Our dear Roman Avdeevich
Our dear novel Avdejewitsch ( Russian Наш дорогой Роман Авдеевич / Nash dorogoj Roman Avdejewitsch ) is a novella by the Russian writer Daniil Granin from the year 1990. This satire on Grigori Romanow was published by Kiepenheuer & Witsch in 1991 in Cologne in the Friedrich Hitzer translation .
Romanov was the first secretary of the CPSU in Leningrad from 1970 to 1983 . This is only indicated by a comment by the translator in the text. The narrated time already begins around 1963. Leningrad, the location of the action, must also be guessed by the reader.
content
Roman Avdejewitsch is a graduate engineer and used to work on a machine on a collective farm . He lives in an ordinary tenement house. However, the furnishings in his apartment have inventory numbers; so belong to the state. The vegetable shop on the ground floor of the house had to be closed, of course, because the noise from the queue disturbed Roman Avdejewitsch too much while he was recovering from work.
The author moves to the 1960s and makes it clear that First Secretaries “are our rulers”. Roman Avdeevich's path to the top is paved with an abundance of memorable combative activities. Roman Avdejewitsch - short stature like Napoleon at one time - first identifies the enemy before any activity. The city's dogs and cats fit in with the enemy. So their places become contaminated with chemicals. Thus, the anger of the people over the potato shortage is directed to the owners of the bulldogs and kitties . Because Roman Avdejewitsch doesn't like artistic intelligence at all, he helps these loners to have a regular working day in the collective; in other words, in spacious studios. Those allotment gardeners who want to be admitted as supplicants are among the loners who also tend to object. Because of a building project, they want to take away their urban parcels. Roman Avdejewitsch has found the solution for dealing with such unpopular dialogue seekers. Without exception, he interacts with these sections of the population via video conference. The off switch on the transmission line to the waiting room ends the dialogue.
In dealing with subordinates in the post- Stalin period , which is always talked about, pounding is unfortunately no longer modern. Nevertheless, Roman Avdejewitsch uses a number of fear reserves inherited from the times of the terrifying personality cult. Not everyone in town is afraid of their Ersek - meaning the First Secretary. That is actually astonishing. The author writes: "At that time there was no pluralism , it was too dangerous to have any other ideal positions than the Ersek." The stubborn academician Surguchev, for example, wants to evaluate the work effectiveness of party leaders using indicators. That will not do. Roman Avdejewitsch does not allow himself to be controlled by subordinates. Surguchev must be a dissident. He is regulated and properly intimidated.
Roman Avdejewitsch has a say everywhere. Since his presentation at the Congress of Historians he has been called a Leonardo .
His subordinates give him the name "Ass Licking" because he has elaborately designed greeting cards for the Secretary General . Because Roman Avdejewitsch can ingratiate himself, that is, he does everything right when dealing with superiors, he becomes an “approved” person. This is a person who is admitted to the superiors in Moscow . Doing everything right affects right gestures and the right choice of words, among other things. In addition, Roman Avdejewitsch as a listener plays the role of the attentive to perfection. Not only that. When speaking in the presence of the superiors, he can choose the optimal time. Roman Avdejewitsch can put up with defeats without complaint. When he leads a delegation to the French twin town, he can have himself photographed with a clochard and show the picture to the propagandists at home in a lesson, but the seductive skills of the barmaid Madame Julie is the "soviet ski", as Roman Avdejewitsch in the Cape he visited -Land is dubbed, not grown at all. Photos emerge - documents of how aggressive Julie got decidedly too close to the angry head of the delegation Roman Avdejewitsch. The pictures find their way into that massive folder as valuable material, which of course is laid out above every First Secretary in the Soviet Union . Regardless of this, Roman Avdejewitsch is doing almost everything imaginable for his advancement at home. When Mikhail Andreevich - “the last Stalinist” - came to the city from Moscow, trout had to be served for lunch after a stormy reception by the working people. The fish caught in Sevan is flown in. After dinner, Mikhail Andreevich insists on paying his bill of 34 kopecks .
First Secretary Roman Avdejewitsch, who stands for “firmness, order, rigor”, wants to go higher, wants to “ lay hands on the cool, polished granite of the mausoleum ” as Secretary General . When the incumbent Secretary General is in poor health and worse, Roman Avdejewitsch rushes forward. Some things go wrong with the assault. At an award ceremony, the General Secretary refuses Roman Avdejewitsch, for who knows what reason, the " all-union kiss ". Was it because the award winner had lecture on a factory on the drawing board? Roman Avdejewitsch doesn't give up that quickly. He digs a plan for Tsar Alexander III. out. This city, over which Roman Avdejewitsch rules, is to be protected from the north wind by a wall. A grandiose project - the large buildings of communism on the other hand appear small. The construction of the wall continues, but is doomed to failure from the start, as was already predicted at the time of the above-mentioned tsar. When the "irreplaceable loss" is to be lamented, the candidate Roman Avdejewitsch - the author doesn't know why either - is passed over in the nomination of the next Secretary General. And suddenly Roman Avdejewitsch is an "ordinary local" again.
shape
The narrator calls himself an author and has spared no effort in finding the truth. Unfortunately he is not omniscient. The only gag this writer allows himself is the story of Roman Avdejewitsch's permanent shrinking. Whenever the First Secretary puts a new world-shattering crazy idea into action, he shrinks. The heels of the shoes then have to be made thicker.
German-language editions
- Daniil Granin: Our dear Roman Avdejewitsch. Novella. Translated from the Russian by Friedrich Hitzer . Kiepenheuer & Witsch. Cologne 1991 (KiWi 244), ISBN 3-462-02137-0 . 120 pages (used edition)
Web links
- Fantastic Laboratory (Russian Лаборатория Фантастики)
Remarks
- ↑ Daniil Granin refers in one text passage (edition used, p. 45, 4th Zvu) to a narrated time that is a quarter of a century after 1938.
- ↑ As a means of payment in convertible currency is missing, Roman Avdejewitsch wants to sell the White Nights to the Japanese (Edition used, p. 98, 9th Zvu).
- ↑ Chapter like capitalism .