Emergency exit (narration)
Emergency exit ( Russian Запасный выход / Sapasnij wychod ) is a story by the Russian writer Lasar Karelin , which appeared in 1990 in No. 140 of the Soviet party newspaper Pravda .
content
The doctor of geologist Dmitri Stepanowitsch, "a simple man, not a managerial person", is called by telephone to his senior boss Pavel Petrovich. Dima, as the lower employee is called by his boss friend, rushes over and puzzles with the secretary Jelena Sergejewna, also known as Lena or Lenok, about the reason. Dima fears he's one of the thirty percent who will be laid off. Lena notes that the guy, like the boss is scolded by the subordinates, is also afraid. Dima waves it away. So far, the guy has always found an emergency exit .
It will be the same this time. The boy wants to make his subordinate the " People's Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Republic " or to have him voted by the recently picky people - but under one premise: when he comes to power, Dima must not let the boy down. The fellow does not tolerate contradiction; he can't either, because his star is sinking; will soon go under forever.
Dima continues to resist. Resistance is not bad on the candidate, comments the boy. But such a successful, not yet old geologist, who brought benefits to the country through deeds, could, once nominated as a deputy, not avoid being elected to the People's Deputy Congress.
Dima has to acknowledge that the guy has found the emergency exit again. Dima is allowed to go. Lasar Karelin writes: "He went out into the corridor and dragged the gray sky behind him, which was wet and cold."
shape
In 1990, the Russian bureaucrats cannot be dumped so easily as long as there are such servile subordinates as Dima. This relationship between the boss and his subordinate becomes clear in the greeting scene between the boy and his friend Dima. And when Dima finally no longer contradicts, the boy gives the direction and orders: "Go now!"
German-language editions
- Lasar Karelin: Emergency exit , translator Anne Kießl, pp. 212–234 in: Russian stories of the present. Edited by Bodo Zelinsky , Reclam, Stuttgart 1992, RUB 8829. ISBN 3-15-008829-1 (edition used)