Chapter 59 Chapter 1 Doomed

Revolutions are often hasty and generous.It often gives up many things without thinking, for example, the word "hard labor".In fact, this word is very good, heavy!It cannot be compared with the half-baked "forced labor camp" or the ambiguous "reform through labor camp".The word "hard labor punishment" thrown at the sentenced person from the high judge's bench is like a beheading machine that has just fallen. In the trial court, it is enough to break his spine and shatter all his hopes. The word "political convict" is so creepy that even other prisoners, even those who are not political convicts, hear it and think to themselves: Look, these are the real murderers! (Here also shows a kind of cowardly self-liberation nature of human beings. People always imagine that they are not the worst person, and they are not in the worst situation. The clothes of political convicts are sewn with numbers! Then, Of course, they are some heinous criminals! We don’t have a number on us! ... Don’t worry, I will get you!)

Stalin was very fond of some old words.He remembered: Some countries have survived for hundreds of years by relying on these words.Thus, without any need for the proletariat, some of the words that used to be chopped off in a hurry - "officer", "general", "manager", "supreme", etc. Seems to be alive.To 194.In April of three years, when Stalin felt that the carriage under him had pulled him to the top of the mountain, he resolutely resumed hard labor in the twenty-sixth year after the February Revolution announced the abolition of hard labor.The first fruits of the popular victory at Stalingrad for ordinary citizens were the order for the militarization of the railways (actually, children and women were tried by military tribunals), and a day later (April 17 Day) issued an order on the imposition of hard labor and hanging. (The gallows is also a very good setting left over from ancient times; the pistol is just a "bang", how can it be compared with the gallows?! The gallows can prolong the process of death, and can show all the details of death to a large group of people at the same time Alas!) Since then, each victory has driven new batches of doomed people to hard labor or to execution—first from the banks of the Kuban and the Don, then from the Ukraine region on the east bank of the Dnieper River, from Kursk, Orel, Smolensk and other regions.The court-martial followed closely behind the Soviet troops.Some were hanged on the spot, while others were sent to newly established penal labor camps.

The earliest of these labor camps was apparently established in Shaft No. 17 in Vorkuta (and soon in Norilsk, Zhezkazgan, etc.), and the authorities almost He made no secret of his purpose: to kill these political convicts.It's an open killing field, the choking car equivalent of Hitler's Germany.Here, however, the death is protracted, in accordance with Gulag tradition, in order to prolong the suffering of those who do not escape, and to make them work more before they die. Convicts were usually housed in tents common in the north that were seven meters wide and twenty meters long.Surround the tent with wooden boards, and fill the space between the boards and the tent with sawdust, so that the tent becomes a kind of simple work shed.It was originally planned that if each tent sleeps in a "small carriage", it can accommodate 80 people, and only 100 people can sleep in a bunk.However, political convicts live in two hundred people per room.

But it's not a hard squeeze!This is called "reasonable utilization" of living area.Political convicts were prescribed a twelve-hour working day in two shifts, without holidays.Therefore, at any given time there are always a hundred working, and only a hundred in the shed. While laboring, the prisoners were surrounded by guards armed with military dogs.If the guards are not lazy, just hit them a few times.If you want to cheer them up, do it with a submachine gun.On the way to and from the camp, the soldiers of the escort team could use their submachine guns to shoot a bunch of bullets at the convicts when they were happy. No one would hold the soldiers accountable for the people who were killed.From a long distance, the line of exhausted political convicts is quite different from the line of ordinary prisoners—it looks so sad and confused, and its steps are so difficult and heavy.

Speaking of the twelve hours of labor, it can be said that the days are like years (in the Norilsk, in the arctic, cold north wind, in the heavy snow, they beat rough stones with their hands. Between twelve hours Only ten minutes to warm up).The stipulated twelve-hour rest period was also arranged as absurdly as possible.During these twelve hours, they were taken to one isolation area and then to another isolation area, where they had to stand in line and search their bodies.Immediately after entering the living area, they were stuffed into tents that were never ventilated—work sheds without windows.The shed was immediately locked.In winter, the sour and humid air in the shed becomes more and more thick, and those who are not used to it can hardly stay for two minutes.For political convicts, the living quarters were even more unbearable than the labor quarters.Go to the toilet, canteen, health center?That is simply not allowed!These are all solved through the toilet or the meal delivery window.This is what Stalin instituted in 1943-1944 with hard labor: it combined the worst of the camp with the worst of the prison.

Chekhov's work proves that hard labor in the Tsarist era was far from so many inventions.The political convicts in Alexandrovsk (Sakhalin) Prison were not only able to go to the yard and to the toilet at any time of the day and night (there was no toilet at all!), but also to go to the city at any time during the day. inside!Therefore, the true meaning of the word "hard labor punishment" (it should be "return to its owner"!) Stalin knows best. During the twelve-hour rest period of the political convicts, they had to go through two roll calls, morning and evening.This is not like simply counting the heads of ordinary prisoners, but meticulously calling names one by one.For each team of one hundred political convicts, those who are called out must answer aloud twice a day and night without ambiguity or hesitation, their number, their repulsive surname, birth and father's names, year of birth and date of birth. The place, the legal provisions committed, the sentence, the sentencing authority and the date of completion of the sentence.The other ninety-nine had to suffer to hear all this twice a day and night.During these 12 hours, food was distributed twice: a large bowl of rice was distributed through the food delivery window, and the bowl was taken back through the food delivery window.Any political convicts are not allowed to work in the kitchen, nor are they qualified to carry rice buckets.This kind of service work is all performed by criminal habitual criminals, and the more ruthless criminal criminals rob and exploit political prisoners, the more comfortable they will live and the more they will win the favor of the hard labor camp masters.Here, the interests of the NKVD always coincide with those of criminals in the exploitation and oppression of prisoners in violation of Article 58 of the Penal Code.

Political convicts were also tortured by starvation.However, because all the report documents do not need to be kept as historical witnesses, the report still reads: political convicts can receive "miner's food" and "reward food" subsidies.These things are already pitifully few, and they have to go through three layers of theft and exploitation.All of these have to go through the food delivery port and a whole set of tedious procedures to get: roll call one by one, exchange food tickets for big bowls, and so on.When it was finally possible to lie on the bed and sleep, the food delivery port was opened again, and the name was called again: to start distributing food tickets for the next day (ordinary prisoners don’t have to worry about food tickets, they are given by the team leader) Come, give it to the kitchen together).

In this way, in the nominal twelve hours of free time in the cell, there are at most four hours left to sleep quietly. Besides, of course, political convicts do not receive any cash.They have no right to accept either postal parcels or letters addressed to them. (In their dazed, buzzing minds there should be no memory of past prison life. In this dark arctic night, nothing but labor and this shed Besides, everything on the earth should not exist in their minds.) Because of all this, most of the political convicts collapsed smoothly and died quickly. The first alphabet list of the Vorkuta labor camp included a total of 28,000 people (the prisoners were numbered according to the letters of the Russian alphabet. There are 28 letters in the alphabet, and each letter is numbered from number one to One thousand), all these 28,000 political convicts were "buried" within one year.

What makes people wonder is why they didn't all die within a month. In Norilsk, trains often come to the exclusion zone to unload ore for the 25th cobalt smelter.At this time, the political convicts lay down on the train tracks to end it all quickly.About two dozen people fled into the tundra in desperation, but they were found and killed by the plane.Their bodies were stacked where the prisoners were dispatched in the morning. There is a labor camp for female convicts in the No. 2 mine in Vorkuta.The number of the female convicts is sewn on the back and on the hood.Not only do they have to do all the underground work, but they also... and they exceed the schedule! ...

But I have already heard the angry cry of my countrymen and contemporaries: Shut up!What kind of people are you talking about? !Yes, they were imprisoned just to kill them!And do it right!Because they are traitors, fake policemen, fake mayors!That's how they should be treated!You probably feel sorry for them, right? (If this is the case, you also know that your criticism will go beyond the scope of literature and must be dealt with by some institutions!) I also seem to hear some women's voices shouting to me: "The women locked up there are all She used to be a mattress for the German devils!" (Am I not exaggerating? Isn't it true that some women in our country call other women's mattresses?)

I could give a simple answer as I do now to expose the phenomenon of personality superstition, which is the easiest for me, that is, to give a few special cases of being sentenced to hard labor.For example, let’s talk about three female Communist Youth League volunteers.They used to fly light bombers to carry out bombing missions, but they were afraid halfway and did not dare to bomb enemy targets. Instead, they dropped the bombs in the wilderness and returned safely.They reported to their superiors that they had completed the task.However, later, one of the girls was condemned by the conscience of the Communist Youth League members, and reported the truth to the leader of the Communist Youth League of the unit (also a girl).Of course, the group leader immediately reported to the "special department", so the three girls were sentenced to twenty years of hard labor.After talking about such cases, he shouted righteously: Look, how loyal Soviet citizens were punished by Stalin's arbitrariness!Then there is no need to be indignant at dictatorship itself, but only at the mistakes that have caused the members of the Komsomol and the Communists to suffer unnecessarily, and which, fortunately, have now all been corrected. But I always feel guilty for not revealing the full depth of the problem. Let's talk about women first.We know that women are now emancipated.It is true that they have not been relieved of their double labor, but at least they are no longer bound by religious marriages, freed from the weight of social discrimination, and no longer subject to Kabanova's tricks.But what the hell is going on here?If we still think that women are committing anti-patriotic crimes and criminal offenses if they freely control their own bodies and individuals, doesn’t that mean that we have prepared a set of things worse than Kabanova for them?Besides, didn't the whole world literature (before Stalin) sing about the freedom of love from national boundaries, from the will of generals and diplomats?But we have also accepted Stalin's standard on this issue; women are not allowed to meet men without the order of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, and women's bodies are first and foremost the property of the motherland! First, let's see who these women were.See how old they were when they met the enemy not on the battlefield, but in bed?Probably never more than thirty, maybe even twenty-five.In other words, these people received education after the victory of the October Revolution from childhood, and grew up receiving Soviet ideological education in Soviet schools!Are we not, then, indignant at the fruits of our own hands?Among these women, some girls did this because they deeply remembered the sentence we have shouted endlessly for fifteen years: there is no motherland! "Motherland" is just a fabrication of reactionary thinking!The second type of girls may be tired of our puritanical life of meetings, conferences, demonstrations, movies without kissing scenes, dances without hugs, etc.Still others may simply be overwhelmed by men's attentions, thoughtfulness, details of appearance, and certain knack for courting women, and that's exactly what happened to our boys who completed the five-year plan and the Frunze Military Academy What the trained commanders lack.A fourth type of person may simply be trying to get rid of hunger.Yes, because of primitive, animal hunger, that is, because they have nothing to fill their bellies.The fifth, perhaps, simply because he sees that there is no other way to escape death, to save his loved ones, from being separated from them. I was once in Starodub in the Bryansk Oblast when the enemy had just withdrawn.I was told that a Magyar (Hungarian) garrison was stationed here for a long time to guard against guerrilla attacks.Later, with an order, the troops were to be deployed elsewhere.So, dozens of local women, regardless of shame, ran to the train station to see off the invaders, and they cried so loudly that, according to a mean shoemaker, "even those who sent their own husbands to the front line I have never cried so sadly!" A few days later, the Soviet military court came to the city of Starodub.Of course, it wouldn't take the whistleblower's word for granted.Inevitably, a few women who cried and sent Magyar soldiers away were sent to the No. 2 mine in Vorkuta. But, my fellow countrymen and contemporaries, whose fault is this?whose fault?Is it these women's fault?Or ours, the sin of all our fellow men and contemporaries?How did we do it ourselves?Why did our women leave us and fall into the arms of the occupying army?Isn't this one of the countless prices we pay?Because we have chosen that path hastily, because we have walked along that path in chaos without reviewing past losses and looking ahead to the future, we are not giving, and we will have to pay for it for a long time to come. Continue to pay this kind of price? Perhaps these women and girls should be morally condemned (but their complaints must be heard!), perhaps they should be laughed at bitterly.But should they be sentenced to hard labor for these things?Should they be sent to the killing fields in the arctic? "But it was sent by Stalin! Beria did it!" Sorry, no!Those who deported them, imprisoned them, and beat them to death are still on boards of retirees and are monitoring the moral development of our society!And what about ourselves?Don't we just nod knowingly when we hear the words "as a mattress for the German devils"?The fact that we still think these women are guilty is even more dangerous to us than their imprisonment itself. "Okay, so be it. But those men always deserve what they deserve?! They are traitors to the motherland and society!" There is still a way to escape here.A reminder (and it's a fact) that the major criminals, of course, don't sit around waiting for our court-martials and gallows.They managed to escape to the West, and many did.Our punitive investigative agency is filling its mission numbers with a few lambs.The neighbor's informant played a big role here: "I don't know why the Germans lived in his house. Why do the Germans prefer his house?" "The guy used his sleigh to transport hay for the Germans. Direct collaborators!" Of course, it is possible to make things smaller, or push it all down to personal superstition: there were indeed some excesses, but now they are all corrected.Everything works fine now! Well, then I will "don't do it, don't stop". So, what about the teachers?At that time, the teachers, their schools and their students were all abandoned by our hastily retreating army, some for one year, some for two years, and some for as long as three years.Because of the stupidity of the leaders and the incompetence of the generals, what should these teachers do?Should they educate or should they not educate their students?What to do with the children?I don't mean children who have reached the age of fifteen and can earn their own living or join the partisans, I mean what about the little ones?Should they learn or should they hang around like rams for two or three years and atone for the mistakes of the Supreme Commander?Since the old man didn't buy me a cotton hat, I should let my ears freeze, right? ... For some reason, none of these things were a problem in Denmark, Norway, Belgium, or France.It was not thought there that a people who had been compelled by circumstances or easily delivered to the regime of the Germans by the unwise rulers of their own country should not live at all now.During the German occupation the schools had run as usual, the railways had operated as usual, and there had been Zemstvo institutions. So there are always people (they, not us!) whose minds are turned 180 degrees.Because here in our school, the teachers of the school often receive notes secretly sent by the guerrillas: "You are absolutely not allowed to attend classes! Otherwise, I will settle accounts with you in the future!" And if you work on the railway, you are simply cooperating with the enemy .As for local self-government, it is even more treasonous and treasonous. Everyone knows that once a child is out of learning, it is likely that they will not be able to learn in the future.So, should the wise strategist of all ages and peoples miscalculate, should the grass continue to grow, or should it wither?Should teachers continue to teach children to read, or should they stop teaching for a while? Of course, in order to teach children to read, there is a price to pay.The pictures of the mustaches would have to be removed from schools, and, perhaps, the pictures of the mustaches would have to be put up.The maple tree party cannot be held on New Year's Day, as the Soviet custom is, it must be held on Christmas Day, and at this kind of party (and in other anniversaries of the Empire, it is not a ceremony celebrating the October Revolution Above) The headmaster must also give a speech celebrating the new good life, even though it is actually very bad.But, you know, didn't the headmaster often give speeches praising the good life before this?The real life at that time was also very bad! That is to say, there were far more cases of having to lie to children unconscionably than at this time, when there was enough time for the lies to become established and under the supervision of pedagogical experts and educational inspectors. Carefully designed to infiltrate lies into the syllabus.At that time, in every class, no matter whether it was appropriate or not, whether it was about insect body structure or subordinating conjunctions, you had to kick God (even if you believed in God yourself), and you had to take the opportunity Come sing the praises of our boundless freedom (even though you're actually sleep deprived of the door knocking at night).Whether you are reciting Turgenev's poems or pointing out the Dnieper River on the map with a pointer, you must curse the poverty of the past and praise the rich life of today, although you and the children have seen it with your own eyes. Before the war broke out, entire villages had died, and children in the city could only receive 300 grams of bread a day with ration cards. All this is regarded as a crime neither against the truth, nor against the child's heart, nor against the divine spirit. Today, with the transient and unstable regime of the aggressor, there is much less need to lie, and it is to lie to the other side.Lie to the other side!Who knew, it turned out that this was the crux of the matter!Because of this, the voice of the motherland and the pencil of the underground district committee have come to prohibit you from teaching students Mandarin, geography, and arithmetic.If you dare to teach, you will be sentenced to twenty years of hard labor! My compatriots, nod your head!Look, isn't that sending people into a work shed with toilets with military dogs?Throw stones at them, because they dare to teach your children! But my fellow countrymen (especially those who have retired from the preferential leadership, those smart people who start to receive pensions at the age of forty-five) all gather around me.They waved their fists and said to me: Who did I defend back then?Should I defend those scoundrels and scum who serve as mayors, village chiefs, police officers, and translators for the enemy? ! Well, well.Let's read on, read on.Because we see people as mere sticks, we cut down too many forests.Someday, anyway, the future will force us to reflect, to think about why. The music started, and the singing echoed in the ears: "Let our holy anger, go..." How can this not be exciting?Our inherent patriotism, once banned, ridiculed, beaten and cursed, is suddenly allowed, encouraged, and even extolled today.How can this not lift the spirits of all us Russians?How can we not connect the holy hearts that are stirring in our chests together?Besides, we Russians are tolerant by nature - so be it! --At this time, when the foreign executioners are approaching, can the native executioners not be spared? !But what happened later?Later, I had to suppress the vague doubts in my heart and my hasty magnanimity. Instead, I tried to curse those who betrayed the motherland and those who were obviously worse than us and who did not forget the old grudges. ? Russia has stood on the earth for eleven centuries, has had many enemies, and has fought many wars!But has there been many traitors in Russia?Has it produced hordes of traitors?It doesn't seem to be.Even under the old social system hostile to the working people, not even the enemies accused Russia of being treacherous, capricious, and untrustworthy! Today, we have established the most just social system here, and the most just war has broken out, but our people suddenly revealed that there are tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of traitors in their ranks! Where do these people come from?why? Maybe the civil war that has not been extinguished is now starting again?They are all white bandits who have not been wiped out, right?No, not at all!As I said before, many White Russians who fled abroad (including the notorious Denikin) have sided with Soviet Russia, and they also opposed Hitler.These people were free to choose, but they made such a choice. These tens of thousands of people.Hundreds of thousands of traitors (pseudo-policemen, members of the punishment team, village chiefs and translators) were born among Soviet citizens, many of whom were young people who also grew up after the October Revolution. So what compels them to do those things? ... who are they? This is above all those whose families and themselves were run over by the crawlers of the twenties and thirties, who have lost parents, family members and lovers in our dirty sewers, or who have themselves been in labor camps Those who rose and fell in the abyss of the camps and penal colonies were those who stood in line at the little windows through which visitors delivered food parcels, freezing their legs and feet, or falling ill.There are others, too, who have lost all hope of acquiring the most precious thing on earth—the land itself—during these cruel decades.It must be mentioned here, by the way, that the land was promised to them by the great decree, not to mention that they had shed blood to acquire these lands in the civil war years! (Soviet officers, however, could inherit dachas and large slate-walled estates on the outskirts of Moscow, which is another matter: it was given to us, and that was of course permissible!) And some have been jailed "for stealing the ear of wheat," and some have been deprived of the freedom to choose where they live, or to practice a craft they have practiced for many years (which we once destroyed with religious fanaticism). all trades, but we have now forgotten that). Mention these people, and our people here will say contemptuously (the propaganda agitators doubly contemptuously, and the October Revolutionary constitutionalists doubly contemptuously) and say: People are "people who have been wronged by the Soviet regime", "people who have been punished in the past", "children of former rich peasants", and they are all "people who hold a grudge against the Soviet regime." When one person said that and the other nodded, everything seemed to be clear.It seems that the people's regime has the right to wrong its own citizens.It seems that the most fundamental problem, the main symptom lies here, because they "have been wronged"...they "hold a grudge"... Moreover, no one shouted: "Shut up!"To hell with you!Do you really think existence determines consciousness?Decide or not?Or you want to say: Existence determines consciousness only when it is beneficial to you, and not when it is not, is it? Some of us here still frown slightly and say, "Yeah, some mistakes were made," and forever use that mischievous and impunity impersonal sentence -- committed.But I don't know who did it.It seems to be the fault of the handymen, the porters, and the farmhands.No one has the courage to say: the Communist Party committed it!It's the irresponsible leaders who never change their shifts!Who else would "make" those mistakes, but those in power?Can we just blame Stalin alone?Gotta have a sense of humor.It was committed by Stalin, then, may I ask, you guys.What were these people, millions of leaders, doing at the time? Not only that, but the errors themselves seem to fade quickly to our eyes, and become a kind of hazy, indistinct, outlineless blob, which is no longer regarded as dull, fanatical. , The consequences of sinister intentions.And only on one point, that the Communists put the Communists in prison, did they admit all their mistakes.As for the 15 to 17 million peasants who were dismantled, sent to extermination, relocated across the country and deprived of the right to remember and speak of their parents - none of this seems wrong !Those sewer flows we mentioned at the beginning of this book do not seem to be wrong.Unprepared for a fight with Hitler, putting on a deceitful posture, retreating shamefully amidst constant changes of slogans, only the spirit of Russian Ivan and the slogan of fighting for Holy Russia forced the Germans on the Volga Stopping - for all this, not only is it not Stalin's mistake, but it has almost become his main contribution. In just two months, we lost almost a third of our population to the enemy, as well as those aforementioned families that were not wiped out and thousands of labor camps who fled after the guards escaped. Prisoners have been left behind in many prisons in Ukraine and the Baltic region, where until the arrival of the enemy there is still the smoke of shooting prisoners who violated Article 58. While we still have power, we smother and poison all these unfortunate people, deny them employment, deny them a chance to work, drive them out of their homes, and drive them to death.And once our incompetence was exposed, we immediately asked them to forget all the disasters imposed on them, forget their relatives who were shot, forget their parents and children who starved to death in the tundra, and forget their own families. Bankruptcy and our indebtedness to them, forget about interrogation and torture by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, forget about starving labor camps.Not only are they asked to forget all this, but they are also asked to immediately join the guerrillas, go underground, and defend the motherland at the cost of their lives. (But never mentioning that we should change our attitudes! Besides, none of us gave them hope that we would someday come back and treat them differently and not poison them again , deport them, put them in jail, stop shooting them!) In this case, what exactly is it logical to wonder about?Is it strange how so many people welcome the Germans?Or should it be surprising that such people are so few? (Even the Germans sometimes had to engage in "judicial trials" and other pretense. For example, they tried the informers during the Soviet regime, shot the deacon of the Nikolsk church in Kyiv, etc. And such cases Not individually.) And what about those who believe in religion?For twenty years we have persecuted religion and closed churches.The Germans came and they opened the church (we had the nerve to close it right after the Germans left).Take Rostov-on-the-Don, for example, where the opening of the church was cheered by the crowd and drew a large crowd.No, these people should curse the Germans for it, shouldn't they? In this Rostov city, a few days after the war broke out, the engineer Alexander Petrovich M-V was arrested and died in the interrogation room.For months afterwards, his wife waited in fear for her arrest.It was only after the Germans arrived that she lay down to sleep "at ease", thinking: "At least I can get a good night's sleep today." No, she should wish her husband's executioners back with all her heart, shouldn't she? In May 1943, when the Germans were still occupying the city, in the park on Linbian Street in Vinnytsia (this park was surrounded by the city Soviet with a high wall in early 1939, and Declaring that the site is "for the People's Commissariat of National Defense, no entry") accidentally began excavating several overgrown graves that were already illegible.As a result, a total of thirty-nine death pits were found in this park: each was three and a half meters deep, three meters long, and four meters wide; Corpses stacked cross-stacked.All had their arms tied with rope, and all had been shot in the back of the head with a small-caliber pistol.Apparently, they were dragged out at night to be buried after being shot in prison.According to the identification of the documents kept by some people, some people were once identified. They were sentenced to "twenty years in prison and deprived of the right to communicate" in 1938.A precious photo here is that the residents of Vinnytsia came to the scene to watch or identify the dead body.The further back, the more dead pits were discovered.In June, excavations began in the vicinity of the Orthodox cemetery, and another forty-two graves were discovered next to the Pirogov Hospital.Then in the "Gorky Cultural Rest Park" - under the park's "entertainment room", under the "laughing room", under the small stadium and the open-air dance floor, fourteen more death pits were discovered.A total of 9,439 corpses were buried in these 95 pit tombs.And that's just in one city of Vinnytsia, and by accident.So, how many other cities have not been discovered?Those citizens should go all out to join the guerrillas after seeing these corpses, shouldn't they? Having said that, if we are impartial, we should assume that since we feel bad when people trample on our bodies and our favorite things, it is true that the person we trample on must also feel bad.isn't it?Those whom we wiped out have the right to hate us - perhaps that's a fair idea, too?or not?They don't have this right?Should they die with infinite gratitude to us? We always say that the pseudo-cops and pseudo-mayors have some kind of old, almost innate hatred.However, you must know that this hatred is sown in their hearts by ourselves, it is our "production leftovers".What did State Attorney Krebko say?He said: "In our view, every crime is a product of the social system." Comrades, it is a product of your system!应该记住自己的学说嘛！ 我们也不应该忘记，在那些拿起利剑攻击我们和用言论反对我们的人们（我们的同胞们）中间，也有一些完全不是出于私人动机的人：他们的财产并没有被没收（他们本来一无所有），他们自己，甚至他们的家属，没有蹲过劳改营。可是连他们也早被折磨得透不过气来了。其原因在于我们的制度，在于这个制度本身对个人命运视同草芥，在于对信仰的迫害，在于那支令人啼笑皆非的歌子，说什么没有任何一个别的国家 "人们可以这样自由呼……"在于那些虔诚信徒们对领袖的膜拜，在于争先签名认购公债时对那支铅笔的争夺，在于那照例要转为热烈欢呼的雷鸣般的鼓掌声！我们能够设想这些人，这些正常的人，所需要的只是我们国家这种酸臭的空气吗？（侦讯人员在审讯费奥多尔?弗洛里亚神父时，曾指责他竟敢在罗马尼亚人面前谈论斯大林的一些丑事。神父回答说："关于你们，我还能讲些什么别的话呢？我知道什么，就讲什么。发生过什么事，我就谈了什么事。如此而已。"而按照我们对他的要求，则应该是：你撒谎吧！你昧良心吧！并且你自己也完蛋吧！只要能对我们有利就行！但是，这看起来岂不是有点不象唯物主义了吗，啊？） 有过这样一件事。那是一九四一年九月间的事，发生在我去参军之前。当时我和妻子都是刚刚当教员，我们在莫罗佐夫斯克镇上租了一套房子（这个小镇第二年就被德国人占领了）和另外两个房客--没有子女的布罗涅维茨基夫妇--同住一个院子。尼古拉?格拉西莫维奇?布罗涅维茨基是个工程师，年近六十，这个知识分子很像契诃夫小说中的人物，十分平易近人，安详，聪慧。我现在想起他那长方形的脸膛，还总觉得他是戴着一副夹鼻眼镜似的，其实。也许他并不戴眼镜。他的妻子比他还要恬静，温顺。她的脸色显得有些暗淡，稀疏的亚麻色头发贴在头上。她比丈夫小二十五岁，可是，看她的动作却像是年纪不小了。我和妻子都很喜欢这两个人，他们对我们大概也颇有好感，特别是因为我们两家都不是那种贪婪地操持家业的家庭。 每到黄昏，我们四人就坐在门前的台阶上。一轮明月高照，微风吹来，暖洋洋的，夜晚十分宁静。当时，那宁静还没有被敌机的轰鸣和炮弹爆炸声所毁坏。不过，德国人的进逼已经使我们很不安，就像那看不见的、然而是沉重闷人的乌云顺着乳白色天空朝着这轮无可奈何的小月亮压过来一样。火车站上每天都有一列列开往斯大林格勒的火车停下来，逃难的人们使镇上的集市充满了各种流言，气氛很恐怖。这些人从口袋里掏出不计其数的百卢布钞票留在集市上，然后就往远处逃去了。他们能够说出我军又放弃了哪些城市，而情报局却在这之后很久还不提这些地方，不敢叫老百姓知道真实情况。（谈到这些城市时，布罗涅维茨基不用"放弃了"这个词，而是说"夺取了"。） 我们坐在台阶上聊天。我和妻子还很年轻，当时还满怀着对生活的美好希望，因而也为生活感到十分不安。当我们要想表达这种内心的不安时，却又找不出什么比报纸上说的更聪明的话来。所以，我们和布罗涅维茨基夫妇在一起觉得很轻松：当时我们心里怎么想，就怎么说，并没有觉察到相互之间有什么不同的感受。 可是他们两个人很可能是怀着诧异的心情望着我们这两个初生的牛犊儿的。我们虽是刚刚度过三十年代，但却好像没有在三十年代生活过一样。他们问我们：一九三八年和一九三九年给我们留下了什么记忆？什么记忆？学院里的图书馆、考试、愉快的体育行军、文娱活动，嗯，当然啦，还有爱情，那正是谈恋爱的年龄嘛。那时候我们学院的教授没有人被抓进监狱吗？啊，对呀，好像是有两三个人被抓进去了。副教授接替了他们的职位。那么学生呢？没有被捕的吗？我们想起来了：对，有。有几个高年级的学生被抓走了。可这又怎么样呢？没关系，我们还照常跳舞。在你们的亲友中间呢？……嗯，……谁也没有被触动吗？是啊，谁也没有…… 因为这太可怕了，所以我想一定要把这些都回忆起来。但实际情况就是上面所说的那样。正因为我当时并不属于专搞体育活动和跳舞的一类年轻人，又不属于一头钻进自己的科学和公式里去的狂热者之类，所以这就显得更加可怕了。我自以为一直是对政治非常感兴趣的。刚刚十岁的时候，我这个黄口孺子就胆敢不相信维辛斯基了，我曾对当时的几次著名的法庭公审安排得那么妥帖表示过惊异。但是，并没有什么东西推动我继续思考下去，没有东西推动我把那几次小小的（当时曾显得声势浩大的）莫斯科公审同整个国土上滚动着的镇压的巨轮联系起来（牺牲在这个巨轮下的人数也好像并未引起我的注意）。我的童年是在排队中度过的：排面包队、牛奶队、粮食队（那时候我们不知道有肉）。但是，我当时还不能把现象联系起来看，还认识不到缺乏粮食就意味着农村的破产，也不懂得这是为什么。当时我们有另外一种公式：这叫做"暂时的困难"。在我们那个大城市里，每天夜里都逮捕人，逮捕，又是逮捕，可是，我夜里是从来不到外面去的。白天呢，那些被抓走的人们的家属自然不会挂出黑旗来，而我那些同学们也决不会提起他们被捕的父亲。 从报纸上看，一切都完美无缺，朝气蓬勃。 何况年轻人本来就是愿意接受"一切都好"这种想法的。 现在我才明白，当时布罗涅维茨基夫妇要想对我们谈点什么，该有多么危险。但是他，这个曾经遭受过格别乌（国家政治保卫局）最残酷的打击的老工程师，还是对我们多少吐露了一点点：他在监狱里失掉了健康，他不止一次被投入监狱，不止在一个劳改营里呆过。但他只是怀着激动的心情对我们谈了其中最早的一个杰兹卡兹甘劳改营，谈到被污染的有毒的水，有毒的空气，谈到大批屠杀，谈到多次递交莫斯科的申诉书都如石沉大海。甚至"杰兹-卡兹-甘"这个词，也像它的无情历史一样，一听到它，就像是有人用大锉刀在你身上用力地控似的。（可是，怎么样呢？这个杰兹卡兹甘是否多少改变了我和妻子对世界的看法呢？没有。当然没有。因为那不是发生在我们身旁的事，不是亲身经历呀。这是不能向任何人言传的。最省事的办法是不去想它。最轻松的是把它忘掉。） 当布罗涅维茨基已经解除监禁时，当时还很年轻的、他现在的妻子来到了杰兹卡兹甘。就在这里，在铁丝网的阴影下，他们结婚了。战争爆发前夕，他们奇迹般地获得了自由，来到了这个莫罗佐夫斯克市，当然，是带着有污点的公民证来的。布罗涅维茨基在某个小小的建筑事务所找了个工作，他妻子当了会计。 不久，我从莫罗佐夫斯克参了军，我的妻子也离开了那个小镇。接着，莫罗佐夫斯克镇落入德国人手中。后来它又被苏军收复了。记得我在前线时曾收到妻子的一封信，她在信中说："你会想到吗？听说在德国人占领莫罗佐夫斯克镇期间，布罗汉维茨基还当了伪镇长呢！真卑鄙！"我那时也很吃惊，心里也认为："真卑鄙！" 但是，经过许多年之后，当我躺在某处监狱里的乌黑的铺板上回忆往事的时候，我又记起了布罗涅维茨基。这时我就不再怀着从前那种孩子般轻率的心情谴责他了。他曾经被无理地剥夺了工作；后来给他的工作与他的能力极不相称；人们把他逮捕入狱，拷打他，折磨他，唾他的脸。他该怎么办呢？他还应该相信这一切都是进步的？相信他自己的生活--他的物质和精神生活、他的亲戚朋友的生活以及全国人民的令人痛心的生活全都无所谓，是吗？ 透过向我们投掷过来的一小团称为"个人迷信"的云雾，通过我们本身在其间起了变化的时间层次（光线通过许多层次时是会发生折射和辐射的呀），我们现在所看到的三十年代和当时的自己，已经不是这些年代和我们自己原来的样子了。把斯大林神化。对一切东西都毫无保留地给予信任的，根本不是全体人民，而只是党、共青团、城市里的青年学生和那些知识分子代用品卿那些取代了被消灭和被遣散的知识分子的人们），再就是一部分城市小市民阶层（工人阶级），因为他们家里的有线转播喇叭是从早晨的莫斯科克里姆林宫斯帕斯克门楼上的钟声开始，直到深夜的《国际歌》为止一直不关闭的。对这些人来说，广播员列维坦的声音已经变成他们的良心之声了。（我这里说的是"一部分"城市小市民阶层，因为还有不少人对于工业生产方面颁布的有关"二十分钟迟到"的命令以及把工人固定在工厂的作法，是并不拥护的。）但是，当时在城市中也还有少数人（其实也并不很少，总有几百万吧），他们，只要有胆量，也曾厌恶地拔出广播喇叭的插头，他们在每一份报纸的每一页上都只看到满纸的谎言。他们把投票选举日当成痛苦和受屈辱的日子。在这少数人看来，我们现在实行的专政既不是无产阶级的专政，也不是人民的专政，更不是苏维埃式的专政（因为有人还记得"苏维埃"这个词最初的正确含义），而只不过是共产党少数的掠夺性专政，而且带有极粗野的性质。