Chapter 47 Chapter 16 Social Affinity Elements
Let my bald pen also join in the praise of this tribe!They have been sung as pirates, sea smugglers, vagabonds, fugitives.They have been sung as heroes of the forest, from Robin Hood to comic-opera heroes, of compassion, of stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.O noble comrade-in-arms of Karl More!O rebellious romanticist Cherkash!Ah, Ben-Hur Creek, the Ronin of Odessa, and the Bard of Odessa!
Hasn't the whole literature of the world glorified thieves?We do not blame François Villon, but neither Hugo nor Balzac eschewed this path, and even Pushkin once admired the kleptocratic element in the gypsies (what about Byron? Woolen cloth?).However, there has never been a glorification of thieves as extensively, consistently, and thoroughly as Soviet literature! (It is precisely because of the lofty theoretical basis, not only because of Gorky and Makarenko.)
Leonid Udyosov howled with a thick nasal voice on the stage of the funfair, and howled at him from the ecstasy of the audience.It is this kind of quackery that the Baltic and Black Sea buddies of "Vishnevsky and Pogotin" speak. And it is through this quackery that their wit is most fully expressed. Who doesn't The thieves are being described to us by divine excitement—beginning with their vivid bohemian negation and concluding with their dialectical transformation. After-the ballet "The Lady and the Rascal"), Leonov, Siervinsky, and Inbel, it's hard to list. Thief worship has become an epidemic in an era when literature lacks positive characters. Not even a high-spirited writer like Viktor Nekrasov could find a better image of Russian heroism than Warrant Officer Chumark ("In the Trenches of Stalingrad"). Not even Tatyana Yesenina Also fell into this kind of magic, and created for us the "innocent" character of Vinka? Describes to us a thief ("Three Points, Seven Points, Ace") with admiration, and reveals his spiritual baseness. Aldan Semyonov seems to have been in a labor camp himself, but it is completely nonsense What to say: the thief Shashka Aleksandrov ("Relief on the Rock") was under the influence of the Communist Petrakoff, who seemed to be respected by all the thieves because he knew Lenin and fought Gornyak ( Quite a legendary argument from the time of Avelbach), organized a number of dying prisoners into a working class, and did not live by exploiting them, (didn't it! Aldan Semyonov knew it best!) and Worrying about feeding them! For this purpose, he went to play poker with freelancers and win money! As if he himself didn't need to use the money he won to buy tea and make a cup of ecstasy soup; how trite for the sixties Unbearable absurd joke!
One summer evening in 1946, in the small labor camp at the Kaluga Pass, a thief lay prone on the window sill of the third floor, singing the thief's songs one after another with a loud voice.The singing sang unobstructed through the gates, through the barbed wire, on the sidewalks of Veliky Kaluga, on the trolleybus stops and in the vicinity of Neskucciny Gardens.In these songs, "easy life", murder, theft and robbery are sung.Not only did the guards, educators, and guards not stop him, but none of them even thought of scolding him.It can be seen that promoting the idea of thieves does not violate the life system of our country at all, and does not threaten this system.I squatted in the isolation area and thought, if I go up to the third floor now, from this window, I will sing with the same loud voice as I heard in the counterintelligence agency of the Front Army, "Where are you, where are you?" Where?" A song like this about what happened to prisoners of war, or a song about what happened to front-line soldiers who were humiliated and tortured by themselves, -- what kind of disturbance would it cause!People will come running in no time!Before the people could get close, they would rush towards me with the fire escape.They'll gag me, tie my hands, and give me a new sentence.And yet the thieves sang, and the free Muscovites listened - as if it were a matter of course...
All this did not happen all at once, but historically, as we like to say.exist!In the Russo-Japanese period there was (and still exists in the West) an incorrect view of thieves as incurably fixed criminals ("criminals").Therefore, at the deportation stations and in prisons, political prisoners are separated from them to protect them from their aggression.Therefore, the administration, as n. Yakubovich said, discouraged their indulgence and leading position in the circle of prisoners, prohibited them from holding public office, filling jobs, and thus firmly sided with other convicts. "Sakhalin swallowed them by the thousands without spitting them out." On!The formula adopted by Japan and Russia for habitual criminals is: "Put their heads down and put them under the iron yoke of the law!" (Urusov) So before 1917, whether in domestic life or in Russian prisons, , The thieves did not do whatever they wanted.
However, Ren Ge fell, and Liberty shone.As soon as the February Revolution came, the criminals came out of the prison with a whoosh and mingled with free citizens—some took advantage of the chaos and came out with political prisoners, and some came out under Kerensky's preferential amnesty, Then it was released.In the desertion of millions of soldiers in 1917, and then in the civil war, human desires, first of all thieves, indulged so much that they no longer wanted to throw their heads under the yoke, let alone Announce to them that this is no longer necessary.This is considered a salutary and interesting point of view: they are the enemies of private property, that is, a revolutionary force which must be channeled into the orbit of the proletariat without difficulty.At this time, their successors grew up to join their ranks in unprecedented numbers, orphans of the Civil War turned waifs and hooligans.They basked in the pitch pots of the NEP, whose first education was to cut up women's handbags and yank boxes out of carriage windows with hooks.Considered as a social issue, it's all about the environment, isn't it?We want to transform these robust lumpenproletariats and bring them into the system of conscious life!At this time, the first communes, correctional institutions, and "ways of life" appeared (only they didn't notice: waifs-this is not a legal thief, and the reformation of waifs can't explain anything, because they haven't had time going bad).
Now, more than forty years later, it is possible to look back and ask: Who reformed whom: Cheka men reformed thieves?Or did the thieves reform Cheka personnel?The thieves who accepted the Cheka belief became the so-called "bitches", and the thieves specially killed such people.But Cheka men who have developed a kleptocratic mentality—this is the daring investigator of the thirties and forties or the strong-willed labor camp chief—they are respected, they are promoted.
The psychology of thieves is very simple and easy to develop:
1.I want to live and have fun, fuck the others! ...
2. The strong are right.
3.If someone doesn’t hit you on the head, don’t try to get up on your own (that is, if you haven’t hit you, don’t fight for the injustice of the person who was beaten. Wait until it’s your turn to talk about it).
Fight tamed enemies individually! -- This is a very familiar rule.Hitler did.Stalin did the same.
Sheyining always whispered in our ears that thieves have a "unique code" and they talk about "credibility".You read what he wrote, and they seem to be Don Quixotes and patriots!But if you meet these ghosts in the cell or in the "crow car"...
Hey.Pens who betray their conscience, enough lies!You are leaning on the railing of the ship and looking at the thieves through the scout's desk.You have never met a thief in a state of isolation and help!
Thieves - not Robin Hood!When it's time to steal the dying -- they'll steal the dying!Nor would they bother to do it when it was time to strip the last foot-bindings from the feet of a frozen man.Their great slogan is: "Damn you today, I'll be tomorrow!"
But maybe they really were patriots?Why don't they go and steal from the country?Why don't they grab special villas?Why not go and intercept the long black sedan?Was it because they expected to meet there the victor over Kolchak?No, that's because the cars and villas are heavily guarded.Shops and warehouses are under the umbrella of the law.Because Stalin, a realist, has long understood that the so-called reformation of thieves is nothing but bluff.So he diverted their energies elsewhere, and instigated them to steal the citizens of their own country.
Please look at how the law of the past 30 years (before 1947) has dealt with: theft in office, theft of state property, and theft of public property?Steal a box of stuff from a warehouse?Stealing three potatoes from a collective farm?ten years! (Twenty years since 1947!) Stealing ordinary citizens?Looting the house and loading up a truck with the family's life savings?If no one is killed at the time of the theft, it is under a year, sometimes - six months...
As a result of leniency, thieves have multiplied.
Stalin's regime used its own law to tell the thieves clearly: Do not steal from the public house!Go steal something private!For private property is the resurrection of old times (and the property of great men is the hope of the future...).
So the thieves understood.In their stories and songs, they appear to be fearless people, but do they always go to difficult, dangerous, head-off places to get things?no.Cowardly and greedily, they burrow where they see fit—to strip single pedestrians, to steal poorly guarded residences.
Twenties, Thirties, Forties, Fifties!Who can fail to remember this threat that is always hanging over the heads of citizens: Do not walk in dark places!Don't be late!Don't wear a watch!Don't bring money with you!Don't leave home empty!To be locked!Install the shutters!Keep a dog! (The essayist who wasn't ransacked in time now writes to mock the faithful watchdog...)
In an outright struggle against personal independence, first took away one of his friends - the horse, and promised to replace it with a tractor (as if the horse was just a pull for the plow, not a living friend who shared thick and thin with you, not your family member, not a part of your psyche!), and then proceed to persecute your second friend, the dog, non-stop.The dogs were registered, sent to the skinning yards, and often local Soviets sent out dog-beating teams to shoot every dog they encountered.This is not done out of hygienic considerations, nor is it out of economic considerations, the reason is deeper: the dog neither listens to the radio nor reads the newspaper, as if it is an unsupervised citizen of the country, and is a strong man. Yes, but this power is not used in the service of the state, but to protect the master personally, regardless of what the local Soviet decides about its master, and regardless of the arrest warrants that people come to the door in the middle of the night.In Bulgaria in 1960 it was no joke that citizens were advised not to keep dogs, but to keep ... pigs!Pigs have no principles.It fattens every man who has a knife.
However, the persecution of dogs has never reached the wolfhounds that are useful to the state for operations and guarding purposes.
How many citizens who have been robbed know that the police will not even search for criminals, or even file a case, lest the report of closing the case look ugly: if the thief is only sentenced to six months, and the discount will be deducted by three months. Months, why bother to catch him.What's more, it is not known whether the captured criminals will be tried?Because of the strange practice of the prosecution in order to "lower the crime rate" (which they are required to do at every conference) is to simply close cases in secret, especially where a large number of defendants can be foreseen.
In the end, the sentence must be commuted. Of course, it is the criminal who commutes the sentence.Hey, witnesses in court beware! --They will all be back soon, and whoever testifies will be stabbed in the waist!
So, if you see someone climbing through a window, cutting a pocket, opening your neighbor's box - just squint your eyes and walk by!You don't see anything!
The thieves educate us like this, and the law also educates us like this!
In September 1955, Literary Gazette (which dares to speak boldly about everything except literature) squeezed out a few crocodile tears in a big article: Night, on the streets of Moscow, in two Under the window of a family home, a murder was made noisily and a man was killed.It was later found out that both families (Chinese family! Soviet family!) were woken up, and both saw the situation outside the window, but neither of them went out to help: the wife would not let her husband go out.One of their residents in the same building (maybe he was also woken up at the time, but the newspaper did not explain), a party member in 1916, a retired colonel (probably in a panic), automatically assumed the responsibility of public prosecutor, he Running around the editorial department and the courts, demanding that these two be held accountable as murder accomplices!The reporter also sang loudly: Although this is not enough to violate the criminal law, it is a shame!shame!
Yes, a shame, but whose shame?As is always the case in our country's prejudiced press, everything but the essentials is covered in this article.The main things that are not written here are:
1.The "Voroshilov" amnesty on March 27, 1953, in order to gain fame among the people, flooded the country with murderers, bandits and thieves, who were arrested after the war with great effort (Thieves are spared -- bad luck to the good).
2.In the Penal Code (19H6 Penal Code), there is an absurd article 139 "on the scope of legitimate self-defense" - you have the right to pull yourself out only when the criminal raises a knife against you you have the right to stab the criminal only when he stabs you.Otherwise you will be judged! (There is no provision in our law that the greatest criminal is a criminal who attacks the weak!...) This fear of exceeding the scope of legitimate defense completely weakens the national character.Red Army soldier Alexander Zakharov was beaten by a hooligan next to the club.Zakharov drew his pocketknife and killed the hooligan.Therefore, he was charged with homicide and got ten years!He wondered: "Then what should I do?" Attorney General Artyshevsky replied: "I should run away!"
So who is breeding hooligans? !
3.According to the Criminal Code, the state prohibits citizens from possessing firearms or cold weapons - but it does not take responsibility for protecting them!How dare the state, which puts its citizens at the mercy of bandits, call for "social resistance" in the press against these bandits!What to resist!With an umbrella?With a rolling pin? --First, the bandits were bred in large numbers, and then people's pickets were organized to deal with them. This kind of people's pickets acted outside the law, and sometimes became bandits themselves.Note that it could have simply started with "Press their heads and put on the yoke of the law!" But the only true doctrine stands in the way!
What would happen if the wife let the husband out and the husband ran out with a stick?Or the bandits killed them, that's likely.Or they killed the gangster - that would go to jail for exceeding self-defense.The retired colonel, when he takes his dog for a morning walk, can comment on events with gusto on both occasions.
In the French film "Street of the Lagoon", in which the workers catch and punish the thieves themselves without the consent of the authorities--is this real initiative not extinguished in our country as capriciousness?Such an idea and such a film—is it possible in our country?
But that's not all!There is another important feature in our social life that encourages thieves and gangsters to flourish--the fear of publicity.The newspapers of our country are full of reports of production successes that nobody is interested in, but you will not find reports of court trials, reports of crimes in the papers. (Because, according to the advanced theory, crime arises only because of the existence of classes, and there are no classes in our country, that is to say, there will be no crime, and therefore crimes cannot be reported in newspapers! Cannot provide material for American newspapers, saying We are not behind them in crime either!) If there is a murder in the West - put the picture of the criminal on the walls of the house, and they look at you from the counter in the bar, from the window of the tram, The criminal feels like a rat crossing the street.A horrific murder took place here—the press didn’t mention it, the criminal’s picture wasn’t posted, and the murderer fled to another province a hundred kilometers away, where he lived in peace.Nor was it necessary for the Minister of the Interior to argue in Parliament why the criminal had not been found: for no one knew of the case except the inhabitants of the small town.Find - well, can't find - pull down.Murderer - not a border crosser, he is not so dangerous (for the country) that he needs to be declared wanted by the whole of the USSR.
Criminal phenomena—like malaria: once reported extinct—the disease can no longer be treated, the disease can no longer be diagnosed!
Of course, both the police and the court want to close the case.But this requires a formality, which is more favorable to the real murderer and gangster: to accuse any unfortunate person of the unsolved crime at will.What they are especially fond of doing is adding several crimes to someone who has already committed a case. -- It is worth recalling the case of Pyotr Kizilov (Izvestia, December 11, 1959 and April 1960) -- he was twice accused of murder, which he did not commit. Sentenced to execution by shooting (!), also recalls the case of Aleksentsev (Izvestia, January 30, 1960) (similar situation). If the letter from Popov's lawyer (in the Kizilov case ) not to Izvestia, but to The Times, with the result that the judges of the Royal Court would be replaced or a government crisis would be caused. In our country, however, the Provincial Council was not held until four months later (why Is it the provincial party committee? Is it the jurisdiction of the court?), and, considering the "youngness" and "lack of experience" of the investigators (why entrust the fate of people to such people?), "has participated in the Great Patriotic War "(I didn't think about this when I dealt with my fll!)--Some were recorded in the cadre registration card, and some were warned. As for the main executioner, Yakovenko, because of the torture ( This happened after the 20th National Congress!), and after another six months, it seems to have given three years, but he is his own, he is acting according to instructions, and he is carrying out orders-will he actually be allowed to serve a sentence? Why such cruelty? ... And for this man, the lawyer Popov, it is necessary to take measures to drive him out of Belgorod; let him remember a principle that is both thieves and the whole of the Soviet Union: "It didn't hit you On the head, don't push yourself up!"
Therefore, anyone who comes out to fight injustice will regret it three times or eight times.In this way, the punishment system turned into a reward system for the thieves, so, outside the prison, inside the prison, and in the labor camp, they have grown luxuriantly like a mold layer for decades.
Whatever the case, there have always been lofty theories that sanctified it.To say that thieves are our allies in building communism is not a definition made by frivolous literati themselves.It is written in textbooks on Soviet reform-through-labor policy (there were such textbooks. They were published!), in dissertations and scientific papers on camp studies, and most practically in various textbooks for camp officials. in the instructions.All this proceeds from the only correct doctrine, which explains the kaleidoscopic changes of human life in terms of class struggle and only in terms of class struggle.
See how this is argued.Professional criminals are by no means to be regarded on the same level as capitalists (i.e. engineers, students, agronomists and "nuns"): the latter are firmly hostile to the dictatorship of the proletariat, the former are only (!) politically unstable (the professional murderer is only Politically unstable!).The lumpenproletariat is not a proprietor, so he does not hang out with class enemies, but rather with the proletariat (wait for it!).Hence, they are also known as social kinsmen in the official Gulag terminology (who are you related to...).Hence the instructions repeated over and over again: Habitual criminals should be trusted!Therefore, the thieves should be persistently shown to the thieves through the cultural and educational departments that their class interests are the same as those of the working people, and educated "to adopt a contemptuous and hostile attitude towards the rich peasants and counter-revolutionaries" (remember, Avelbach said But; he taught you to steal things you wouldn't do yourself!) and "hope on these emotions"! (Remember "to ignite class struggle in labor camps"?)
The "packed up" thief Minayev said in a letter to me published in the "Literary Gazette" (November 29, 1962): "I am even proud that although I am a thief, I am not a traitor and a Renegades. They try to make us thieves understand at every convenient opportunity that we are not hopeless for the motherland after all, that we are prodigal sons, but we are still sons. As for the fascists, there is no such thing as them on earth. Shelter."
In theory there are also claims that the good qualities of thieves should be studied and exploited.Do they like romance? --Then "give a romantic halo to the orders of the camp chief".Do they yearn for heroism?Then let them be heroic at work (if they take on it)!Are they fanatical? --Then let them play their fanatical spirit in the competition! (Those who know the labor camps and the thieves find it hard to believe that this was not written by a demented person.) Are they trying to save face?Do they like to stand out? -- Then use praise and praise to satisfy their self-esteem!Promote them to leadership positions! --Especially the promotion of the thieves, so that the prestige they have established among the thieves can be used for the benefit of the camp. (This is how it is written in Awelbach's monograph: The Prestige of a Thief!)
When this rigorous theory descended on the land of the camps, here's what happened: the most vicious thieves were granted unlimited power over the archipelago, over the plots and points of the penal camps—over the inhabitants of the country, the peasants, , the petty bourgeoisie, the intellectuals, a power they never had in history, in any country, a power they could not have imagined while they were out of prison--and now put all the rest who were given to them as slaves.What gangster would refuse to have such power?Core Thief!The upper-class thieves completely controlled the labor camp, and they lived in separate "cell"-style tents with their temporary wives. (Or randomly select decent women from among your own subjects. Intellectual women and young female students in Article 58 make their menu rich and varied. Chavdarov once saw with his own eyes in Norillag , a female thief suggested to her thief man: "Would you like me to bring you a sixteen-year-old collective farm female farmer?" Country girl. The girl refused to submit, but the thief soon made her submit: "I'll kill you! Am I not as good as you? You lie down under him!") Six of them were chosen from among the coolies Servant, empty their urinals.Cook them individually with the little meat and fat distributed to Dazao.The low-level thieves serve as dispatch workers, life assistants, management directors and other leading jobs.In the morning, they held the "board" and stood together at the entrance of the prisoner's tent to issue orders: "Come out!" The governor of the Illinois Peninsula once took a car to the dispatch site to appreciate how the thieves beat the fifty-eight prisoners).In the end, the eloquent thieves had their necks washed and appointed as educators.They gave speeches and taught the "fifty-eight" how to live, while they lived on stolen things and were released early.On the construction site of the White Sea Canal, such an educator of socially friendly elements, although he knew nothing about construction matters, was able to cancel the construction arrangements of the construction site director of the socially dissident elements.
This is not only theory translated into practice, but also embodies harmony in everyday life.It's good for thieves.Doing so made the officers live a more peaceful life: they didn't have to touch their hands (beating people), they didn't have to waste their voices, they didn't have to ask about things in detail, and they didn't even have to show their faces in the camp.And it has great advantages for oppression: the thief will oppress with more shamelessness and brutality, and has no fear of responsibility before the law.
And, even where thieves are not allowed to dominate, they are fairly well treated on this class theory.The thieves were able to go out to work outside the district—that was the greatest sacrifice they could be asked to make.While they were at work they were free to lie down, smoke, tell their stories of thieves (of successes, of escapes, of heroism), bask in the sun in summer, and warm themselves by campfires in winter.Their bonfires were never violated by the detainees, but the bonfires of the fifty-eight prisoners were often thrown away and stamped out, and the cubes (wood, earth, coal) completed by the fifty-eight prisoners were destroyed afterwards. written on their account.They were even sent to congresses of assault workers, as well as general congresses of habitual offenders (Dmitrag, White Sea Canal).
The thieves also retained the habit of living on the blood and sweat of others after their release, although at first sight this contradicted their socialistic upbringing.In 1951, in Oy-Myakon (Uster-Neira), a thief Krokharyov was released, where he worked as a coal miner.He didn't even hold a hammer in his hand, and the chief miner put the prisoner's production on his head and made him overproduce every month.Krokharev earned 81,000 or 9,000 a month, and gave 1,000 to the prisoners to satisfy their hunger. The prisoners were very happy about this and kept silent.The class leader, the prisoner Milyuchkhin, tried to break this practice in 1953.The thieves outside the prison gave him a few knives and charged him with robbery instead.He was judged and received another twenty years.
I hope this note is not to be understood as a revision of the Marxist principle that the lumpenproletariat is not a property owner.Of course not privateers!Krokharev did not use his eight thousand rubles to build a dacha.He spent the money on cards, drinks, and women.
Please look at a female thief - Sister Belegova, the female thief recorded in the glorious chronicle of the Volga Canal.No matter which detention center she was sent to, she became a scourge there, and she acted like a rogue in every police station.If she also went to work out of mischief, she would ruin everything she had done afterwards.In July 1933, she was sent to Dmitrag with a string of previous convictions.The next chapter is a legend: she walked into "India", where she didn't hear the voice of mother-in-law, didn't see anyone playing cards, and felt strange (only this strangeness is true).It is said that someone explained to her that the thieves here are hard at work.So she immediately went to work digging, and did a "good job" (it should read: put other people's earthwork on her account).Here's the real thing: in October (it was getting colder) she wasn't sick, but went to the doctor and asked (with a knife in her sleeve?) to take a few sick days.The doctor readily (! he always has a lot of places) agreed.The dispatch worker Polyakova, an old friend of Belegovaya's, automatically gave her two extra weeks of slacking off, credited her with false hours (that is, again deducted from the coolies) Earthworks are charged to her account).Something happened at this time, and Belegovaya was envious of the enviable life of the dispatcher, and wanted to be a "bitch".One day, when Polyakova woke her up to go to work, Belegova declared that she had no intention of going to work until she exposed Polyakova's tricks on working hours, quotas and rations. Digging (feelings of repayment do not bind her much).She managed to get her seen by the operatives (burglars are not afraid of the operatives, they're not in danger of getting a second sentence, but the "counter-revolutionaries" don't try!) -- and immediately became a backward The head of the men's work class (it seems that she promised to smash the teeth of the dying), and later replaced Polyakova as a dispatcher, and then became an educator in the female prison camp (this The scolding expert! The gambler! The thief!) and the construction captain (that is to say, the engineer is already at his disposal).All Dmitrag's honor rolls are always decorated with this sharp-toothed "bitch" in a leather jacket and a picture bag (taken from someone else's body).Her hands are good at beating men, and her eyes are like witches.It is she who Awelbach celebrates!
The way of thieves in labor camps is just so easy: make a small disturbance, betray a friend once, and then you can beat and trample people!
It will be countered that only "bitches" take office, while "honest thieves" obey the thieves' precepts.I've seen both thieves a lot, but I've never seen one kind of rogue more noble than the other.Thieves use fire hooks to pry Estonians' gold teeth.Thieves (Kraslag, 1941) dumped Lithuanians in toilet cesspools because they refused to give them food brought in from outside.Thieves robbed condemned prisoners.The thieves playfully kill any fellow prisoner they come across, just to make a new case that will lead to investigation and trial, so that they can spend the winter in a warm place or leave the harsh conditions of the labor camp where they are currently staying.As for such trivial things as stripping people's clothes and shoes in severe cold weather, what else is there to say?There is no need to say; is it such a thing as taking away other people's rations?
A stone bears no fruit, and a thief does no good.
The theoreticians of the Gulag resented that the kulaks (in the labor camps) did not even treat the thieves as real people (it is said that the bestial nature of the kulaks can be seen from this).
How can you count them as people if they take your heart out and suck your blood?Their whole "romantic free spirit" is that of a vampire.
Educated people who have not personally encountered thieves object to such a ruthless assessment of the world of thieves: Is the motive of those who are so angry with thieves a secret love of private property?I stand by my word: they are vampires that suck your heart.They continue to destroy everything that we consider to be within the sphere of natural humanity. --but is this already so hopeless?It should be noted that this is not the natural quality of thieves!But where is the good side of their hearts? --I have no idea.Presumably, it has been stifled, suppressed, by the law of the thieves' world, according to which we, other than them, are not human.We have already mentioned the threshold of evil deeds above.Clearly, thieves imbued with the spirit of the thieves' law have irreversibly crossed some kind of moral threshold.There will still be objections: but what you see are only petty thieves, the real thieves, the leaders of the thieves, were all shot in 1937.Indeed, I have not seen thieves from the twenties.But I lack the imagination to conceive of them as virtuous characters.
But enough is enough!We also have to say something in defense of the thieves.They have a "unique code" and a unique concept of honor.But the point is not that they are the kind of patriots our administrators and writers want, but that they are complete materialists and complete robbers.Although the dictatorship of the proletariat takes care of them in every possible way - they do not respect it for a second.
This tribe came down to earth to live!Since they spend almost as much time in prison as they do outside, they also want to pluck the flowers of life in prison, and for what purpose is this prison set up, and how others with them suffer , has nothing to do with them.They were rebellious, and relished the fruits of that rebellion—so why should they care about those who succumb to death as slaves?他们要吃--他们就把看到的一切可吃和好吃的东西夺来。他们想喝--一他们就把从邻居那里夺来的东西卖给押解队员去换伏特加酒。他们想睡得柔软--尽管他们样子威武，他们认为随身带着枕头、棉被或绒毛褥子是完全光荣的（何况那里还是藏刀子的好地方）。他们喜爱天赐的太阳光，如果不能上黑海疗养地去，那就躺在建筑工地的屋顶上、采石场上、矿井的进口处（让傻小子们到地下去吧）。他们肌肉发达，可以聚成肉疙瘩。他们在自己的古铜色皮肤上刺满花纹，就这样来使他们的艺术上的、色情上的甚至道德上的需要得到经常的满足：他们彼此观赏着刺在胸部、腹部、背部的停在岩石上的或翱翔于天空的雄鹰；光芒四射的金盘（太阳）；拥抱在一起的男女；以及他们享乐的个别器官；突然在心旁看到了--列宁或斯大林，或者甚至两人一起（但其价值与挂在盗贼脖子上的十字架相等）。有时，一个把煤块扔进屁股眼里去的司炉或者正在玩手淫的猴子的图象会引起他们大笑。他们彼此可以读到虽然是早已熟悉但重见时仍然可亲的字句："我X全体贱货的嘴！"（听起来好像"我是阿萨尔哈东国王！"那么庄严）或者是刺在女贼腹部的："愿为热烈的……而死！"甚至还可在一只已经在人家助下桶过几十刀的手上读到一句小小的箴言："记住母亲的话！"或："我记得爱抚，我记得母亲。"（盗窃犯们崇拜母亲，但只是形式上的，并不履行她的告诫。叶赛宁的《母亲的信》在他们当中很流行，后来还有叶赛宁所有比较简单的诗。他的某些诗，如今《……信》、《黄昏紧蹙了黑眉》，他们会唱。）--为了强化他们飞速流逝的生命中的感受，他们喜欢吸食麻醉剂。最容易得到的是印度大麻，它就是普兰特草，卷着抽。他们怀着感激的心情歌唱：
啊，普兰特草，普兰特草，你是神药仙草，
你使全体施尔马赤快乐逍遥。
不惜，他们在大地上不承认私有制，这点确实和资产阶级以及那些拥有别墅和小汽车的共产党人格格不入。他们在生活道路上所遇到的一切，他们都当作自己的东西去取来（如果这不太危险）。甚至当他们丰衣足食的时候，他们也总是想去拿别人的东西，因为一个小偷看到一件没有偷到手的东西心里就难受。抢来的衣服，他们只穿个新，一穿厌了，很快就玩牌输掉。通宵不断地玩牌赌博，带给他们最强烈的感官刺激，在这方面他们远远超过了以往时代的俄国贵族。他们可以赌眼睛（输了的当即就被挖掉眼睛），拿自己当赌注，就是说输掉时把自己交出去供违反自然的使用。他们一赌输，就在驳船上或工棚里宣布搜查，再在"福来儿"身上找出点什么东西，继续进行赌博。
其次，盗贼们不爱劳动，但是，如果吃、喝、穿都不劳而获，他们为什么要爱劳动呢？当然，这妨碍他们同工人阶级接近（然而工人阶级当真那么爱劳动吗？他们难道不是因为没有其他挣钱的途径而为了几个苦钱去拼死拼活吗？）。他们不仅不能"忘我劳动"，而且厌恶劳动，并善于把这点戏剧性地表现出来。举例说，他们有一次落入了农业派出点，不得不到营区以外去耙和燕麦套种的箭笞豌豆作饲草，他们不光是坐着休息，而且把所有的耙子、大叉集成一堆，点着烧起来，并在这堆篝火旁取暖（社会异己成份的领班！--快来做决定吧……）。
曾经试图让他们去为祖国作战，但徒劳无功，因为他们的祖国是整个大地。动员入伍的盗贼们坐在军用列车上，摇晃着身子唱起歌来："我们的事业是右的！"我们的事业是左的！--为什么大家要逃跑？--哎哟哟为什么？"然后就是偷东西、被抓、沿着熟悉的递解路线押回后方的监狱。甚至当幸存下来的托洛茨基分子都从劳改营申请到前线去的时候，盗窃犯们也没有提出申请。但当作战军开始向欧洲推进，散发出战利品的气息来的时候，--他们也穿上了军装，随着大军前去抢劫（他们把这德称为"第五乌克兰方面军"）。
但是，就是在这方面他们也要比五十八条犯人有原则得多！--无论哪个翻卷着靴筒、用半边脸做着怪相恭敬地说出"贼"这个神圣字眼的"叶尼卡?若戈理"或"瓦西卡?基什肯尼亚"--从来也不会去为加强监狱而出力的：埋杆子，架铁丝网，挖营区隔离沟，修缮岗室，修理区内照明。这是盗窃犯的荣誉。监狱是造出来剥夺他的自由的，所以他就不能去为监狱工作！（然而，他并不会因这种拒绝而有得到五十八条的危险，可是，可怜的人民敌人要是这样做就会马上被戴上反革命怠工的帽子。由于不受惩罚，盗窃犯们也就敢作敢为，而谁一旦被熊咬过，那就见了树墩也会害怕。）
不过有的地方，有的时候，首长生了气，贼骨头们也有倒霉的。下面就是美籍意大利人托马斯?斯戈维奥讲的一件事情。（斯戈维奥一九一六年生在布法罗，赶上了参加美国的共青团。一九三三年他的父亲因共产主义活动被美国驱逐出境，全家来到苏联。在这里作为政治流亡者由国际革命战士救济会供养，他们这样的人在苏联有好几千，等着在夺取他们的国家时能派上用场。但是从一九三七年起斯大林开始彻底打扫他们。父亲被关起来，一九三八年在猎市大街把托马斯也抓进去了--戴上了个"社危"（社会危险分子）帽子，五年--行动迅速，同年八月就已经来到了科雷马。）在"侦察员"独劳点呆过一阵，身体不行了，俄语说不好，也听不大懂，他不明白在食堂里一个年轻强壮的盗窃犯为什么揍他。斯戈维奥躺在地上，鼻子流着血，看见那个盗窃犯从靴筒里抽出一把长刀--说话就要捅他。他仍躺在地上，心里难过，浑身无力，哇哇地哭了好久。那个盗窃犯干的是盗窃犯的活儿--运水。但是过了几个月，大冬天，不让他运水了，派去干一般劳动。他不干（盗窃犯一贯的脾气）。他被关了禁闭。出工时把他拖到门岗边，叫他站到大队前头。盗窃犯朝独劳点长脸上吐了口吐沫，对看守，对警卫破口大骂："母狗！畜牲！法西斯！"警卫扒了他的衣裳（那是个严寒天气），只剩一条衬裤，把他捆在雪橇上--就这样拖出了大门。他一直在挣扎，嘴里还不住地骂点长和警卫。再拖了一会--冻死了。（可是你听斯戈维奥怎么说："他差点没宰了我--这倒算不了什么。我觉得他是个英雄，我爱他--因为他骂了当官的。"）
要看到盗窃犯拿着报纸--是完全不可能的，他们死死认定，政治是耍嘴皮子，与真正的生活毫不相干。盗窃犯也不看书，或者很少看。但他们喜欢口头文学。在熄灯后无穷无尽地给他们胡诌故事的人永远能足吃他们抢来的食物并受他们尊敬，好像讲故事者和歌手在原始民族中受到的待遇。这些故事是取材于上流社会（一定要是上流社会的！）生活的异想天开而又相当单调的廉价粗俗读物的大杂烩。在这些故事里不时闪现出男爵、伯爵、侯爵的封号，夹杂着盗贼们自己的传奇、自我吹捧、江湖黑话、盗贼们关于豪华生活的观念，故事的主人公结尾时得到的总是：伯爵夫人躺到他的"单人铁床"上，他只抽"卡兹别克牌香烟"，戴着"葱头"（手表），他的"大皮鞋"擦得锃亮。
尼古拉?波戈廷曾经到白海运河工地去体验生活，想必在那里花掉了不少公家钱，--可是在盗窃犯们身上什么也没看清，什么也没有懂得，说的都是谎话。由于在我国四十年来的文学中，除了他的一个剧本（后来拍成电影）外，没有任何描写劳改营的作品，所以不得不在这里对它评论几句。
那些瞧着他们教育员的嘴巴并这样来学习怎样生活的反革命工程师形象的单薄，甚至无须加以评论。但是，关于他的那些"贵族们"，即关于盗窃犯们，却要说一说，波戈廷在他们身上竟然连那个简单的特点也没有看到，即他们是按弱肉强食的法则来夺人东西的，而不是偷偷摸摸地去掏人家的口袋。他把他们一个个都描写成小扒手，令人厌烦地、多次反复地在剧中着意发挥这一点，在他笔下，盗窃犯们甚至彼此间都你摸我偷（完全是胡说八道！--他们只偷"福来儿"的，并且把偷来的东西都交给贼头）。波戈廷同样不理解（或者不想理解）在劳改营干活的真实动力是饥饿、挨打、作业班的联保共坐。他甚至没有弄清楚，在劳改营里谁是"同志"，，谁是"公民"。他只抓住了一点：盗窃犯的"社会亲近性质"（这是他在麦德维日的运河管理局听到的提示，或者还要早些，是在莫斯科时高尔基向他提示的）--便急急忙忙地去表现盗窃犯的改造。结果却成了对盗窃犯们的诽谤，我甚至想去驳斥这种诽谤来为他们辩解。
他们要比波戈廷（还有舍伊宁）所塑造的形象聪明得多，用廉价的改造是收买不了他们的，道理很简单，因为他们的世界观比狱吏们更接近于生活，更完整，不含有任何唯心主义的因素！ --而硬要挨饿的人们去劳动并在劳动中死去--这一类咒语纯粹是唯心主义。如果说在同长官公民或莫斯科来的记者谈话的时候，或者在令人啼笑皆非的群众大会上，他们热泪盈眶，声音发抖，那这只不过是演员的逢场作戏，旨在得到什么优待或减掉点刑期--而此时盗窃犯肚子里却一直在窃笑！盗窃犯很清楚地懂得（而从首都来的作家却不懂得）这场逗乐的玩笑。再之，要"母狗"米嘉不带武器并且不与看守员一起走进强管连的监室，而本地贼头科斯嘉却爬到板铺底下躲开他，这是不可能的！科斯嘉当然藏着刀，如果没有刀，那也会扑上去掐死米嘉，其中一人必将送命。 （和前面相反，明明不是开玩笑，波戈廷却炮制了一个卑俗的玩笑：辛尼亚接受"再教育"的情节简直虚伪到可怕程度。她为什么要接受再教育？什么事迫使她非去推小车不可？）还要通过她来改造科斯嘉吗？ ! --还有两名盗贼转变以后当了卫兵吗？ （普通犯可能这样做，但不是盗窃犯！）作业班间的竞赛，对于头脑清醒的恬不知耻的盗窃犯也是不可能的（除非是想拿自由雇员们寻开心）。最刺耳难忍的走调的音符是：盗窃犯们请求发给他们建立公社的规章。
再也不能把盗窃犯们说得更傻了，再也不能把他们诽谤得更厉害了！盗窃犯请求发给规章！盗贼们对自己的规章知道得清清楚楚--从第一次偷东西起直到最后一刀子插进脖子。知道什么时候可以打已经躺下的人。什么时候可以五个打一个。什么时候可以袭击睡着的人。对于自己的公社--他们比《共产党宣言》更早就有了自己的规章！
他们的公社，说得准确些--他们的世界，是我们的世界里的单独的世界，为了巩固这个世界，几百年来在那里存在着严厉的法律，这种法律丝毫也不依赖于我们"福来儿"的法律，甚至不依赖于党的代表大会。他们有自己的规定尊卑辈分的法律，依照这种法律，他们的贼头根本不是选出来的，而是在一走进监室或营区时就已经戴着王冠，并且马上就被承认为头头。这些贼头有时很有点智力，总是清楚地理解盗贼的世界观，并且背后已经有了相当数量的杀人和抢劫案。盗贼们有自己的法庭（"立规矩的地方"），这种法庭是以盗贼的"荣誉"和传统的法典为依据的。法庭的判决是毫不留情、必须坚决执行的，即使被判者目前在另一个营区而无法抓到（刑罚的种类是不寻常的：可以是大家轮流从上层板铺跳到在地上躺着的人身上，踩碎他的胸腔）。
还有，他们的"福来儿的"这个字眼是什么意思呢？"福来儿的"--就是指普通人的，就是像大家那样的正常人的。正是这个普通人的世界。我们的世界。连同其道德、生活习惯和相互交往，最为盗贼们仇视，最受他们嘲笑，最与他们的反社会部族相对立。
不，盗贼世界的脊梁骨开始被折断不是实行"再教育"的结果（"再教育"只能帮助他们回去进行新的抢劫），而是由于五十年代斯大林一脚踢开了阶级理论和社会亲近关系，下令把盗贼们塞进隔离所去，塞进长期单身监室去，甚至为他们建造新的监狱（盗贼们称之为"保险箱"）。
在这些"保险箱"或"密封箱"里，盗贼们很快发蔫了，变得瘦弱了，精力消耗光了。因为寄生虫不能生活在孤独中，它应当盘绕着寄生在什么人的身上。