City of fear

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City of Fear ( Russian Страх, (Тридцать пятый и другие годы) книга вторая / Strach, (Tridzat pjaty i drugije gody) kniga wtoraja ) is the third novel of the four divider "The Children of the Arbat" by Anatoli Rybakov , the 1991 in the Moscow Knizhnaya palata appeared. The translation into German by Juri Elperin came out in 1994 at Kiepenheuer & Witsch in Cologne .

The plot of the second novel, Years of Terror , continues. Anatoly Rybakov writes: “Between January 1937 and December 1938 ... seven million were arrested. One million of them were shot and two million died in the camps . ”“ ER ( Stalin ) had never pronounced a death sentence. On the contrary. HE hid the judgment that HE himself made ”.

The action in this third novel runs from January 1937 until the summer of the same year.

content

law

Moltschanow orders Jura - that is Jury Scharock - to arrest Lena's father, the old communist Ivan Grigoryevich Budjagin. Lena Budjagina has since given birth to Jura's son and lives with the child with her father because Jura doesn't want to know anything about his son. Jura is avoiding the arrest of his child's grandfather.

When Jura changes departments and receives the excellent scout Spigelglas as his new supervisor , he is actually happy. Because - according to his line of thought - he no longer has to invent spies, but rather expose real ones. First, Jura has to polish up his French, which he has forgotten since school days, under the guidance of his new supervisor. According to Spigelglas, Jura will be used against the ROWS . In this Russian Military Association, there are White Guards organized in France - including a couple of agents: General Skoblin , Agent EG-13, called the Farmer, and his wife, the singer of Russian folk songs Nadezhda Plevitskaya , called the Farmerin. Jura travels to Paris as a wood exporter, Scharowski, together with Spigelglas. Skoblin is supposed to procure forged "documents" from the German side in Berlin , which "prove" the cooperation of such military personnel as Gamarnik , Kork , Eideman and Feldman with the German Reich . The general only delivers "documents" to Tukhachevsky . Spigelglas and Jura have to wait; look at Paris. At the beginning of May 1937, both had about 30 pages in Moscow.

Sascha and Varya

In the middle school where Varya's sister Nina Ivanova teaches, schoolchildren whose parents were arrested as “ enemies of the people ” are denounced during the pioneer roll call in the schoolyard. Alevtina Fyodorovna Smirnova, the school director, is arrested "because of her ties to enemies of the people". Nina is asked by the NKVD about the collection of signatures that had been organized in the Arbat for the liberation of Sasha - that is Alexander Pavlovich Pankratow. When the sister is also threatened with arrest, Varya forces her to hastily leave to see her friend Max in Khabarovsk .

Although Sascha, as a convicted person, is not allowed to visit certain large cities, with skill and luck he manages the train ride from Tayshet via Krasnoyarsk , Novosibirsk , Sverdlovsk to Moscow. In Moscow, Sasha secretly meets his mother in front of the Leningrad train station . Sofija Alexandrovna has bad news for her son. Her brother, Mark Alexandrovich Ryazanov, was sentenced and shot in Kemerovo . After Ivan Grigoryevich Budjagin was arrested, Lena had to move into a shared apartment with the youngest child.

Sascha cannot stay in Moscow. He wants to try Kalinin , Ufa or Ryazan . Before the train leaves for Kalinin, the mother tells her son something else: Jura is with the NKVD.

Sascha asks about Varya. The mother praises how she was supported by Varya during the three years of Sasha's exile and unfortunately mentions Varya's screwed-up marriage with the billiard player Kostja. Sascha scolds an idiot. He loved one like this platonically for three years. Out of the dream!

In Kalinin, Sascha laughs at the waitress Ljuda, crawls under her and gets a job as a truck driver. As a convicted person, he cannot stay there long. He has to leave town and doesn't know where to go.

Mikhail Jurgewitsch, a neighbor of Sasha's mother, takes his own life. Varya stands by Sasha's mother in times of need, even though the mother's careless remark ruined the long-awaited reunion of the two young lovers Varya and Sascha. Varya would have liked to confess to Sascha about her marriage. Sascha is still thinking about Varya, even though he is buttoned up on the phone.

Sascha, coming from Kalinin, leaves the Leningrad train station in Moscow in the late summer of 1937 and meets a young woman. Varya !? The miracle does not materialize. It's just a stranger. Sascha is heading for his next destination, Ufa.

Wadim and Vika

Vika Marassewitsch and her French husband Charles move to their new place of residence, Paris . Charles reviewed André Gide's book “Back from Soviet Russia”. Vika is introduced to the writer and invited to Ozoir-la-Ferrière by the singer Madame Nadezhda Plewizkaja . The singer introduces Vika to her husband, General Skoblin.

Vadim Marassewitsch has to return to the NKVD in Moscow and is confronted with his hairdresser Sergei Alexejewitsch Feoktistov. The hairdresser has apparently been beaten. It's about a Stalin joke.

Towards the end of June 1937, the Moscow Trial of the Military is history. Vadim, who cannot forgive himself for calling his hairdresser at the NKVD in connection with that Stalin joke, now believes he knows why he was arrested. It was about Garmarnik, Uborewitsch (see below under Stalin ) and Muklewitsch - Arbat residents and customers of the hairdresser.

Stalin

Feuchtwanger was received by Stalin in the Kremlin on January 8, 1937 . An “objective” observer of the upcoming Pyatakov - Radek trial was sought and has been found. Although the guest from France articulates the horror of the western world at the verdicts in the Zinoviev - Kamenev trial, after visiting the trial he apparently finds the verdicts against Radek and Pyatakov in order.

Stalin has Yeshov prepare material against Bukharin and Rykov . Jeshow fears that Ordzhonikidze will speak out against the accusations in the plenary session of the Central Committee . Stalin thinks Ordzhonikidze won't be able to deal with his heart disease much longer. When Ordzhonikidze lies shot in his apartment, Stalin goes in person and has Kaminsky come. Stalin asserts Ordzhonikidse's sick heart as the officially certified cause of death.

To deter the members of the Central Committee, Bukharin and Rykov were arrested on February 27, 1937 from the session.

Stalin intends to have the purge of the army before a military tribunal behind him by June 1937. He sets his sights on Tukhachevsky, Jakir , Uborewitsch, Primakow , Putna and Schmidt . Stalin is resentful. Schmidt had insulted him in 1925 at the XIV Party Congress of the CPSU .

Primakov, Putna, Kork, Feldman, Eideman and Uborewitsch “confess” under torture in May 1937 . Anatoly Rybakov describes "the toughest means of the top class" - the "swallow", the " Frinowski saddle" and so on. Tukhachevsky was arrested on May 22nd and then tortured. His written "confession" contains blood stains. Gamarnik, bedridden, shot himself in his apartment on May 31.

In addition to Stalin, Anatoly Rybakov names politicians who have initiated the arrest of the military: Molotov , Voroshilov and Kaganowitsch .

The military were shot on June 11, 1937. Only two of their six judges - Shaposhnikov and Budjonny - survive, the others - Blücher , Below , Dybenko , Kaschirin and Alksuius (meaning Ilyas Said Gireewitsch Alkin) - are shot soon after the day of the judgment. Anatoly Rybakov writes: "This is how Comrade Stalin prepared the Soviet Union for the upcoming war ."

shape

The alternating montage of the Stalin passages in three other competing main storylines spices up the massive text mix immensely, but the legibility is not good because the reader loses the overview over the 1712 pages towards the end. In addition, Stalin hovers unreachably high on a royal level far above the Soviet citizens on the Arbat, who are described in the remaining three lower levels. The high-level language that predominates almost throughout in parts 1 and 2 of the novel is not maintained in the present third part towards the end of the novel. Sloppy turns are noticeable.

The structure of the characters in the present three-part novel is confusing in its diverse ramifications. Claims, written down in the third part, force you to read in part 1. For example, Jura Scharock told everything about Sascha Pankratow and Vika. When leafing through Part 1 - “The Children of Arbat” - the reader suddenly remembers one of the many abandoned threads: The NKVD employee Jura made Lena Budjagina pregnant twice. Lena has a child from it. Jura dodges fatherhood. In addition to Lena, he has a relationship with his agent Vika Marassewitsch. Lena finds out. Jura reports Lena's accidental discovery to his NKVD superior. Vika then marries Charles and is allowed to move to Paris. But there is nothing relevant about Sascha and Vika in the “Children of Arbat”.

Used edition

Part 3 of the four-part novel:
  • Anatoly Rybakov: City of Fear. Novel. German by Juri Elperin. 511 pages. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag (dtv 11962), Munich 1994, ISBN 3-423-11962-4 .

literature

Part 1 of the four-part novel:
Part 2 of the four-part novel:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Russian bibliography on Anatoly Rybakov's novels
  2. ↑ Entry Тридцать пятый и другие годы at fantlab.ru
  3. ↑ Edition used, p. 196, 3rd Zvu
  4. ↑ Edition used, p. 437, 13. Zvo
  5. ↑ Edition used, p. 428, 6th Zvu
  6. ↑ see also Russian. The Tukhachevsky case
  7. ↑ The Children of Arbat, p. 5
  8. ↑ see note 1 in Years of Terror
  9. ↑ Edition used, p. 47, 15. Zvo
  10. ↑ Edition used, p. 443, 18. Zvo
  11. ↑ Edition used, p. 443, 25. Zvo
  12. ↑ Edition used, pp. 459–460
  13. ↑ Edition used, p. 457, 9. Zvu
  14. ↑ Edition used, p. 477, 2nd Zvu
  15. ↑ Edition used, p. 481, 3rd Zvu
  16. ↑ The Children of Arbat , see for example the passages near pages 93, 602 and 612.