Chapter 11 Chapter 6 Maximov (2)

"I take this name only to not complicate things—for no other reason. Pavel Alexandrovich Isaev is my stepson, the only son of my late wife. But to me In a word, he is like my own son. He has no other relatives in the world except me." Maximov took the letter from him and read it again. It was the last letter he had sent in Dresden, in which he accused Pavel of spending too much money.Shame on him to sit here while a stranger reads his letter!It's a shame to write a letter!But how do you know which day is the end?How do you know? "Love your papa, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky," said the officer to himself, raising his eyes. "To be clear, your surname is not Isaev at all, your surname is Dostoevsky."

"Yes. It was deceit, it was a mistake, it was silly, but it was harmless, and I regret it." "I understand. But you're here pretending to be—shall we use that ugly word? For lack of a better word, we'll use it cautiously for the time being—the late Pavel Alexandre Rovich Isaev's father, demanding the return of items that belonged to him, when in fact you were not that person at all. That's not an appropriate situation, is it?" "I said it was a mistake, and now I deeply regret it. But the deceased was my son, and I was his duly appointed legal guardian."

"Well. Here it says he was twenty-one when he died, nearly twenty-two. Technically, the guardianship papers have expired. Twenty-one is free, isn't it? Legally, yes. Free man." This mockery eventually angered him.He stood up. "I didn't come here to talk about my son with strangers," he said, his voice rising. "If you insist on withholding his papers, just say so and I can take other steps." "Insist on withholding his papers? Of course not! Please sit down, dear sir! Of course not! On the contrary, I would very much like to let you have a look, both for yourself and for us. We are very grateful if you can advise us . Let's start with this one." He spread five or six double-sided pages in front of him, a complete list, the first page beginning with the letter A, which he had just seen. "Isn't this your son's handwriting?"

"no." "No, we know it's not. Whose handwriting is it, do you have a concept?" "I have no idea." "It was in the handwriting of a young woman who is currently living abroad. Her name does not matter, although I would surprise you if I say it. She was a friend and associate of a man named Nechayev, Sergey Genna. Devich Nechayev. Does that name mean anything to you?" "I don't know Nechayev directly, and I don't think my son knows him. Nechayev is a conspirator and a rebel, and I firmly refute his machinations." "You say you don't know him directly. But you have had contact with him."

"No, I have no contact with him. I attended a public meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, where many people spoke, and Nechayev was among them. He was in the same place as I was—that's how I knew him. All his facts." "When was that?" "Autumn 1867. The meeting was organized by a group calling itself the League of Peace and Freedom. I attended the meeting openly as a patriotic Russian, and wanted to hear what all sides thought about Russia. I listened to that young man Nechayev The fact that I support him does not mean that I support him. On the contrary, I repeat that I oppose everything he advocates, whether in public or in private, and I have said it many times."

"Including the people's welfare? Didn't Nechayev advocate the people's welfare? Isn't that what he was fighting for?" "I don't understand the exact meaning of these questions. In the name of the principle of equality, Nechayev first advocated the violent overthrow of all social systems, and advocated that everyone has a share in happiness, and if happiness is not obtained, everyone has a share in misery. What he is trying to justify is not really a principle. In fact, he seems to despise all justification as a waste of time, a useless intellectual exercise. Please don't associate me with Nechayev."

"Well, I accept your reproach. Though I must add that I was surprised—I didn't expect you to be a man of principle. But back to business. That list before you—you Do you know any of them?" "I know a few of them. Not many." "This is a list of people who are planning to assassinate. As long as the signal is sent in the name of people's revenge, it will be done immediately. You also know that people's revenge is a secret organization founded by Nechayev. The purpose of the assassination is to accelerate the general uprising and overthrow the country. regime. If you turn to the end of the document, you can see an appendix with a list of various people who were executed immediately after the overthrow of the government. It includes all senior judicial officers, all police officers, and Third Department officials above the rank of captain. The list was found in your son's files."

Having revealed this information, Maximov leaned back, raised the front legs of his chair, and smiled friendly. "You mean my son is an assassin?" "Of course not! No one has been assassinated, so how could he be the assassin? What you have is only a draft, an indeterminate draft. In fact, in my opinion, in my personal opinion, that This list was concocted in an afternoon by a young man disaffected by society, perhaps to show off to a very young woman at his dictation that he had power over life and death, his purely illusory power. Although In this way, assassinating officials, planning assassinations—is a very serious problem, do you agree?"

"Very serious. Your duty is too clear to require my advice. If Nechayev returns to his country, you must arrest him. As for my son, what do you intend to do? Arrest him too?" "Ha ha! You can tell your jokes all you want, Fyodor Mikhailovich! No, we couldn't arrest him even if we tried to arrest him, because he's dead. But he left physical evidence. Stay Filed, more than any self-respecting conspirator should have left behind. He also left questions. For example: Why did he kill himself? I want to ask you too: Why do you think he killed himself?" The room spun before his eyes.The agent's face was hazy, like a big pink balloon.

"He didn't kill himself," he whispered. "You don't know anything about him." "Of course not! I don't know anything about your stepson and his turbulent life, and I don't want to. But I want to know, from a material and investigative standpoint, what prompted his death. Was he threatened, for instance? Did his accomplices threaten to denounce him? Did he freak out so much that he took his own life? Or maybe he didn't kill himself after all? Is it possible that for reasons we don't yet understand, he was found to be vengeful of the people Traitors, killed in such a particularly nasty way? I have been thinking about these things. So I take this opportunity to have a good talk with you, Fyodor Mikhailovich. You are his stepfather, at the When he has no biological parents, you have been his protector for a long time. If you don't know him, who else will?

"Besides, there's the question of drinking. Has he always been a heavy drinker, or has he only recently taken it up because he was too nervous to plot?" "I don't understand. Why are we talking about drinking?" "Because he drank a lot the night he died. Don't you know?" He silently shook his head. "Fyodor Mikhailovich, you obviously don't know a lot. Well, let me be frank with you. I heard that you came here to claim your son's papers, so to speak. I'm sure, or almost sure, that you have no doubts that there's going to be trouble, because if you knew your stepson was connected to the Nechayev gang, you certainly wouldn't be here. Or It will be stated immediately that you are asking for the return of letters between yourself and your son, and nothing else. Do you understand me? "Since you have the letter from your stepson to you, it means that it is your letter to him that you want. But why—" "I want letters, and all other things of a private nature. What do you mean by holding him?" "Where did you say that! ... how tragic ... but let's go back to the document: you said 'private'. It occurs to me that in the present circumstances it is difficult to understand what 'private' means .Of course, we must respect the deceased, and must uphold the rights that your stepson himself has been unable to assert, which is the right to some proper privacy in this case. In anticipation of our death, strangers will come to inspect our belongings, open drawers, Breaking seals, reading private letters—I'm sure it's painful for any of us. On the other hand, in some cases, we would rather have an indifferent stranger execute the order. An unpleasant, yet necessary task. Can we be comfortable thinking of our privacy being exposed to the unsuspecting eyes of our wives, daughters, or sisters, while the grief of a loved one is still grieving? In some cases, such things are preferred to be performed by an unfeeling stranger, because he has no concern for us, and because he is completely indifferent to such things because of professional habits. "In a sense, of course, it's all empty talk, because in the end it's the law, the law of succession: private papers and other things go to the heir to the property. In the case of death without a designated heir Next, according to the principle of consanguinity, decide what should be decided. "We agree that letters between family members are private documents and should be treated with due discretion. Letters from abroad, letters of a seditious nature - such as lists of persons prepared for assassination - clearly do not belong to the The scope of private documents. But the situation at hand is quite strange."