Chapter 122 Part Three - Eighteen

Nekhludoff followed Maslova back to the men's cell, where everyone was excited.Nabatov, who usually walked around, interacting with everyone and observing all kinds of movements, now brought everyone a shocking news: he found a note on the wall written by the revolutionary Petrin who was sentenced to hard labor.Everyone thought that Petrin had already been in the valley of the Kara River, but now it was discovered that he had passed through here not long ago with criminals. "On August 17th I set out alone with criminals. Neverov was with me, but he hanged himself in the Kazan Asylum. I am in good health and spirits, and I hope everything goes well," he wrote in the note. with.

Everyone was discussing Petrin's situation and the reasons for Neverov's suicide.Kryltzov, on the other hand, was absorbed and silent, his bright eyes staring straight ahead. "My husband told me that Neverov became insane and saw ghosts when he was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress," Emilia said. "Yes, he was a poet, a visionary, and the solitary confinement of such a man was unbearable," Novodvorov said. "When I'm in a single cell, I don't let myself think about it, I always arrange my time in the most organized way, so I can always get through it."

"What's the problem? I'm always happy to be sent to a cell," Nabatov said passionately, evidently trying to dispel the gloom. "At first, I was always a little worried. I was afraid that I would be arrested, implicate others, and ruin my career. Once I go to jail, I don't have to bear any responsibility. I can take a breath. You just sit down and smoke." "Are you familiar with him?" Serkinina asked anxiously, looking at Kryltzov's thin face that suddenly changed color. "Neverov is a visionary?" Kryltzov said suddenly out of breath, as if he had been shouting or singing for a while. "Neverov, as our concierge said, is rare in the world... By the way... This is a man who is as transparent as crystal. Yes, he not only can't lie, he can't even fake Not only is he thin-skinned, but his whole body looks like it has been peeled off, and every nerve is exposed. Yes...his personality is very complicated, but it's not that kind of... well, what's the use of saying that! ..." He was silent for a while. "We debated what to do," he said, frowning furiously, "whether to educate the people first and then change their way of life, or to change their way of life first and then educate the people. And again, we debated how to fight: Peaceful propaganda, or terror? Yeah, we debate it all the time. But they don't argue, they know what to do. Dozens, hundreds of people die, and they're all good people, but they don't care On the contrary, they hope that all good people will die. By the way, Herzen said that as soon as the Decembrists were outlawed, the level of the entire society dropped. Well, how could it not drop! Later, even Herzen and His generation was outlawed. Now it's the turn of people like Neverov..."

"Man cannot be wiped out," Nabatov said passionately. "Someone will stay." "No, no one will stay if we make peace with them," said Kryltzoff, raising his voice so that he would not be interrupted. "give me a cigarette." "Smoking is not good for you, Anatole," said Sekinina, "please stop." "Hmph, don't worry about it," he said angrily, and started to smoke, but immediately coughed and felt so sick that he wanted to vomit.He spat and went on: "We're not doing it right, yeah, not right. Don't just talk about it, get everybody together... and get rid of them. That's it."

"But they are all human beings," said Nekhludoff. "No, they are not human, as long as they can do what they do, they are not human... Well, I heard that someone invented bombs and airships. I said, we will fly to the sky in an airship and drop them on their heads." Bomb, kill them all like bedbugs . . . yes, because . Nabatov ran outside to fetch snow.Sekinina brought him tincture of valerian, but he closed his eyes and pushed her away with a thin pale hand, panting heavily and rapidly.When the snow and cold water calmed him a little, and they helped him to sleep, Nekhludoff said goodbye to everyone and went back with the sergeant who had come to fetch him earlier.

The criminals were all quiet at this time, and most of them were asleep.Although there were people sleeping on the upper and lower bunks in the cell, and in the hallway, there was not room for all the prisoners, so some of them slept on the hallway floor with their heads resting on their wrappings and their bodies covered with damp prison robes. superior. From the cell door and from the corridor, there were snoring, moaning and sleep talking.Body covered with prison robes can be seen everywhere, crowded together.Only in the single cells of the criminals were a few people awake, sitting in a corner around a candle stub, and extinguishing it as soon as they saw soldiers passing by.There was an old man sitting naked under the lamp in the corridor, picking lice off his shirt.The air filled with germs in the cells of political prisoners seems to be much cleaner than the foul-smelling air here.The smoking oil lamp looked as if it was glowing in fog.It is difficult for people to breathe here.When passing through this corridor, if you don't step on or trip over someone who is asleep, you must first see where you can land in front of you, and then look for the next place to land.Three people apparently couldn't find room in the hallway either, and lay on the porch next to a stinking commode that was oozing feces from a crack.One of them was an idiotic old man whom Nekhludoff used to see on his travels.There was also a ten-year-old boy lying between two male prisoners, with his cheek resting on one hand, and his head resting on a male prisoner's lap.

Nekhludoff went out of the gate, stopped, stretched out his chest, and took a long, hard breath of the cold air.