Chapter 40 Chapter 9 Handyman-1

One of the first local concepts that newcomers to the camp learn is "handyman."It is a title unceremoniously given by the natives to anyone who has managed not to share in the common doom, whether he has escaped from ordinary labor or has not fallen into it at all. There are quite a few handymen on the islands.In the living quarters, there is a strict proportional limit on the number of such people, listed as "Category B" on the registration form.In production areas, there are staffing table restrictions.But they always break through the percentage: half of it is due to the huge pressure of the number of people who want to survive, and half of it is due to the inability of the labor camp to predict the quota, and it is impossible to operate and manage with less manpower.

According to the statistics of the People's Commissariat of Justice in 1933, the number of people engaged in various services in places of deprivation of liberty, including economic management (including, of course, "self-care"), accounted for 20% of the total number of natives two.If we reduce that number to seventeen percent -- eighteen percent (not counting the Self-Defense Forces), it's still one-sixth of the total.It can be seen from this that what this chapter deals with is a very important phenomenon in the labor camps.But there are far more than one-sixth of the handymen: because only the handymen in the camp are counted here, and there are also production handymen; besides, the composition of the handymen is very mobile, and obviously there are more people in the entire camp. He once worked as a handyman during his reform-through-labour career.The most important thing is that handymen accounted for a large proportion of those who survived; according to my feeling, among the long-term prisoners under Article 58 who survived and were released, nine out of ten were handymen.

Nearly every long-term convict who was lucky enough to survive a robbery was a handyman, or spent most of his sentence doing it. Because this is "Elimination Battalion" - please don't forget this. Classification in the world has no clear boundaries, and the transition is always gradual.Same thing in this case: the edges are blurry.Generally speaking, anyone who does not go to work outside the living area on weekdays can be regarded as a handyman in the camp.Working in the General Affairs Compound is much easier than working as a coolie in general labor.In the morning, you don't have to stand in line to wait for dispatch, which means you can get up later and have breakfast later.It also saves the journey of being escorted to and from work; less harsh treatment, less exposure to cold, and less effort.Besides, the working day ends early; the workplace is either warm or has access to it at all times.In addition, his work is generally not done in the homework class, but a handicraft done alone.This means that he does not need to listen to his companions, but only to his officers.But because he often does some private work for the chief.Therefore, instead of being full, they can get some rewards and sweets, such as allowing the first batch of collars and shoes to be allowed.In addition, he has a good opportunity to take jobs from other prisoners to earn extra money.To put it more clearly: the general affairs compound is like the workshop of the servants of the manor.If the fitters, carpenters, and furnace builders among them are not the loud handymen, then the shoemaker, especially the tailor, is already a high-ranking figure in the handyman. The title of "tailor" in the labor camp is similar to that of "associate professor" outside. (Conversely, the real "associate professor" is a curse term here. It is best not to make jokes by putting up this sign here. Professionals are high or low, and the standards in the labor camp are exactly the opposite of those outside.)

Laundry women, female hygienists, dishwashing workers, boiler workers, bathroom workers, water boiler workers, ordinary bakers, shed workers, etc. are also considered handymen, but they belong to the lower class.They all had to do manual labor, and they were exhausting at times, but they all had enough to eat. The real camp servants are these people; kitchen masters, bread cutters, storekeepers, doctors, medical assistants, barbers, liberal arts educators, bathroom directors, bakery directors, custodial directors, parcel delivery rooms The director, the foreman on duty in the shed, the director of building management, dispatched workers, accountants, documents in the work shed of the headquarters, the engineer of the camp area and the general affairs compound.All these people not only have enough to eat, not only are they not only clean, not only are they not burdened with heavy loads, but they also have a great deal of power over everything that people want, that is to say, over people themselves. power.Sometimes there are factional struggles among them, playing tricks, playing tricks, knocking each other down or promoting each other, and being jealous of the "women".There was nothing left to share between them, for everything had been divided once and for all.Everyone has their share.The stronger the camp handyman group was, the more the battalion commander relied on them in order to minimize his own troubles.The fate of all convicts coming and going, of all prisoners of common drudgery, was decided by these servants.

Due to the narrow concept of hierarchy that human beings are accustomed to, handymen quickly feel that they should sleep in the same shed, sleep in the same "small compartment" (or even generally sleep in the "small compartment" instead of the bed), and eat at the same table with ordinary coolies. , Undressing in the same bathroom, and putting on the sweat-soaked underwear of ordinary coolies...is not decent.So the servants moved alone into small rooms for two, four, or eight people, where they ate the food they selected, plus some illegally obtained; there discussed all the arrangements and affairs of the camp. , including the fate of the people and the work team, there is no danger of causing conflict between the coolies and the work team leader.They spend their free time alone (they have free time) together.The change of underwear given to them is limited to their inner circle.Due to the above-mentioned stupid hierarchical concept, they also try their best to show that they are different from ordinary reform-through-labour prisoners in clothing, but unfortunately they are restricted by conditions.If the battalion is dominated by black cotton waistcoats or black jackets, they try to get blue ones from the storage room; if it is mainly blue, they wear black ones.Also, in the tailoring room, they used gussets to flare the skinny trouser legs of the labor camps.

Production handymen actually refer to engineers, technicians, construction workers, team leaders, workshop foremen, planners, quota clerks, accountants, female secretaries, and typists.They are different from the camp servants. They have to stand in line when they are dispatched, and they have to walk in the escorted queue (but sometimes they can be exempted from guards).But they are in a favorable position in production: they are not required to work hard, and they are not tired.On the contrary, the labor, food, and life of the coolies are in the hands of many of them.Although they have less connection with the living quarters, they strive to maintain their status there, and strive to obtain most of the preferential conditions enjoyed by the camp servants, although these people will never be able to compete with them on an equal footing.

There are no clear boundaries here either.Also belonging to the above category are designers, craftsmen, surveyors, motorists, and mechanical watchmen.These people are no longer "production commanders". They have neither the power to harm people nor be responsible for the death of people (as long as the death is not caused by his design or the process they manage).These people are merely educated or coolies with only half a bottle of vinegar.Like any working prisoner, they still played tricks and tricked the officer.What can be done in half a day, try to do it for a week.In the camp, their life is generally similar to that of coolies, and they are often assigned to homework classes.It's just that their conditions in the production area are warm and quiet.In offices and workshops, if no free man was present, they put business aside and chatted about life, the length of the sentence, the past and the future.Most of the chatter was gossip, for example: I heard that the "Fifty-eight Articles" (most of them were selected from the "Fifty-eight Articles") were all removed from the positions of handymen and sent to Do "general" labor!

This measure, too, has a profound and uniquely scientific basis: social aliens are so rotten from their class roots that it is almost impossible to reform them.Most of them can only be modified with graves.If there is even a small part that can be reformed, it is of course only through labor, that is, manual and heavy (replacement of machines) labor.It would be degrading for camp officials or guards to do this kind of labor, which at some point in the past turned monkeys into people (but in the camp it inexplicably turned people into monkey).Now you know, not out of revenge, but because there is still a faint hope of reforming "Article 58", the Gulag's regulations strictly stipulate that no matter in the living quarters or in production, according to Article 58 Article 58 Sentenced prisoners cannot hold privileged positions (only people with outstanding achievements in stealing outside are eligible to hold positions related to property).This will definitely be handled in accordance with it. Could it be that the chief of the labor camp has a special favor for the "Fifty-Eight Articles"?But they know that the number of experts among the prisoners sentenced according to other articles is less than one-fifth of the number of experts in the "Fifty-eight Articles".Doctors and engineers are almost all "fifty-eight".As far as ordinary honest people and people who can do things are concerned, there is no such thing as the "Fifty-Eight Rules" among free people.As a result, the bosses became hidden opponents of the only scientific theory, and they secretly installed the "Fifty-eight" in the position of handymen (but the fattest jobs are always reserved for ordinary criminals. The officers are easy to deal with these people Talking about one piece. And if the NPC is honest, it will get in the way).Even though the arrangement is arranged, whenever the relevant instructions are reiterated (and the instructions are often reiterated), and before the investigation team comes down (and they often come down), the officers neither hesitate nor feel distressed. Bai Nen waved his big hand, Throw all the chores that belong to Article 58 to general labor.It took several months of bleak management, and the good situation that was more than enough than the next was wiped out in a day.Being kicked out of office is not a terrible thing in itself, what makes the political prisoners most fearful and uncomfortable is the endless gossip about the approaching end.These rumors poisoned the whole life of the servants.Only ordinary criminals can safely enjoy the status of handymen. (However, as soon as the investigation team left, the production work slowly collapsed, and the engineers were quietly returned to their positions as handymen, until the next investigation team came.)

There is another group of people who are not simply "Article 58". Moscow also branded a separate curse on his prison file: "This person can only be used for general labor!" In 1938, many The Kolyma people are stamped with such a brand.For this group of people, even a job as a washerwoman or felt boot baker is an unattainable fantasy. What is written in the "Communist Manifesto"? -- "The bourgeoisie has wiped out the aura of all professions that have always been respected and awe-inspiring," (quite aptly!) "it has turned doctors, lawyers, priests, poets and scholars into hired laborers." But they still paid for them!Just let them do what they do!What if it is sent to do general labor?What about sending to log?And it's "no money"!And it doesn't care about food! ... It is true that it is not common for doctors to be withdrawn to do general labor, because they also have to treat the family of the chief.As for lawyers, priests, poets and scholars, they can only be reimbursed in general labor, and these people can do nothing as handymen.

The work squad leader has a special position in the labor camp.According to the regulations of the labor camp, they were not counted as handymen, but they could not be called coolies either.So the arguments in this chapter apply to them as well. In the camps, as in combat, there was no time for detailed discussions: the job of handyman was at your fingertips, and you grabbed it naturally. But years and decades passed, we survived, and our companions died.We begin to reveal little by little to the startled free men and the uncaring next generation the world we experience there, devoid of any humanity, -- and we must judge it by the standards of human conscience.

One of the main moral issues encountered here is that of the servants. In choosing the protagonist for the camp novella "I chose a drudgery, I could not have chosen anyone else, because only drudgery sees the real interrelationships in the camp (just as only the drudgery The weight of the infantry is the weight that weighs the whole weight of the war. But I don’t know why he is not the one who writes the memoirs). Insulted—and as I have already said, nine out of ten of those who survived were handymen. At this time a copy of "Notes of a handyman" ("Notes on Experience") by Dyakov came out. It smugly Affirmed their resourcefulness in finding their own way and the ingenuity of their way of staying alive at any cost. (Such a book should have come out before mine.) In those few short months when it seemed open to discussion, a discussion on the orderly issue popped up, with some general formulation of the morality of the camp orderly's status.But in our country, any kind of intelligence is not allowed to be thorough, and any kind of discussion can really touch all aspects of the object.All this was bound to be suppressed from the start, so that no gleam of light could fall on the naked body of truth.All of this gradually piled up into an amorphous, age-old heap, where it lived for decades, until people lost all interest in the scrap metal in this pile of rubbish and could no longer find it. way to clean them up.Discussion of the handyman screeched to a halt as soon as it started, and it receded from a magazine article into a personal letter. But the distinction between the camp labor and the coolie (though it need not be said to be more distinct than it actually existed) must always be drawn, and fortunately this distinction was made as soon as the camp problem arose.But Lakshin's censored article has some over-the-top wording about labor in camps (as if extolling this labor that replaces machines with humans and turns us from monkeys into humans), and it turns out that this mostly correct article, and parts of my novel that elicited an angry response from ex-handymen and their intellectual friends who had never been in prison: Why, you praise slave labor (Ivan Denisovich, wall scene)? !How, "you have to sweat to earn your own bread"?Doesn't that mean, do what Chief Gulag asks you to do?What we pride ourselves on is precisely that we have avoided labor, that we have not relied on it to survive. Now when I answer these objections, I only regret that people will not be able to read these words for a while. In my opinion, it's unseemly for an intellectual to be proud of it: you see, he didn't degrade into manual slave labor because he managed to get a desk job.The Russian intelligentsia of the last century was in this position, unless he could also believe that their little brother also fertilized slave labor.I wouldn't boast of that.Ivan Denisovich had no way out of the office to work!What should we do with our little brother?Is it possible to allow the little brother to rely on slave labor to survive? (Why not? Didn’t we allow him to do this long ago on the collective farm! We put him there ourselves!) Since this is allowed, can he also be allowed to find some fun in this kind of labor? Even if occasionally for a few hours, before the strike, when the bricks are laying smoothly, is that all right?When we scratched the paper with the pen holder in the labor camp, and when we drew black lines on the drawing paper with a duckbill pen, didn't we also get some pleasant feelings?If Ivan Denisovich B Bai Yeye just cursed his labor, how could he survive these ten years?He should have hanged himself from the first post long ago. What to do with such an almost unbelievable experience: Pavel Chulpenev worked in a logging camp for seven years (and in a penal camp).How can one live and labor for so many years without seeing a little meaning and interest in logging?The reason why he was able to survive was that he cared about the few long-term fixed workers under his command (he had to have such a peculiar point). "Second, only highly productive workers are allowed to help in the kitchen at night.It's a form of reward!After a whole day of woodwork, Chulpenev went to the kitchen to clean the pots, pour water into the cauldrons, light the stove, and peel potatoes—until two o'clock in the morning, and then he had a good meal, Without even taking off his coat, he fell asleep for three hours.Once, also as a bonus, he cut bread for a month.Another time he cut his own way (no one doubts that he is the record maker) and took a month off work.that's it! (Of course, there are other reasons.) There was a female thief who had opened a gambling cave and worked as a groom in their production team. She lived with two handymen at the same time, one was a timber inspector, and the other was a warehouse director. .For this reason, their group always overproduced.The more important thing is that their prying horse Gaelchik can eat enough oats, so they pull the wood with great energy-to know how much oats the horse can eat also depends on the output completed by the team! ("Poor people!" I'm tired of saying that, at least I can say "Poor horses!") But anyway - seven years in a row at the lumberyard is almost a myth .If you don't actively think of ways and tricks, if you don't find fun in the work itself, how can you survive the past seven years?Churpenev said that as long as they were given food, it would not be a problem to continue working.The nature of the Russian is like this... He has mastered the method of "continuous falling down": the first original bar must be supported when it is brought down, so as not to let it hang down, and it is easy to cut across.Later, the original strips were all crossed one by one, so that the branches could be concentrated in one or two campfires without being dragged from all sides to one place.He will pull a falling tree trunk exactly in the direction needed.He had heard from the Lithuanians that Canadian loggers had erected a stake in the ground and pressed it into the ground with the trunk of a fallen tree.He got excited: "Come on, let's try!" It really succeeded. It seems so: even a painful and abominable task is sometimes performed with incomprehensible zeal, such is the nature of man.I have done manual labor myself for two years, and I have experienced this strange phenomenon firsthand: suddenly become fascinated by labor itself, and forget that it is slave labor, which does you no good at all.I have experienced such strange moments in the labor of building walls (otherwise I would not write about it in novels), casting, carpentry, and even frantically smashing scrap metal with a sledgehammer.Is it then allowed that Ivan Denisovich does not always feel that his inescapable work is a heavy burden?Don't you hate it all the time? In this matter, I think people will give in to us, give in, but only on condition that no blame be drawn upon the orderly men who have not sweated their bread for a minute. Although sweating is not sweating, they carried out the will of the Gulag chief very hard (otherwise they would be sent to do general labor!), very delicate, using their professional knowledge.You must know that all important handyman positions are the management links of labor camps and labor camp production.They are precisely the specially forged (high-quality) links in the chain without which (if all the prisoners refused the job of handyman!), the whole chain of management, the whole system of labor camps would collapse!Because there will never be so many high-level experts from outside the prison, and they are experts who have agreed to live in such conditions that are not as good as pigs and dogs for many years. But why didn't you refuse?Why wasn't Kasher's chain dismantled? The positions of handymen are all key positions of operation and management.Quorum!But is their assistant bookkeeper much less sinful than they are?Construction Worker!But are the technicians so clean?In what kind of handyman's job is one not to pander to one's superiors and participate in the general system of coercion?Is it necessary to be an educator of liberal arts or a duty officer of the "Godfather" in order to directly work for the devil?If H is working as a typist, just a typist, and she completes the typing tasks assigned by the administrative department of the labor camp, doesn't that mean anything?Let's think about it.What if you are typing a copy of the command?This will not bring benefits to the prisoners...Assuming that the Special Operations Commissioner does not have his own typist, he needs to type out the indictment and compiled disclosure materials for the free men and prisoners to be arrested tomorrow.But, you see, he might give the typist the task, and she would type the material and keep silent, not to warn the impending doom.Yes, for that matter, can even a lowly servant, a tinkerer in the General Administration Compound, not fulfill an order for the manufacture of handcuffs?Can we not strengthen the bars in the forced room?How about we limit ourselves to Polish work: what about planners?Wouldn't an innocent planner help and cooperate with planned exploitation? I don't understand how clean and noble these intellectual slave labors are compared to physical slave labors? So it is not the sweat of Ivan Denisovich that should arouse our indignation most, but the quiet rustle of pens in the camp offices. I myself spent half my sentence working on one of the "Saraška", or one of the "Paradise Islands".We were there cut off from the rest of the archipelago, unable to see the life of its slaves.But aren't we the same handymen?Do we not, in the broadest sense, strengthen the same Ministry of the Interior and the entire system of repression with our scientific work? Every bad thing that happens in the archipelago, and in the whole earth, is not done through us?And we lash out at Ivan Denisovich, accusing him of laying bricks.We have built more bricks than him! In the labor camps, the opposite complaints and accusations were often heard: handymen ride on the necks of the coolies, steal their food, and exploit the coolies to save their own lives.This is especially said of the camp servants, and it is often well-founded.Who cut down on Ivan Denisovich's bread?Who stole his sugar by dipping it in water?Who made lard, meat, and good oatmeal out of the oven? The camp servants who are in charge of eating and dressing are specially selected.To obtain these positions, you need to be able to drill, play tricks, and be sycophant.It takes ruthlessness and no conscience (and often double duty as an intelligence officer) to keep those jobs.Of course, any generalization will inevitably be far-fetched, and I can cite a few examples to the contrary from my own memory, showing that there are still honest and selfless camp servants.But this kind of person doesn't stay in these positions for long.As for the large number of camp handymen who live well, it can be safely said that corruption and vice are, generally speaking, more concentrated among them than among the ordinary native population.It was no accident that the camp chiefs handed over such jobs to their former colleagues - the State Security and Internal Affairs personnel who were imprisoned in the camps.The head of the Internal Affairs Department of the Shakht State was locked in and was not sent to log, but he climbed up as an employee sent by the Maso Lilag Headquarters to work alone.Boris Guganava, a member of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, was incarcerated ("because I removed a cross from a church and nothing good happened to me in my life"), who was to serve as director of the canteen of the labor camp at the Leshota train station.But characters of an entirely different kind can join their ranks on the surface.The Krasnodon Russian investigator, who had worked on the "Young Guard" case under the Germans, was a respected dispatcher in a sub-camp in Ozerlage.Sasha Sidorenko, who used to be a scout, fell into the hands of the Germans at the beginning, started working for the Germans immediately, and is now the director of the safekeeping room in Kenjill.He liked to take revenge on the Germans for what had happened to him.The German was exhausted from working all day, and just about to fall asleep after late roll call, he pretended to be drunk, went to them and shouted at them vigorously: "German! Achtung! (Attention!) I am your god! Here I sing!" (The terrified German drowsily got up from his bunk and sang "Lily Marleen" to him.) Those who let Rochlin leave the camp in late autumn wearing only a shirt the accountants of Breebloom who shamelessly exchanged a ration of bread for a pair of brand-new army boots from the hungry Anse Bernstein... What kind of people should these be? When they congregated in their doorway, smoking and discussing the affairs of the battalion affectionately, it was difficult to imagine any of them who were not in the same boat. Yes, they can also say something in their own defense.For example, Lipai wrote this impassioned and impassioned letter: "Prisoners' rations are stolen everywhere, from everyone, and in extremely vicious and vicious ways. The servants steal a little for themselves, which is only petty theft. The servants who engage in large-scale theft are forced to (?). Management Bureau workers, whether freelance or convicts, especially in times of war, squeezed out of the camp workers, who in turn squeezed the camp workers out of the prisons and kitchens. In terms of rations, the most terrifying sharks are not handymen, but freely hired officers (Sevdevna Rag, Kulagen of the North Dvina Battalion, Poisy-Shapka, Ignatenko), They don't steal, but take it from the storage room. It's not a few catties, but a few bags, a few barrels. They don't just take it for individuals, they also divide the spoils. Prisoners do this kind of thing, always You have to cover up the formalities and accounts. But whoever refuses to do this kind of thing will not only lose his current position, but also be sent to a correctional labor camp and a strict labor reform camp. The composition of handymen is In this way, the sieve according to the will of the officers, the rest are cowards, scoundrels, and ruffians who are afraid of manual labor. If something happens, the custodians and accountants will always be judged, and the officers are still fine: they did not stay Receipts. The custodian revealed the statements of the officers, and the investigators all thought it was falsification." It's a top-down picture, so to speak... One of my acquaintances, Natalia Milievna Anichkova, a woman of the utmost honesty, was once, somehow, made by fate as director of a labor camp bakery.As soon as she took office, she discovered that there is an old rule here: part of the baked bread (the prisoner’s ration) is delivered (of course without any written certificate) outside the camp every day, and the baker gets it from the freeman’s commissary every day. Some jam and butter.She abolished this bad rule and did not allow bread to be sent outside the camp.From then on, the bread baked every day was raw and mushy, and the time of baking was always delayed (this is the baker's ghost), and then the warehouse began to jam their flour; Send horses for bakery transport.Anichkova struggled for several days, and finally had to surrender.Immediately after that, work went on smoothly again. Even if a camp boy could avoid widespread theft, it would be almost impossible for him not to take advantage of his superior position for other benefits--out of order access to "rest spots", meals for the sick, the best clothing. , a change of underwear, a bunk in the shed.I don't know and I can't imagine such a holy handyman, with a lot of benefits spread out in front of him, who doesn't take any of it, and is spotless.The other handymen will definitely be wary of such a person and will definitely squeeze him out!Everyone will enjoy some benefits, that is, take advantage of the coolies, even if it is indirect, roundabout, and they don't even know it. It is difficult for the handyman in the camp to be ignorant of his conscience. You know, there is another problem, and that is the means he used to obtain this position.With hard-to-get expertise alone (as do doctors and many production boys), there aren't many opportunities in the camps.Taking this job because of disability is still an undisputed right way.But it is often recommended by the "Godfather".And of course there's something that seems to be somewhere in between: by the prison!or rely on the collective support of small groups (mostly ethnic groups. Some small ethnic groups are particularly capable in this regard, and generally squeeze into the positions of handymen; the same is true for Communist Party members, who tacitly support each other into And one more question: What was his attitude to the others, to the gray beasts, after he had climbed up?A lot of people have become arrogant, a lot of people have become rude and violent.We were originally born from the same root, how many lipsticks can a good flower have, these truths, they completely forgot. And finally, the noblest question: Even if you have done nothing wrong to your fellow prisoners, have you done anything good for them?Have you even once used your position to defend the public interest?Or was it just self-serving? Perhaps it would be unfair to place the blame for "exploitation" and "riding on the neck" on the production handyman: it is true that the labor of the hard laborers is not paid, but this is not because it feeds the production handyman.Labor in the production of handymen was not paid either, and everything flowed into the same bottomless pit.But other moral questions remain: the fact that taking advantage of living conditions is unavoidable;And there is always the noblest question: What have you done for the public good?Even a little?Do it even once? You know, there are people, like Vasily Vlasov, who can recall what they have done for the general good.These clear-headed, shrewd men knew how to get around the tyranny of the camps, and worked to organize public life in such a way that they didn't all die, and at the same time duped both the trust and the camps.These people are the heroes of the archipelago who do not regard their position as a personal job, but as a heavy responsibility and obligation to the prisoners who are like cattle and horses-call such people "handyman", even the tongue Can't turn around.This category of people is the most among engineers.Glory to them! ．The rest are without honor.There is nothing to set a monument on.To have escaped lowly slave labor, to lay bricks without sweating, is not necessarily nobler than Ivan Denisovich.What "We mental workers need to consume double abilities to do ordinary labor: one is used for the labor itself, and the other is used for the unstoppable thinking and feeling, so it is reasonable for us to avoid labor and let the rough people sweat!" "... There is no need to piece together arguments like this. (Whether our energy consumption is doubled is still a big question.) Yes, if a person wants to be able to refuse any "arrangement" in the labor camp and let gravity drag him to the bottom, he needs to have a very serious soul and a very bright consciousness. He must have served more than half of his sentence. In addition, I am afraid that I need to have the packages that are often sent from home.Otherwise, doing so is tantamount to direct suicide! As the old labor reform prisoner Lev said with gratitude and guilt: I am alive today, which means that another person was on the execution list for me that night; I am alive today.That meant another person was suffocated in the hold for me.I am alive today, which means I have the two hundred grams of bread that the starving man lacked. Nothing written here is intended to blame.The policy that this book has decided and will stick to until the end is: all the victims, all the oppressed, all those who are forced to make cruel choices should be defended rather than blamed.It would be more correct to... defend them. But while you forgive yourself for choosing between destruction and salvation, don't forget to throw stones at the one who must choose under more dire conditions. You have met such people in this book, and you will meet them again. The archipelago is a world without diplomas, where self-introduction is used as a certificate.The prisoner did not carry any documents, including academic certificates.Every time you enter a new labor camp, it is up to you to invent who you want to be this time. Medical assistants, barbers, accordion players--I dare not go on--were all very well taken advantage of in the camps.If you're a blacksmith, glassmaker, or auto mechanic, you're not out of luck.But if you're a geneticist or worse, a philosopher, linguist, artist -- you're screwed.In a fortnight he will die in ordinary labor. Several times I have thought about calling myself a medical assistant.有多少文学家、多少哲学家在群岛上靠走这条道保住了性命。但每一回都下不了决心--并不是害怕那个浮皮潦草的考试（我有一般受过教育的人具备的医学知识，此外还懂得几句拉丁文，满可以唬住那些老粗），怕的是给别人打针，而我一点也不会。如果医学里只剩下药面、药水、热敷和拔罐--我一定决心走这条路。 有了新耶路撒冷那一段经验，我懂得了当生产指挥员是个恶心差事。到了第二个劳改营--莫斯科市内的卡卢加关卡劳改营，我一跨进门坎，在门房里就扯谎说我是个定额员（这个名称我还是在劳改营里头一回听说的；我八辈子也不知道制定定额是怎么回事，但是我的指望在于，它是跟数字沾边的工作）。 为什么一进门就要扯这个谎，而且恰好是在门房里呢？这是因为劳改工段长涅维任少尉，一个高个子的面色阴郁的驼背，尽管夜深了，仍然直接跑到门房来调查新到犯人情况：他天亮就要决定怎样分派他们的工作，他就是这么一个办事认真的人。他皱着眉头审视了一下我的掖在皮靴筒里的马裤、长下摆的军大衣、急切地渴望效劳的面部表情，提了个把有关定额的问题（我自以为回答得很巧妙，后来才知道涅维任听了两句话就看穿了我），结果我头天早晨就没有到营外去劳动，这表明我取得了胜利。两天以后他指派我当了……不，不是定额员，再往高里说！--当了"生产主任"，比派工员还高一级，是所有作业班长的上司。我褪下了马套包，钻进了牛轭头。我来以前根本没有这个职务。可见我在他们眼里是多么忠实的一条狗！而且涅维任还会把我调理成一条更好的！ 但是上帝保佑了我，我的官运又一次吹台了：没过一个礼拜，涅维任因为偷窃建筑材料被撤了职。这是一个很有威力的人，他的眼神几乎具有催眠的力量。他用不着提高嗓门整个队列都会鸦雀无声地听他说话。凭年龄（五十开外），凭劳改营工作经验，凭残忍性，他早就该是内务人民委员部的将军了。听说他很早就已经是中校，然而总是克制不住偷窃的嗜好。因为他是"自己人"，从来没有被交到法庭审判，但每次都被暂时撤职，每次都降一级。可是连在少尉这一级上他也没有站住。接替他的米罗诺夫中尉缺乏教育者的耐心，而我自己也接受不了他们要我当一把铁榔头的想法。米罗诺夫各方面对我都不满，连我写得铿锵有力的报告他也恼怒地推到一边： "你连写报告也不会，文笔疙里疙瘩。"他把帕夫洛夫工长写的报告递给我看，"瞧瞧人家内行人写的： "对于计划完成情况下降的个别事实进行分析时发现： 1.建筑材料数量不足； 2.由于作业班工具供应不充分； 3.技术人员对各项工程组织得不够； 4.安全技术也没有被遵守。 " 文笔的可贵之处就在于一切毛病都出在生产领导方面，而劳改营领导毫无责任。 不过这位帕夫洛夫，前坦克手（平时也带着软盔），说话也是这个风格： "如果您了解爱情，请您向我证明，爱情是什么。"（他所议论的是他熟悉的题目：凡跟他接近过的女人对他都赞不绝口，在劳改营里这种事情是不大避人的。） 第二个星期我就丢人视眼地被轰下去干一般劳动。派了这位帕夫洛夫顶替了我的角儿。我没有和他争位子，对于被撤职也没有反抗，因此他没有派我去挖土，而是编进了漆工班。 然而我当官的这一段小小的过场却使我在生活条件上得到了固定的好处：身为生产主任，我自然住进了专为杂役准备的房间。这种享受特权的房子全营一共有两间。帕夫洛夫当时已经住在另一间相同的房子里，我被罢官以后没有出现对我那张床位的有资格的要求者，所以我仍在那里住了几个月。 当时我看重的只是这个房间在生活方面的优越性；不是"小车厢"，而是普通的床；床头柜是两人用一个，而不是整个作业班一个；白天房门上锁，可以把东西留在房里；最后，还有一个半合法的电炉，不需要到院子里去挤着使用那个公用的大炉子。我当时看重的只是这方面，因为我仅仅是我自己的被压迫和吓坏了的肉体的奴隶。 但是现在，当我产生了把那间屋子的同住者写出来的欲望的时候，我才懂得了它最主要的好处在什么地方：像空军将军别利亚耶夫和内务部官员季诺维也夫（即使不是将军，也差不了好多）这样的人物，除了在这个地方，无论凭个人的意向还是在社会的迷宫里，我一辈子既不会也不能和他们接近。 现在我知道了，一个作家决不应被愤怒、厌恶和轻蔑之类的感情所支配。你火冒三大地顶回了什么人的话吗？结果你没有听完、没有抓住他的观点的体系。你出于厌恶而躲避什么人，从而一个你完全陌生的性格就从你身边溜走了，而那正是你有朝一日用得着的典型。不管为时多么晚，我终于发觉并认识到了，我一向只把时间和注意力放在那些令我赞赏，令我愉快和令我同情的人们的身上，因之我观看社会如同观看月球，永远是从一个方面。 但正如月球以其微微的晃动（"天平动"）向我们显示出其背面之一部一样，这一间畸形人的屋子也向我略微揭开了几位前所不知的人物的面纱。 每一个新入营的人在头一天、在头一次出工站队时就决不会没有注意到空军少将亚历山大?伊万诺维奇?别利亚耶夫（在营里大家都叫他"将军"）。他在黑灰色的浑身虱子的劳改犯大队里特别显眼的地方不仅是他的高大匀称的身材，以及那件莫斯科大街上也见不到的十分高级的八成是外国货的皮大衣（穿这样的大衣的人是坐小卧车的），更主要的是他那心不在焉的特殊神气。即使是一动也不动地站在劳改犯的队列当中，他也有办法显示出自己与康集在他周围的劳改贱民没有任何关系，显示出他至死也不明白自己是怎么落到他们中间来的。他直挺挺地站着，眼光越过人群的头顶朝前望，好像是在检阅我们看不见的另一处的阅兵式。开始出工，门卫用小板子在走出营门的五列纵队最外面一排的人的脊背上点数，这时别利亚耶夫（他走在生产役班里）尽力避免走在外面一排。如果碰上了，通过门岗时他总是轻蔑地耸肩、扭身，用整个的脊背显示出他对门卫的蔑视。而那人果然不敢碰他。 我认识将军还是我当生产主任的时候，也就是当大官的时候，情形是这样：在工程办公室里，他当助理定额员，我看到他在抽烟，走过去对火。我客气地先取得同意，朝他的办公桌俯下身去，别利亚耶夫以明确的动作把自己的纸烟抽回去，躲开我的烟头，好像怕我给它染上细菌。他掏出了一个阔气的镀镍打火机，摆在我面前。情愿让我弄脏、弄坏他的打火机，也不能降低身份伺候人--为我而拿着香烟！这下把我搞得很难为情。对每个厚着脸皮要求对火的家伙，他总是把贵重的打火机朝他面前一放，用这办法彻底压垮他，打消他再次要求对火的念头。当他自己正用打火机点烟的时候，如果有人趁机请求借火并急着把香烟凑上去，他不慌不忙地熄灭打火机，合上盖子，然后放到请求者的面前。这是叫你们更清楚地懂得他做出的牺牲的分量。挤在办公室里的自由人工长和犯人作业班长如果找不到别人对火，宁愿到大院里去借火，也比求他舒服。 我现在和他住在一间屋里，而且床挨床，所以能够发现，他处在犯人的地位时支配着他的主要感情是嫌恶、轻蔑和易怒。他不但从来不去劳改犯食堂（"我连它的门在哪儿都不知道！"），而且除了那份口粮面包之外，从不让同屋的普罗霍罗夫从食堂给他端来任何煮的食物。然而整个群岛上像他这样作践这份可怜的口粮的犯人还能找到一个吗？别利亚耶夫小心地拿着它，好像它是一只癞蛤蟆。要记住它曾是被许多人的手碰过的，是用木筐抬来的。他用刀子把六面都消掉-层，连皮带瓤。削下来的这六个薄片他从来不送给请求者--普罗霍罗夫或者那个老值日员，而是亲自扔进林水桶。有一次我鼓起勇气问他为什么不给普罗霍罗夫。他骄傲地仰起留着极短的银白寸发的头（留得很短，使它又像是一种发式，又像是劳改犯的光头）："我在卢宾卡的一个同监难友有一次求我；把您喝剩下的汤送给我！我听了浑身别扭！我见不得人类的屈辱！"他不肯把面包送给挨饿的人，是为了不让他们蒙受屈辱！ 将军之所以能如此容易地保持他的高傲，是因为紧挨营门有一个四路无轨电车站。每天正午，我们从劳动区回生活区午休，将军的夫人便会走下门岗外的无轨电车。她用保温瓶带来热腾腾的午餐，这是一小时前在将军家里的厨房里做好的。工作日不让会见，保温瓶由狱吏转交。但每逢星期天他们可以在门房坐半小时。据说夫人每次离去都是泪流满面：亚历山大?伊万诺维奇把一周来他的高傲的受难的灵魂中郁积的一切全都朝她发泄出来。 别利亚耶夫有一条观察得很正确："在劳改营里保存东西或食品，简单地放在柜子里，简单地锁起来是不行的。柜子必须是铁的，而且必须铆死在地板上。"但是他由此马上得出结论说："劳改营是一百个人里头有八十个是痞子。"（他不说九十五，免得失去交谈者。）"如果我出去以后遇到这里的人，如果他朝我跑过来，我就对他说：你疯了！我从来没有见过你！" "和别人同屋我实在受不了！"他说（同屋者才六人）、"要是我能锁上门一个人吃饭该多好！"这不是暗示我们在他吃饭的时候应当走出去吗？他特别想单独吃饭！--是因为今天他吃的东西和别人的有天壤之别？或者单纯因为他那个圈子里的人都有避开饥饿者的眼睛大吃大喝的老习惯？ 另一方面，他倒很爱和我们谈话，看来他不见得真的喜欢住单间。但是他所喜欢的谈话方式是单方面的。他声音洪亮，充满自信，全是说他自己的事。"他们向我提出过另一个条件比较舒服的营。"（我完全相信对他这样的人会提出几个劳改营供选择。）"我从来没有遇到过这种事……""你知道，我……""我在莫属苏丹的时候……"