Years of terror

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Years of Terror ( Russian Тридцать пятый и другие годы (Страх) книга первая, 1988 г. / Tridzat pjaty i drugije gody (Strach) kniga Pervaya, 1988 's), the second novel of the four divider The Children of the Arbat by Anatoly Rybakov . The text was preprinted in 1988 in issue 9 of the Moscow literary magazine Дружба народов (Druzhba narodow / Friendship of the Nations). The work was published in book form in 1990 by the Izvestia newspaper publisher under the title Страх (Strach / Die Angst) with an edition of half a million copies and by Советский писатель (Sowetski pissatel / The Soviet writer) with an edition of 100,000 copies. The translation into German by Juri Elperin came out in 1990 at Kiepenheuer & Witsch in Cologne .

The Great Terror and the Moscow Trials are discussed . So there is nothing less than a narrative attempt at processing the Stalinist purges . The plot in this second novel runs from December 1934 to January 1937. In all three novels of the above-mentioned four-part series, the reader has to distinguish between four alternating storylines:

  • the love story between the terrorist victim Alexander Pawlowitsch Pankratow - that is Sascha, born in 1911 - and the young, helpful, straight-forward thinking and speaking Varya Ivanova,
  • the rise of Sascha's school friend Jurij Scharock - that is the trained lawyer Jura - to the compliant NKVD interrogator,
  • the two stories of Sascha's school friend Vadim Marassewitsch and his sister Vika and
  • the train of thought of Stalin , who - portrayed as a sneaky desk murderer - repeatedly asks himself: How do I get those veteran Bolsheviks who are still alive and whom Lenin named as candidates for future positions of power in his circle.

content

Sascha and Varya

Sascha lived his "whole life at Arbat , house 51". On January 19, 1934, he was arrested and, according to Paragraph 58.10, exiled to Siberia for three years on May 20, 1934 by the special commission of the GPU for counterrevolutionary agitation and propaganda . In the village of Mosgowa on the Angara , near Keima, he works as a carpenter. Sascha found out about the terror decree of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR through the late arrival of the newspaper . Anyone who terrorizes members of the Soviet authorities will be charged, sentenced by a court and mercilessly executed without an appeal option immediately after the conviction. There is talk of mass shootings in the newspaper. Thousands of Leningrad nobles are evacuated. Actually, Sascha could be happy that he was deprived of his liberty. As an exiled enemy, he does not have to call for the unmasking and shooting of the enemy at rallies in Moscow.

Sascha has a lot of time. In the winter of 1936 he wrote prose on the subject of the French Revolution and sent his mother's texts to Moscow.

Varya, who works as a draftsman, is doing evening studies at the Moscow Higher School of Civil Engineering and lives with her sister Nina, a party member who has become a history teacher in the course of her studies. The siblings have lost their parents and are arguing about politics. Varya can't stand Stalin. Nina could explode after such an admission from her sister. However, after Sascha's arrest, Nina collected signatures for his release. The paper had been torn up by her superior school principal Alewtina Fyodorovna Smirnova - party member was 1919 -.

Varya - mathematically and physically gifted - is easy to study. She often finds time to visit Sofija Alexandrovna. This is Sasha's mother. Sasha's father left his mother. Varya has divorced the billiards player Kostja, a good-for-nothing.

Sascha is released on January 19, 1937. His documents are with the NKVD in Krasnoyarsk . On the way there he makes his way to Taischet .

law

Lena Budjagina - Ivan Grigoryevich Budjagin's daughter - visits Jura in the central hospital of the NKVD. He's lying there because of appendicitis . Lena is pregnant for the second time by Jura. She has separated from Jura, the employee at the secret security organs, because he does not want a child. An abortion, as in the first pregnancy, is out of the question for Lena this time.

Lena's father Ivan Grigoryevich Budjagin is working on an exposé concerning the political line for the creation of a united front against fascism , as it is to be debated at the upcoming VII Congress of the Comintern in the summer of 1935. Budjagin knows that Stalin has a very different view than he did in his synopsis. Budyagin belongs to the guard of deserving Bolsheviks; had saved Tukhachevsky's life in 1918 during a commando operation. When Budjagin remembers those times, he must call Stalin the "top bungler". In contrast to Stalin, Tukhachevsky, as a born general in Germany, recognizes the main Soviet enemy.

When preparing for the Zinoviev - Kamenev trial (see below), Jura has to take part in the dirty work, the so-called "cracking". Statements are to be blackmailed. During interrogation, he hits a woman's face with his fist. The prisoner had previously spat in Jura’s face. He kicks the prisoners and uses the stick. Anatoly Rybakov writes: “Beating was not easy work.” Jura stops as soon as the prisoner surrenders. There are worse ones - for example, the investigator Chertok. In a meeting with Molchanov , the coordinator of all NKVD investigation groups, Jura recognizes that guilt must be constructed so that Stalin's opponents such as Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bakayev , Smirnov and Mratschkowski can be shot. The latter is interrogated by the cowardly Slutsky and persuaded to admit lies. Jura is no match for the former Trotskyist Smirnov. Jura wonders: How can Smirnov be a terrorist when he's been imprisoned since 1933? The cruel and cynical Gai , head of the special department, has to deal with that. Even when Gai threateningly swings the rubber stick, Smirnov remains unimpressed. Only when the life of Smirnov's daughter Olga is threatened does Smirnov sign the record of all the half-truths and falsehoods requested.

Jura is relieved. The Kamenev case is transferred to Mironov , the head of the NKVD's economic department, an educated man. Mironov and even the brutal Chertok achieve nothing. Yeshov threatens Kamenev to have his 12-year-old son killed. Kamenev is tortured in the cell after the "session". Stalin wants to see signed confessions as he dictated them, and quickly. When time was of the essence, Yagoda also had Zinoviev tortured in the cell. The prisoner did not look good in court on August 19, 1936. Smirnov refutes the false confessions of the co-defendants. All of the accused are sentenced and shot on the morning of August 24th. Anatoly Rybakov quotes Smirnov's last word: "We deserve it because of our unworthy behavior in court."

Wadim and Vika

Vika worked for Jura as an agent. Now she catches up with the wealthy aristocrat Charles, a busy correspondent for a French newspaper, and marries him. Vadim, the merciless literary critic valued by the authorities, a "non-party Bolshevik" and member of the Writers' Union, is beside himself about such a marriage between his sister and a foreigner.

Vika does not allow himself to be read the riot act by such a “butcher and salivary” as her brother Wadim.

It comes, as it must. After Vika had lived in Paris for six months , Vadim was quoted in the NKVD Kuznetsky Most 24. Vadim does not understand: he, a well-known writer, son of Professor Marassevich - an advisor in the Kremlin hospital - is supposed to be there to answer questions about his sister, this slut, this whore. The secret service accuses him of having "counter-revolutionary talks". Wadim might bite off his tongue. He mentioned the names of more than twenty people he met in the house of his father, the professor. To make matters worse, he also stated that Stalin joke that he passed on to his hairdresser Sergei Alexejewitsch Feoktistov. Vadim is horrified: he, the brother-in-law of an anti-Soviet correspondent, is doing anti-Soviet propaganda.

During the next summons, Vadim will be asked about his former classmate Alexander Pavlovich Pankratow in the NKVD Kuznetsky Most 24. The chatterbox Vadim is still chatting about his former school friends Lena Budjagina, Varya's sister Nina Ivanova and Maxim Kostin. All information is put on record. Wadim is scared when he has to sign the protocol. The intimidated undertook to report to the address of the NKVD under the code name Vaclav.

Stalin

On May 14, 1935, Stalin went to Kunzewo in his new dacha. The old one in Subalovo had reminded him too much of his second wife Nadja . Why did the 22-year-old girl kill herself? Because he hadn't gone to the theater with her? He didn't have time. Nadja had passed the upbringing of their children, Vasily and Swetlana, on to him. Stalin's thought work announced above is initially limited to family worries. Why did brother-in-law Aljoscha Swanidze bring Stalin's son Yakov from his first marriage to Katharina to study in Moscow?

On July 7, 1935, Stalin chaired the meeting of the constitutional commission. Anatoly Rybakov sums up Stalin's rage since that summer 1935 in two sentences: “He (Stalin) was not allowed to have any clearly recognizable or potential rivals. Everything potentially dangerous had to be eradicated. ”So it was.

The killing has no end. Stalin instructs Yeshov to accelerate the preparation of the trials against the Trotskyists Zinoviev and Kamenev. On top of that. The NKVD man Jagoda has done his job and must be "replaced". After the Zinoviev-Kamenev trial, which Vyshinsky is supposed to lead, Yeshov Yagodas will take his place. Stalin can't help but smile when he imagines the sensitive, naive idealist Ter-Waganian , a Bolshevik, being sentenced to death by his bitterest enemy, the former Menshevik Vyshinsky. The army also needs to be "cleaned up". If Stalin only thinks of the heroes of the civil war , these outrageously arrogant scoundrels. These Tukhachevsky, Jakir , Uborevich must be destroyed. Stalin also wants to stir up fear in the country, because established power is first based on fear. Stalin sees himself as the actual historian of his party, does not tolerate any historian next to him and sees the historical relationships - for example: Why did the Paris Commune go under? Quite simply - because at the time, there was no terror in France. With terror - so Stalin - attitudes can be leveled. In addition, “secret reprisals” arouse fear in the people.

Jagoda has been commissioned by Stalin to prepare the trial of Bukharin and Rykov . When Jagoda proves unable to do so, Jeshow becomes his successor on September 25, 1936.

Quote

Anatoly Rybakov quotes Alexei Tolstoy on the outcome of the Zinoviev-Kamenev Trial (August 1936): "The betrayal ... is the meanest and most vile of all that has been committed in human history."

shape

The title of the four-part novel "The Children of Arbat" is ambiguous. Symbolically speaking, children are such protagonists as Sascha, Varya, Jura and Wadim, who have now turned twenty and over thirty and grew up together on the Arbat. In addition, the Arbat district is populated by prominent families of politicians. Another child in the literal sense of the word is Kamenev's twelve-year-old son, whose murder the NKVD man Yeshov threatens if the father does not sign the confession dictated by Stalin.

Anatoly Rybakov writes that “almost all employees of the NKVD” were killed in the years following the above-mentioned Moscow trials. Evidence has been destroyed. Where does the author then get the material for the narrative staging of historical characters such as Yagoda, Yeshov, Molchanov, Mironov, Gai, Sluzki and Chertok in his prose?

When Anatoly Rybakov briefly documents the fate of victims at the end of a chapter - recognizable by the italic sentence - he sometimes goes ahead. Sometimes the reader has to be careful. Bukharin's execution is mentioned early on (p. 136) and told about 300 pages later from its prehistory (p. 413).

filming

Based on the first three parts of the four-part novel The Children of Arbat , the 16-part TV film of the same name by Andrei Andrejewitsch Eschpai was broadcast in 2004. Yevgeny Eduardowitsch Zyganow played Sascha Pankratow, Tschulpan Nailjewna Khamatova played Varya Ivanova, Daniil Alexandrowitsch Strachow played Jura Sharok, Andrei Wladimirowitsch Kusitschow played Vadim Marassewitsch, Soja Alexandrovna Kaidanowskaja his sister Vika and Maxim Alexandrovskaya his sister Vika and Maximus Alexandrovich his sister Vika.

Used edition

Part 2 of the four-part novel:
  • Anatoly Rybakov: Years of Terror. Novel. German by Juri Elperin. 440 pages. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag (dtv 11590), Munich 1992, ISBN 3-423-11590-4

literature

Part 1 of the four-part novel:
Part 3 of the four-part novel:

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Varya does not mince his words. For example, when she argues with Sofija Alexandrovna's neighbor Mikhail Yurgevich, a civil servant at the Central Administration for Economic Statistics, about embellished statistics, you slip out: “You comrade Stalin is lying!” (Edition used, p. 182, 7th Zvo). The old Bolshevik replies : “There are a lot of bad contemporaries all around, you should be more careful.” (Edition used, p. 182, 14th Zvu) He closes with good advice: “Don't ... chat. Hands off politics, Varya ... You can see how it works out. People who brought about the revolution, who ruled the state, are now brought to justice and shot as murderers, terrorists and spies. "(Edition used, p. 191, 7th Zvu)
  2. ↑ The NKVD, GPU and Cheka occasionally lump Anatoly Rybakov together. (Edition used, p. 414, below)
  3. ↑ Shortly before completing his engineering studies at the Moscow University of Transportation, Sascha had made a mistake in designing a wall newspaper in clay and had been expelled. In response to Sascha's objection, Solz personally ordered his resumption of the engineering college, but Sascha snubbed two natshalniks at that college and, on top of that, did not apologize. (Edition used, p. 211, above)
  4. ↑ At the end of some chapters Anatoly Rybakov documents the fate of many Stalin victims: The “unworthy behavior” was the result of Stalin's promise to spare the lives of the accused's relatives. Stalin did not keep his promise. Anatoly Rybakov names nine relatives of Smirnov, Bakayev, Mratschkowski, Ter-Waganian (see the Stalin chapter of this article) and Kamenev who were shot in the three years after the trial. Other relatives were put in camps for many years. One of Kamenev's grandchildren died in 1966 in a “labor reform camp”. (Edition used, p. 384)
  5. ↑ The old Bolshevik Aljoscha Swanidze was arrested in 1937 and shot in 1942. His wife died - also in 1942 - in a Kazakh camp. Both sons were in prison until 1956. Katharina's sister Mariko died in prison in 1937. Nadja's sister Anna had been in solitary confinement in Vladimir since 1948 and was released in 1953. Anna's husband was shot in 1938. Nadja's brother Pawel died unexpectedly in 1938. His wife was in prison from 1947 to 1954. The couple's daughter was imprisoned from 1948 to 1953. After Jacob's death in German concentration camp Sachsenhausen its 1,941 arrested Ms. Julia was released. (Edition used, pp. 102–103)
  6. ↑ According to Anatoly Rybakov, 16 members of that commission were shot: Chervyakov and Lyubchenko committed suicide. The latter previously shot his wife because torture was imminent. (Edition Used, p. 136)
  7. ↑ The reason for the political murders Stalin provided primarily the assassination attempt on Kirov in 1934 in Leningrad. (Edition used, p. 207, 13. Zvu) As a result, Anatoly Rybakov lists some Leningrad victims of the related campaign of revenge. From 1937 to 1939 the following were shot: Tschudow , Kodazki , Alexejew , Smorodin , Posern , Ugarow and Struppe . (Edition used, p. 208, 10. Zvo)
  8. ↑ Traces were covered in the NKVD: they were shot Chertok committed suicide in 1937 and Slutsky a year later. (Edition used, p. 416, below)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Russian bibliography on Anatoly Rybakov's novels
  2. ↑ The fourth novel Прах и пепел ( Dust and Ashes ), published in 1994 (Russian bibliography of Anatoly Rybakov's novels ), is not yet available in German. Dust and Ashes was published in 1996 for the English-speaking area in Boston .
  3. ↑ Entry Тридцать пятый и другие годы at fantlab.ru
  4. ↑ Entry in issue 9 of the magazine Дружба народов at fantlab.ru
  5. ↑ Russian Дружба народов
  6. ↑ Entry Страх (Izvestia) at fantlab.ru
  7. ↑ Russian Советский писатель
  8. ↑ Entry Страх (Советский писатель) at fantlab.ru
  9. ↑ Edition used, p. 433, 4th Zvu
  10. ↑ City of Fear , p. 487, 7. Zvo
  11. ↑ Edition used, p. 211, 17. Zvo
  12. ↑ City of Fear, p. 326, 20. Zvo
  13. ↑ Edition used, p. 15, 1. Zvo
  14. ↑ Edition used, p. 44, 8. Zvu
  15. ↑ Edition used, p. 141, 13. Zvo
  16. ↑ Edition used, p. 231, 8. Zvu, p. 234, below
  17. ↑ Edition used, p. 263, 11. Zvo
  18. ↑ Russian Иосиф Исаакович Черток
  19. ↑ Russian Георгий Андреевич Молчанов
  20. ↑ Russian Абрам Аронович Слуцкий
  21. ↑ Russian Марк Исаевич Гай
  22. ↑ Russian Лев Григорьевич Миронов
  23. ↑ Edition used, p. 384, 6. Zvo
  24. ↑ Russian Кузнецкий Мост (улица)
  25. ↑ City of Fear, p. 185
  26. ↑ Edition used, p. 129, 16. Zvo
  27. ↑ Edition used, p. 243, 11. Zvu
  28. ↑ Edition used, p. 421, 10. Zvo
  29. ↑ Edition used, p. 357 below
  30. ↑ Edition used, p. 416, 15. Zvu
  31. ↑ years of terror in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  32. ↑ Russian Эшпай, Андрей Андреевич
  33. ↑ Russian Евгений Эдуардович Цыганов
  34. ↑ Russian Даниил Александрович Страхов
  35. ↑ Russian Андрей Владимирович Кузичёв
  36. ↑ Russian Зоя Александровна Кайдановская
  37. ↑ Russian Максим Александрович Суханов