately, the misunderstanding was clarified afterwards. What an incredible time!In those days, it was almost a crime to confuse a political prisoner with a criminal!Criminals had to line up to go to the station, and were escorted along the street in an embarrassing manner.Political prisoners could travel in a carriage (Oliminsky, 1899).Political prisoners do not eat big pots of rice, but receive food expenses, and meals are delivered by small restaurants.The Bolshevik Oliminsky refused to accept even sick rations, which he found too crude.Because one of the guards called Oliminsky "you", the warden apologized to him and said: "Political prisoners are rare here, and the guards don't understand..." Butirkari political prisoners are rare! ... Isn't it a dream?So where are they?Besides, there was no Lubinka at that time, let alone Lefortovo! Radishev was issued in shackles.It was a very cold time, and the messenger took off a "vulgar bare sheepskin jacket" from a night watchman and put it on for him.However, Ekaterina immediately issued a decree, ordering the release of the shackles, and sending all the items he needed on the way.But in November 1927, when Anna Skripnikova was deported from Butyrka to Solovets, she was wearing a straw hat; wearing summer clothes (she was arrested in summer . Her room has been sealed since then, and no one will allow her to take out her winter clothes from the house). Separating political prisoners from criminals -- which means treating them with respect as equal opponents, means acknowledging that people can have their own opinions.Acting in this way, even the political prisoners under arrest will feel politically free! However, since people like you and me have all become counter-revolutionaries, and socialists of all kinds have failed to maintain their status as political prisoners, from now on, if you protest again, you will no longer object to mixing you-political prisoners and criminal prisoners Heap, that can only arouse the laughter of the prisoners and the confusion of the guards. "We're full of criminals here," the guards will honestly answer you. This mixing, this thrilling encounter, takes place either in "The Raven Car" or in the "Zek Carriage".Before that, whatever oppression, torture, and torture you received during the investigation, it all came from the blue-brimmed hat, and you didn't treat these things as human beings.In your eyes, they are just representatives of a tyrannical institution.However, your fellow inmates, even if their qualifications and experience are completely different from yours, even if you argue with them red-faced, even if they make small reports about you, they belong to the same habit that you have spent your whole life with. sinful, petty human beings. When you are pushed into a "Stalin" private room, you also think that you will only meet partners in trouble here.All your enemies and oppressors remain on the other side of the iron bars, where you will not meet them.Suddenly, you raised your head and looked at the square gap in the middle bunk—that is, the only sky above your head, and you saw three or four...no, not human faces!No, it's not monkey face either, monkey face is much more correct!What you see are the faces of some brutal, vicious beasts with expressions of greed and sarcasm.They look at you like a spider looks at a fly in its web.The iron fence is their net, now you are caught!They grin as if they are about to bite you from the side.They made a hissing sound when they spoke.They feel more comfortable making this hissing sound than speaking in a language with voiceless and consonant sounds.Only the endings of the verbs and nouns were recognizable in Russian.They spoke in an incomprehensible lingo. These bizarre gorillas wear almost nothing but a vest: it's stiflingly hot inside.Their veined, crimson necks, their rounded shoulders, their tattooed black breasts were untouched by the harshness of prison life.What are they?Where did it come from?Suddenly something drooped from under such a neck—a little cross!Yes, a cross hanging from a string.You are amazed, you are slightly relieved: how touching it is that there are believers among them!Looks like nothing terrible is going to happen.But it was this "religionist" who suddenly opened his mouth to curse the cross and faith (they speak more or less like Russian when they curse), and he stretched out two fingers, stretched straight, split into two forks, and poked you in the eyes Come - not to threaten, but to really pick out the eyeballs. "You dead body that feeds old birds, I'm going to pick out your eyeballs!" All their philosophies and beliefs are expressed in this eyeball-picking gesture.Since they can crush your eyeball like a stickworm, what else can they spare on your body and with you?The crucifix shakes, and you look at this savage masquerade with your eyes that are not yet poked out, and you are puzzled; who has gone mad, you or them?Who will go crazy right away? All your lifelong habits of dealing with people are destroyed in an instant.All your previous life, especially before arrest, and even after arrest, and even to some extent during the period of investigation, you have spoken to people and they have spoken to you.These words can have an effect, or persuade, or refuse, or agree.You remember all kinds of relationships between people - requests, orders, thanks.But nothing you encounter in this place has anything to do with these words and relationships.Look, now these brutes have sent an envoy, a figure of that sort, probably a delinquent juvenile delinquent, whose tyrannical manner is exceedingly repulsive.This little impermanent untied your rucksack, and reached into your pocket with his hand--not to search, but to dig out your pocket!From this moment on, everything you have is no longer yours, and you yourself are just a rubber dummy wrapped in some extra clothes that can be taken off at any time.To this ferocious weasel, to those animal-faced creatures above, it is impossible to explain in words, to reject, to prohibit, to beseech.They're not human, you know that in the blink of an eye.There's only one thing you can do - beat up!Either take this little trick up, or beat up those big beasts above. But how to deal with the three above from below?Despite that little trick, it seems that it is not appropriate to hit a child?Can only be pushed away gently? ...But you can't push it, because he will bite your nose off immediately, or the one above will open your head immediately (they have knives, of course, but they won't pull them out, they don't want to dirty the blade on you) . You look at your neighbors, at your fellow sufferers - let us resist, or protest!But all your fellow sufferers, your "fifty-eight articles", have been looted one by one before you, and they sat there obediently with their backs bent.It's all right if they look away from you, and sometimes they look at you nonchalantly, as if it wasn't an outrage, or a robbery, but a natural phenomenon: it's going to rain, and grass will grow on the ground. The reason is - you missed the moment, gentlemen, comrades, brothers!When Struzhinsky set himself on fire in Vyatka Prison, or even before you were declared a "counter-revolutionary", you should have had a sudden realization and remember who you are. And now, you let people strip you of your coat.A twenty-rouble note sewn into the coat was felt, and the cloth was torn off.Your bag is thrown overhead for "examination", and everything your sentimental wife prepared for your trip after the sentencing is left there.They drop a toothbrush in a little pocket and give it back to you...   In the 1930s and 1940s, not everyone, but ninety-nine percent of the people were submissively allowed to be slaughtered in this way. (I have heard a small number of such cases: three (young and strong) people huddled together and withstood the attack of thieves. But they did not uphold universal justice, did not protect those who were robbed around them, only protected themselves. They maintain armed neutrality.) How did this happen?Men!Officers!Warriors ahead! For a man to fight bravely, he must be prepared for the battle, anticipate it, and understand its purpose.And in this place, everything is not there: the man has never had to deal with thieves, he did not expect this battle, and the main thing - in his original conception (wrongly) his only enemy It's a blue hoop hat, so it doesn't understand the necessity of this battle at all.It would take him a lot of education to understand that the tattooed breast is the butt of the blue hat.They embody the revelation that men who wear epaulettes never say aloud, "Damn you today, I'll be tomorrow!"The new prisoner wanted to think of himself as a political prisoner, that is to say he was on the side of the people and the state was against them.At this time, unexpectedly, a group of nimble ghosts attacked him from behind and from the side.As a result all boundaries are blurred and clear concepts are shattered. (It took the prisoner a long time to concentrate and think, before he could figure out that the ghosts and the wardens were all out of the same nose.) For a man to be able to fight bravely, he needs to feel sheltered behind him, supported on his flanks, and grounded beneath his feet.A "fifty-eight" prisoner loses all these conditions.After passing through the meat grinder of political investigation, the human body is destroyed: he has endured hunger and sleepiness, he has been frozen in a solitary cell, he has been beaten so badly that he lies paralyzed on the ground.But more than just the body?He was also devastated mentally.Again and again it was explained to him and proved to him that his views, his actions in life, his relations with men, were all wrong, because they had led to his ruin.After being crushed in the computer room of the court, what was left in the mass of human flesh thrown out and handed over to the escort was only the desire to survive, without the slightest understanding.彻底摧毁和彻底隔绝--这就是对五十八条案件侦查的任务。必须使被判罪人懂得,他们在外面最大的罪过就是企图绕过党组织和工会的负责人或行政领导,以某种方式擅自联系或结合。在监狱里这发展成为对任何集体行动的恐惧:两人提出同一内容的申诉或者两人在同一张纸上签名。这些从此永远打消了搞任何联合行动的念头的假政治犯们,现在是不准备联合一致对抗盗窃犯的。他们也根本想不到在车厢和递解站里要携带武器--小刀或短锤。第一,要它干什么?对付谁?第二,你若是使用了它,你头上的凶险的五十八条的大帽子是一个加重情节,再审时你可能得到死刑判决。第三,在使用它以前,如果在你身上搜出刀子,你受的惩罚将不同于盗窃犯:他携带对子,那是淘气。传统、觉悟低;你带刀子,就是恐怖行动。 最后,根据五十八条坐牢的人们当中很大一部分是一些温顺的人(常常是老人、病人),一辈子动口不动手,现在仍和以往一样是不适宜动拳头的。 可是盗窃犯们却没有经受过这样的侦查。对他们的全部侦查只包括两次讯问,再就是一次马马虎虎的审判,一个短暂的刑期。就连这样的刑期他们也无需服满。他们是能提前出去的:或者是大赦,或者自己逃跑了事。即使在侦查期间也没有人剥夺一个盗贼享用外面送进来的牢饭的权利--这是万逍遥法外的同伙们送来的丰富的食物。他一天也没有掉膘,一天也没有衰弱。在押解途中他也能靠敲诈"福来儿"补充点油水。盗窃和抢劫的刑事条款对于他不仅仅毫无压力,相反,他以犯这种罪为骄傲--他的这种自豪感得到所有蓝肩章、蓝滚边的首长们的支持:"没有什么。虽然你是强盗、杀人犯,但你不是叛国分子,你是我们的人,你是能改正的。"盗窃罪的律条里没有第十一项--"组织"。盗贼的组织是不遭禁止的。干吗要禁止?让它帮助促进我们社会如此需要的集体主义感情不好吗?搜缴他们的武器也只是做戏。不会因为携带武器而惩罚他们。他们的规则是受到尊重的("他们非这样不行")。杀人犯在监室里又杀了人,非但不会延长刑期,反而会给他增添光彩。 这一切确有很深的根源。马克思对流氓无产阶级的指责,无非是说它缺乏坚持到底的精神和情绪变化无常。而斯大林对盗贼则一向偏爱--是谁替他抢劫银行的?早在一九0一年他的党内和狱中的同志们就曾指责他利用刑事罪犯对付他的政敌。从二十年代起还产生了一个颇为奉承的术语:社会亲近分子。马卡连柯也有同样的论点:这类人是可以改造的。(按照马卡连柯的看法,犯罪的根源只能是"反革命的地下活动"。)那一类是不能改造的,那就是工程师、神甫、社会革命党人、孟什维克。 既然没有人管束,为什么不偷盗?三四个结伙横行的盗窃犯就能对几十名吓怕了压垮了的假政治犯称王称霸。 有首长们的赞许。以先进理论为依据。 但是,即使不用拳头进行反击,受害者为什么不上告呢?任何声音走廊里都是能听到的。押解队的士兵们正在栅栏外面慢悠悠地来回走动。 This is indeed a problem.每一个响声,每一声嘶哑的哀告都能听到,而押解员照旧来回踱他的步子--为什么他不来干涉?离他一米之遥的昏暗的洞穴--包房--里正发生一件枪案,为什么国家的卫士不出来干涉? 仍是同样的原因;他也被灌输了这种理论。 更甚于此的是,对盗窃犯实行了多年的优待之后,押解队本身也在朝这个方向演变。押解队本身变成了盗贼。 从三十年代中期到四十年代中期,也就是盗窃犯最猖狂,对政治犯欺压最深重的十年,谁也想不起押解队制止过一次在监室、车厢、"乌鸦车"里对政治犯的抢劫。相反,人们会告诉你押解队收受盗贼赃物并供给他们伏特加、(比口粮高级的)食物、烟草作为交换的大量事例。这类例子已经是司空见惯的了。 毕竟押解队的中土也是一个穷光蛋:武器、背卷、饭盒、士兵口粮就是他的全部家当。要求他押解一个穿着贵重皮大衣或铬鞣皮靴、提着一包城里的阔气东西的人民敌人而且还要他容忍这种不平等现象--这未免太残酷了。夺取这些奢侈品不也正是阶级斗争的一种形式吗?在这方面还能有什么别的准则? 一九四五--四六年,当时犯人们不是来自什么别的地方,而是川流不息地从欧洲涌来。他们身上穿的,行囊里装的都是欧洲的稀罕物件,连押解队的军官们也抗不住了。他们的职务使他们躲开了火线,可是也使他们失去了在战争末期捞取战利品的机会--你说这公平吗? 在这种情况下,押解队把盗窃犯和政治犯掺混在一起已经不是偶然的,不是由于仓促,不是因为空间不够,而是为了谋求自己的私利。盗窃犯们也不辜负他们苦心:衣物从"海狸"身上剥下来,转手就进了押解队的箱子。 但是,如果海狸们已经装进了车厢,列车已经开动,而盗贼却一个没有,嗯,干脆一个也没有装上车,今天沿线哪一站都没有遣送盗窃犯,那该怎么办?这种情形也听说有过几次。 一九四七年押送一批外国人由莫斯科去弗拉基米尔中心监狱服刑。第一次打开箱子就显出他们有贵重物品。这时押解队亲自动手在车厢里有条不紊地挑拣东西。为了防止遗漏,他们把犯人们脱得精光,叫他nl坐在厕所附近的地板上,押解队仔细地翻看和挑拣他们所有的东西。押解队没有考虑到,这批犯人不是去劳改营,而是送往一座正经八百的监狱。到达目的地,科尔涅也夫提出一份书面申诉,描写了全部经过。那支押解队被找回来了,对他们进行了搜查。查出了一部分东西归还了原主;没有查出的,给了赔偿。据说押解人员分别判了十年至十五年。不过这类事情没法核实,况且他们犯的是盗窃罪,在监狱里是蹲不长的。 然而这是个例外的事件。那个押解队长如果及时克制一下自己的贪欲,本来会明白,这种事顶好不要亲自沾手。下面还有一个比较简单的事例,正因为简单,所以可能是经常发生的。一九四五年八月,在一节从莫斯科开往新西伯利亚城的"泽克"车厢里(A?苏济正好在这节车里被送解)正巧一个盗窃犯也没有。旅程很长;当时的"斯托雷平"是慢慢爬的。押解队长一点不用着急,他选好了适当的时间,宣布进行搜身,让犯人单个地带东西到走廊里来。被叫到的必须按狱规脱光衣服,但是搜身的真实用意并不在此,因为被搜过的人又回到自己原来的挤得满满的包房。随便什么刀子、什么违禁品都能在同房犯人中转手。搜身的真正意图是对全部私人物品--身上穿的,袋里装的--进行摸底。押解队长(军官)和他的助手(中土)站在这些口袋旁边,他们对于长时间的搜身一点不感到厌烦,始终摆出一副傲慢的一本正经的神气。罪恶的贪欲禁不住要冒到外面来,但是军官以假装的冷漠将它按捺下去。他的处境如同一个老色鬼,眼巴巴地瞧着一些小姑娘,可是顾忌在场的旁人,对小姑娘们本身也有所顾忌,不知道该怎么样下手。他是多么需要几名盗窃犯啊!但是这批犯人里偏偏没有。 犯人里没有盗贼,可是有一些被监狱里的盗贼气氛熏染了的人。要知道,盗贼的榜样有教育作用,是会引起人们效仿的:它指出监狱中有一条轻巧的生路。两个不久以前的军官--萨宁(海军)和梅列日科夫--同关在一间包房里。他们两人都是"五十八条",但目前已经转向了。萨宁在梅列日科夫的支持下宣布自己是本包房的室长,他通过押解员请求队长接见。(他看透了队长的傲慢神气,猜出他需要一名拉纤的!)这是破天荒的事,可是萨宁真地被叫出去了,而且在什么地方进行了交谈。另一间包房里的什么人也学着萨宁的榜样求见队长。那家伙也被接见了。 第二天早上发面包,不是按当时解犯口粮标准每人发五百五十克,而是二百五十克。 口粮发完了,开始有人小声埋怨。有埋怨,可是因为害怕"集体行动",这些政治犯没有人出来说话。只有一个人站出来大声问发口粮的: "首长公民!这口粮是多少分量?" "该多少就是多少。"回答他说。 "我要求重新过秤,否则我不接受!"那个不要命的人高声宣布。 整个车厢鸦雀无声。许多人拿着口粮不往嘴里放,他们等着,说不定连他们的也会给重新过秤。在这个节骨眼上,一位清白无假的军官走了过来。在一片静默中,他的话更加沉重地、更加不可抗拒地砸在每个人的心上: "是谁在这里发表了反对苏维埃政权的言论?" 众人的心都不跳了。(有人会反驳说,这不过是很普通的手法。狱外随便一个小头头都把自己宣布为苏维埃政权,谁会去跟他当真呢!但是对于那些吓怕了的人,对于那些被定了反苏活动罪的人,这一手还是比较吓人的。) "是谁在这为口粮发动暴乱?"军官咬定不放。 "中尉公民,我只是想……"那个闯下了大祸的造反者已经在为自己辩解了。 "啊,是你?畜牲!是你不喜欢苏维埃政权吗?" (为什么要造反?为什么要争执?难道把这一小块口粮吃下肚子,忍过去,不吭气,不是简单得多?瞧现在"卡脖"了……. "臭死尸!反革命!应该把你这小子在绞架上过过秤,你还要给口粮过秤?!苏维埃政权供你吃,供你喝,你这毒蛇还不满意?知道你干的事该怎么处理吗?……" 对押解队一声命令:"带出来!"铁锁哐啷一响。"出来,手背过去!"倒霉蛋被带走了。 "还有谁不满意?还有谁要过秤的?" (还以为能把问题讲清楚吗?还以为只要告到上头,说只发了二百五十克,人家就会相信你说的而不相信中尉说的发足了五百克吗?) 对于挨过痛打的狗,只要拿根鞭子给它看看就行了。其他的人全都表示没有意见。于是这种惩戒性的定量就成为这趟漫长旅程的固定口粮标准。砂糖也从此停发--押解队留下了。 (这件事发生在辉映我国史册并将供后人长期研究的取得对德、日的两大胜利的那个夏天。) 饿了一天、两天,人变得稍微聪明了。萨宁对本包房的人说:"伙计们,听我说,咱们这样下去都得完蛋。谁有好东西,拿出来吧,我去换吃的给你填饱肚子。"他满有把握地收下一些东西,回绝一些东西。(有人不愿意拿出来--那就随他的便!)然后,他提出要和梅列日科夫一起出包房。怪事--押解队竟放他们出去了。他们带着东西朝押解队的包房走去,从那儿带回来切成薄片的面包和马合烟。这是从每间包房一天的口粮中克扣下来的七公斤面包的一部分,不过现在不是均分给全体,而是只分给交出东西的那些人。 这完全是公公道道的事:他们不是全都表示过对减少的口粮没有意见吗?从另一方面说也公道,因为人家交出的东西多少也值几个钱,总得付点报酬才是。从长远看来也公道:须知这些东西对于劳改营是过分高级了,在那里反正都会被没收或者偷光。 马合烟可是押解队自己贡献的。当兵的拿出自己珍贵的马合烟和犯人们分享。但这也是公道的,因为他们也吃掉了犯人的面包,用掉了他们的砂糖(这种好东西敌人不配吃)。最后还有一件公道事;萨宁和梅列日科夫虽然没有拿出东西,可是捞到的好处比拿出东西的主儿还多--那是因为没有他俩这项交易就办不成。 人们在昏暗中拥挤地坐着,一些人嚼着属于身旁的人们的面包,而那些人眼睛盯着他们。押解员不让犯人单个地借火,两个小时只给点一次烟--那时整个车厢里烟雾腾腾,好像着了火。那些起先舍不得拿东西的人现在后悔没有交给萨宁,这时求他收下他们的东西,但是萨宁表示--等下回再说吧! 如果不是战后那几年的拖拖拉拉的列车,拖拖拉拉的"泽克车厢",不是一会儿换挂,一会儿被甩在车站上,这次行动就不可能进行得如此顺利和如此彻底。另一方面,如果没有那一段战后时期,也就不会有那么多惹人眼馋的东西。走了一个星期才到古比雪夫-一整整一个星期国家每天只发给二百五十克面包讲过这已经相当于双倍的围困时期的口粮),再加上一条风干鲜鱼和白水。其余的面包要用自己的东西去赎买。很快就出现了供过于求的状况,押解队已经很不愿意收受东西,他们开始桃三栋四了。 他们被押进了古比雪夫递解站,洗了个澡,按原来的编队带回原来的车厢。一支新派来的押解队接收了他们。但是办理交接的时候,显然已经把搞东西的妙诀传授给下一班。于是那条赎买自己口粮的规矩又恢复了,直到新西伯利亚城。(不难设想,这条感染力极强的经验一定在各押解大队得到迅速的推广。) 在新西伯利亚城下车以后,叫他们在两条线路中间的地面坐下,来了一个没有见过的军官。他问:"对押解队有申诉没有?"大家茫然,没有人答话。 那头一个押解队队长的算盘打准了。 "泽克车厢"的乘客还有一点不同于列车里的其他乘客:他们不知道列车的去向,不知道他们该在哪一站下车。因为他们没有车票,也看不见车厢外挂着的那块站名牌。在莫斯科,让他们上车的地方有时离月台老远,连他们当中的本市人也认不出这是八个火车站中的哪一个。囚犯们在恶臭和拥挤的车厢里等待调车头,一等就是几小时。瞧,它来了。它把"泽克车厢"拉去挂在已经编组好的列车上。如果是夏天,会传来车站广播室的喇叭声:"由莫斯科开往乌发方面的列车在第三股道发车……由莫斯科开往塔什干方面的列车在第一站台上车……"这说明是喀山车站。熟悉"群岛"地理及其线路的行家们开始向同伴们讲解:沃尔库塔、伯朝拉都排除了,去那两个地方要从雅罗斯拉夫尔车站出发;基洛夫、高尔基劳改营也排除了。 荣誉的麦捆里也会掺杂进莠草。但这仅仅是莠草吗?毕竟没有什么普希金、果戈理、托尔斯泰劳改营--却有高尔基劳改营,而且是怎样的魔窟啊!此外还专门有一座"以马克辛?高尔基命名的"苦役金矿(距离艾尔根四十公里)!是的,阿列克谢?马克西莫维奇,……"同志,以您的心和您的名义……"假如敌人不投降,就……,你说出了一个满不在乎的字眼,可是瞧吧--你已经不再是文学界中的人了…… 莫斯科从来不往白俄罗斯、乌克兰、高加索方向送犯人,那些地方连自己的犯人也盛不下了。我们再听听。乌发方面已经发车,我们的没有动。塔什干的走了,我们还停着。 "由莫斯科开往新西伯利亚城方面的列车离开车时间还有……,请送旅客的同志们下车……旅客们,请把车票准备好……"开动了。is ours!这能证明什么呢?Not sure yet.伏尔加中游为我们准备着,南乌拉尔也为我们准备着。哈萨克斯坦的杰兹卡兹甘铜矿等着我们。等着我们的还有泰谢特的枕木浸制厂(听说那里的杂酚油会浸入皮肤和骨头,它的蒸气会充满肺叶--这就是死亡)。整个西伯利亚直到苏维埃港都在为我们准备着。科雷马是我们的。诺里尔斯克也是我们的。 如果是冬天,车厢封死了,听不见广播喇叭;如果押解班子又是严守条令的--你也不会听到他们谈论解送的路线。那么,就这样出发吧。让我们在人体的夹缝里,在车轮有节奏的隆隆声中睡去吧--也不知道明日窗外将出现的是森林还是草原(我指的是走廊一侧的窗外)。睡在中铺上的人,通过栅栏、走廊、双层玻璃以及窗外的又一道栅栏,总算还能看到站内的几股侧线和在列车外飞逝的一小块空间。如果玻璃上没有结冰,有时还能认出站名--什么阿甫修宁诺或者翁多尔之类。这些车站在哪儿?……包房里没有人知道。有时候根据太阳可以判断我们这是往北还是往东。或者,在一个叫做什么图番诺沃的小站上,一个衣着破烂的普通犯被推进你们的包房。他会告诉你,他这是被押到丹尼洛夫市去受审。他担心会给判上一亩年。据此你们就能知道昨天夜晚通过了雅罗斯拉夫尔,同时这表明途中第一个递解站将是沃洛格达。这时候包房里必然会出现一些百事通,他们将板起面孔拿腔拿调地学说一遍那句有名的俗语:沃洛格达的押解队可不是闹着玩的!他们学着北方人的口音,把每一个"O"字都念成重读。 光知道方向仍然等于一无所知;你们前面的那根细线上结着许许多多的小疙瘩,那就是一个一个的递解站,在任何一个站上都可能让你们拐弯。无论乌赫塔,无论因塔,无论沃尔库塔你都不喜欢,可是你以为五0一工程--穿过西伯利亚北部的冻土带铁路--比别处甜一点吗?告诉你,它比哪儿都糟。 战争结束五年以后,囚犯的各条水流终归流进了河床(或许仅仅是因为内务部扩大了编制?)。部里对数以百万计的积案进行了清理,从此每个犯人随附一包装在密封纸袋里的监狱档案,纸袋上专门为押解队做了一个切口,把押解路线露在外面。(除了押解路线,让押解人员知道更多的事情是没有好处的;档案内容对他们可能起腐蚀作用。)如果你躺在中铺上,又会倒着认字,当中士正好在你旁边停留的时候,也许你能碰巧窥认出谁谁将押往克尼亚日-波戈斯特,而你则是去卡尔戈波尔的。 唉,现在心里更增加了烦恼! --卡尔戈波尔劳改营怎么样?谁听说过?那儿的一般作业是什么活儿(有些一般作业是要人命的,有的稍轻一些)。那儿是个阎王殿?isn't it? 你怎么搞的,怎么出发时慌里慌张地没有给家里人捎个信?他们这会儿还以为你仍是在图拉附近的斯大林诺戈尔斯克劳改营里呢。如果你确实很心急,又确实很灵活,也许你能完成这个任务:谁身上或许藏着一厘米长的一截铅笔芯,谁或许有一张揉皱了的纸片。小心别让走廊上的押解员发现。(可是又不许脚朝走廊躺着,只许头朝走廊。)你弯曲着身子,脸扭向另一边,在车厢的晃动中给家里人写封信吧。告诉他们你突然被从原地提走,现在正在途中,到新地方以后可能一年只准写一封信,叫他们有个准备。你把信叠成三角形,上厕所时带去碰碰运气:说不定正好在进站前或刚一出站后让你们去解手,说不定押解员会在通过台打瞌睡,这时赶快踩踏板,找开下粪洞,用身子做掩护,把信捅进洞口!它会沾上尿和粪,但是可能通过洞口掉在轨道中间。甚至可能干干净净地蹿出去,被车下的气流卷起,打着旋儿落到轮子下面或者竟能躲过轮子而飘到路基的堤坡上。也许它将永远留在这里,直到来一场雨,下一场雪,直到它碎烂。也许会被人的手拣起。如果碰上这个人不是思想进步的,他会把地址写清楚,把字迹描整齐,或者另装一个信封。--瞧,这封信兴许就能收到。这种信有时确有送到的--盖着欠资戳,磨破了,泡湿了,揉皱了,但是传来了清晰可闻的痛苦的心声…… 但更好是--你们要尽快地不要再当这种所谓的"福来儿"--可笑的新手、冤大头、牺牲品。百分之九十九的可能是你们的信寄不到。就算寄到了,也不会给家里带去欢乐。既然你们进入了这个史诗的国度,就不要再用小时和昼夜衡量你们的生命。这里的进来和出去间隔着几十年、四分之一世纪。你们永远回不到你们原来的世界!你们越快地习惯于没有家,家里人越快地习惯于没有你们,那就越好,越轻快。 尽可能少有东西,免得为它们担惊受怕。不要有手提箱,省得押解队在车厢门口把它砸烂(每间包房要装二十五个人,你处在他们的地位能想出什么别的法子?)。不要有新皮靴,不要有式样新颖的便鞋,不要有毛料外衣:这些东西或在"泽克车厢"里,或在"乌鸦车"里,或在递解站的接收室里,反正都会被偷光、拿走、抢光和换掉。自己拱手交出去--屈辱将啃啮你们的心。让人家动武抢去--你们要为自己的财物落得嘴角流血。这些厚颜无耻的嘴脸,这种侮弄嘲笑的架势,这些两条腿的畜类令你厌恶--但是因为拥有私产并且为了它们浑身发颤,你们不就丧失了观察和理解这类现象的难得机会吗?你们以为基普林和古米列夫彩笔描绘的那些海上走私贩、海盗、伟大的私掠船船长不是跟他们一类的盗贼吗?他们正是这类人……在罗曼蒂克的文学画面里他们是令人神往的,为什么在这里却令你们厌恶呢?
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