The signal (Garschin)
The Signal ( Russian Сигнал ) is a short story by the Russian writer Vsevolod Garschin , which appeared in the January issue of Severny Westnik in Saint Petersburg in 1887 .
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Semyon Ivanov's wife Arina works for a Kursk merchant. Semjon roams the country looking for work. At a train station he is recognized by the headmaster. Both veterans had been nine years in the same regiment served . The former officer found the former commoner Ivanov a job as a railway attendant . Semjon takes Arina into his station guard's house. You set yourself up. It's tedious. For example, the cultivation of vegetables on the route must be approved by the station master. Semjon and Arina are waiting for approval.
During the prescribed patrols along the route, Semjon met his neighbor Vasily Stepanitsch Spiridonov in a friendly conversation at one end of his section. Vasily calls the superiors human traffickers who do not fully pay out the fifteen silver rubles stipulated by the government for the month . Vasili also received a fine for growing vegetables with his wife without a request addressed to the railway manager.
Wassili complains to the route manager about such treatment. When the latter inspects the route, he hits Vasily's face with blood. Vasily hands over the work on section 164 to his wife and wants to complain about the bloodsucker to the Moscow railway administration. Semjon advises against it. Vasily does not hear and sets off.
During one of the next route inspections, Semjon tells his colleague Wassili how he loosens the rail with a crowbar and leverages it a little. When Semyon demands the crowbar because he wants to undo the sabotage , Vasily disappears into the bushes with the tool. When the next full passenger train approaches, Semjon doesn't know what to do. He takes off his cap, pulls out a cloth and scratches his upper arm with his knife. The splashing blood turns the cloth red. Semjon overcomes the dizziness and signals the engine driver with his red flag that his life is in danger. The engine driver reacts. The saboteur Vasili comes out of the bushes and surrenders.
German-language editions
Used edition
- The signal . P. 384–396 in Vsevolod M. Garschin: The stories. Transferred and with afterword by Valerian Tornius . 464 pages. Dieterich'sche Verlagbuchhandlung, Leipzig 1956 (Dieterich Collection, Vol. 177)
Web links
- The text
- Wikisource Сигнал (Гаршин) (Russian)
- online at Lib.ru / Classic (Russian)
- Entries in WorldCat
- Entry in the Laboratory of Fantastics (Russian)