@
@
|
Some portions of this English text have been modified by the Pervin Tree that is originally translated by Vladislav B. Bondarev. |
II
@
I spend several years in the Starokonstantinovsk college. On the fourth or fifth year of my service there, the director of the college, one day, squabbled with a newly appointed to lead a preparation class instructor Labinsky, a private teacher, a person of a very little knowledge, limited, as many instructors dishonest(??), unsophisticated and, by his insistence, the latter was terminated, left with his big family without any means to existence. I was full of indignation and took an active participation in his life. From time to time in the newspaper gVolinhh my denunciatory article towards the director would appear, on which he, as was demanded by requirements of the inspection, should have explained himself, refute all accusations, all of which lead to nowhere. The director began literally stoking me, appealed to me, turned against me the whole Jewish community, revolted against me even students, searching for his protection among them, scolded, cursed, raged. I gave an advice to the wife of the dismissed instructor to go to Kiev with a motivated appeal to the regional curator. Finally, the director was dismissed from his position, and the teacher was reinstated to his previous position. This prevalence of the justice gave me lots of moral satisfaction and, also, many problems.
From the public moral rules point of view, dominant during that time, from the point of view of respect to the communal law, I in this case, as in the Vinnitsa College, was, maybe, not quite right, but here, the ran over the edge pain of my soul let itself spontaneously show in the outburst of a rebellion outcry: I could not leave side by side with bureaucrats, directors, civil servants, coup up with conventionalism and with all educational system, where the schools after the fife-six years educational period graduated youth with trifling knowledge and pitiful, squalid spiritual outfit. gSow rational, bright, and goodh – was told to the pedagogs. I will put forth a short stroke about the inspection work, as an independent apparatus, which primary duties were to watch the primary schools on their places. An honorable college Sentinel received a medal and personally handled the cost of it, fifty rubles, to an inspector. Most likely, he, from his infinite happiness, gave a whole hundred rubles bill and did not asked for any change. The inspector pocketed the money, and after some time another bill of fifty rubles for the same reword appears in the hands of another inspector, which the rich honorable Sentinel paid without asking any questions. In other case, the school principle and a teacher of a preparatory class taught a course substituting an absent instructor, for that they expected to receive an anticipated financial reword; that money was pocketed by an inspector. The poor teacher demands his share but the principal keeps his silence, afraid to tell the truth and consequently arguments between the two arises. Confidentially, I explained to the restless teacher the core of this business. A reach Jew asked the school principle to give his son, who finished Gymnasium, a teacherfs position, and the teachers were exempt from draft into the military service. The principle received the inspectorfs approval. The honorable Sentinel was generously rewarded, and a young man was accepted to the service. When a complain followed (Jews reported on each other all the time, spread slender), a director himself arrived to investigate; scared to death the principle pointed his finger at the inspectorfs approval, but the latter did not turned out to be a gentleman of his word. The inspectors used to mock, scuff the instructors, made them wait for a long time at the doors of their offices and received them all at once. I, unwilling to wait, turned directly to the department: the inspector was asked for an explanation. He raved, I celebrated, a reader, perhaps, will tell, that it is life trifles, but the whole life of the majority of everyday people consists of trifles and very often innocuous, quite frustrating ones.
@
As an element incapable to adaptation, I acquired quite a bit of enemies in the educational monde. It is very hard to imagine oneself, and could not be any tragic than that, when a human being with a sensitive and restless soul, in the presence of spiritual demands and desires, bound to live his life, more precisely, vegetate in a heavely stinky atmosphere of the callous Philistinism, lead his existence without being able to see any light spots on the dark background of the omnipresent grey, murky, overwhelmingly engulfing life. On the place of the dismissed school principle some Niselzon was appointed, a dentist by profession, apparently, his profession led him nowhere, the person who did not have anything in common with pedagogic, poorly educated, sneaky. He was appointed to this position with a help of a protector, to be precise, for giving a bribe. The first year of my service with him passed without any major events, but he understood that I would not compromise. During a graduation exam, a special event took place, which caused him big problems. Angry at the students who gave him a hard time during the school year, he, in his revenge, wrote in many of their graduation certificates a bad mark for the behavior. I warned him, explained that these bugging disciples soon leave you and the school for good, but after seeing that none of my arguments went through to this copper-forehead dunce, I demanded he give me a vocational ticket for the time of the school break and quickly retreated. The students who received these wolf-tickets turned everything upside-down, broke classrooms windows and the windows in the principlefs apartment and warned him that they would bit him up if they catch him on the street. He chickened out big time and sent his parliamentarians to them with a promise to give them other certificates. The principle called a pedagogical summit, sent several times for me, but I stated that ones a certificate is issued, as a document, it is not eligible for an exchange and that I am on vocation and refused to sign anything. He issued them other certificates with fake signatures and on the next day left for Vinnitsa, from there he sent a quite sarcastic remark, that school is not a teeth pulling place, classes are not jaws and gums etc. I disturbed the ant house: the school principle and the inspector himself turned against me. It is well known that whistle blowers are not popular, people cannot stand them. The head of the college decided to get rid of the hateful Jew from Berdichev resorting to a quite radical method: he won the favor of an officer by the name Tyurakov, a gymnastic instructor, by way of adding to the list of his classes additional hours (Tyurakov received his salary according to the number of classes he taught and did not had tenure), by way of inviting him to the private drinking-bouts, late night parties, by way of providing him with the permanent loans and finally achieved his goal, that the former wrote to the inspector a formal complain about me. The inspector could not ignore a voice of an honorable officer of the tsarfs service, and offered me a voluntary resignation. I, however, did not follow the advice, stating to the inspector that I have no intention of signing my death sentence. A long correspondence back and forth has began with the district, but I quickly understood that in rendering its decisions the district was concerned with supporting prestige of the authority, and I, powerless in the struggle with the world most powerful ones, with intrigues, slander, bootlicking, bribery, after some time was forced to live the service.
I have foreseen this outcome and had submitted my petition for a place in the Warsaw educational region, but in Warsaw itself there were no vacancies and I was appointed to Lodzh, an industrial center of the Polish Territory; the imperialist war came, the Lodzh was taken by Germans and I stuck in Vinnitsa. Earlier, I was talking about Berdichev, its doctors and (home-educated healers) of man illnesses, about lawyers etc. I want to mention a few words about doctors in general and about Vinnitsafs ones in particular, about Vinnitsa, which is incomparably more cultured than the city of Berdichev, at least I did not noticed a fanatical behavior there. Cleaner, better organized, mixed population, Vinnitsa has a real college and womanfs gymnasium. Situated on a pictorial place the Buhg River, there is street car and a mental clinic. From all doctors about 100 of them altogether, only 5-6 people strand out: the rest slowly drugged their miserable existence. Medical assistants were a few: among them, working for many years under the famous doctor Pirogov was his assistant Urin, experienced, honest, good natured man, who paid a little attention to money and to whom people used to come in flocks. A city-hospital doctor Malinovskiy, after whom a city street was named, enjoyed a well-deserved reputation. The rest, except a few, for example, the head of the hospital Pirogov, Nikolay Nikolaevitch Balyarsky, were handy-men, everyday people. Doctors were irresponsible in their work, whereas, for example, the work of jurists was before everybodyfs eyes, open to certain degree of criticism, and was guided by the corporate ethics. Makes a doctor a mistaken diagnosis, shows he negligence, makes a blunder, carelessness, a patient dies; he is not responsible. A small bone stuck in the throat of one young man during his lunch: he ran to a doctor. The latter was picking the bone and, apparently, having no desire to spend too much time on this dreary business, pushed it in. Abscess has developed, and the patient died in the prime years of his life. A young girl walks into a hospital, and asks to perform an abortion. The doctor examines the patient and tells her, that it is too late to perform an abortion and she can not give birth either - her pelvis is too narrow. And she has fallen sick with Saint Vitus dance/chorea minor. In Warsaw, a sergeant left by forgiveness a small instrument in a privy part of a young woman. During a second surgery she passed away. Vinnitsafs doctor levit (?) stated forth on the sign of his office all spices of his trade: here are womenfs pains, abnormal menstruations. I furiously derided him. He was the one who tried to cure the urino-genital organs of my equitant young girl and made in this case a criminal negligence as was stated by his angry colleagues. Her father went with her to Kiev, Peter Bourg, and even Berlin. I wrote about this an article for the local newspaper, but it was not published by some reason. Due to an importance of the fact, the reduction went to the health department, but the doctors stopped its motion: then editor, according to my insistence, send it to the prosecutorfs office. The defendant was called, victim, her father, and I as a witness. But the doctors did not raised against their colleague, they gave double sided testimonies, and the case was hushed up.
Here is an amazing thing: doctors usually did not visit their patients during night times: they had a good day harvest: but there was among them a big money-lover. A poor carrier-man comes to him late at night, asks him to help his fallen ill wife. The doctor asked a three ruble fee in advance. The carrier paid. When the doctor helped and sat off to go home, the carrier blocked the door and asked the doctor to return the money he paid back, saying, that it is his weekly salary. The doctor had no other way but to yield. In the Vinnitsafs Jewish Hospital a doctor Geyzman was an attending physician there for a long time, a man of little fortune; he did not have his own practice. He also worked in the Jewish college. His latter work was considered a government service but he had no salary there, only ranks. The trustee of the Jewish hospital was a wealthy local man, big real-estate owner Fishenzon. When his son finished his study and received a doctorfs diploma, a need arose to clean a place in the clinic for him. They made life intolerable for one of the local «grinder», intimidated him using different means, and, finally, one day after having some drinks, workers under a leadership of Gendelman busted their way into the hospital and attacked the doctor with a street swearing and threads. Have unable to find neither any protection from his colleagues nor any help from the local community, he was forced to yield the place to Fishenzon. Shortly, he passed away in need, poverty and deprivation, and about the new physician the town criers spread praises on all crossroads. By the way they both, the father and his son already appeared before Godfs judgment where they are still justifying themselves for their sins. To one Moscow doctor came one of his patents, a rich young woman and asked to give her a prescription of a strong painkiller medicine, since she got tired to live and she wants to end her earthly accounts. The humane doctor, tactful man, without investigating her life drama and all other reasons, satisfied her request and along with it persuaded her, childless to leave him all her money and jewelries for everlasting memories, and on that she is agreed. On her way to the pharmacy store melancholy passed, she calmed down, changed her mind, the difficult moment has dissipated, the sweetness of being, inherent in human being spoke to her. She returned to the doctor and demanded him to return her money and jewelries. He categorically refused. The case received publicity. The doctor was tried and his license to practice his business was evoked. In one family, a child fell ill to diphtheria; antidephteria vaccine was not available at that time. The invited doctor prescribed the medicine, did not warn the parents about a strong contingency of this illness. As a result, in this family, during a week three or four children have died. The poor parents escaped with one child from the pesthole.
About doctors, psychologists, the healers of human soul in particular, I could say many more things, but I will restrict myself to only one case which took place in the medicine sphere. In one family, where the children, in the absence of their parents who were occupied at their service during a day, were under a supervision of a young day-caretaker woman, one child fell ill and died shortly. A doctor could only state the death itself unable to find any signs of violence on the body of the dead child. When after some time a second child was found dead, the parents invited several doctors and one of them after a sorrow examination of the body and interrogation of the day-caretaker, came to the conclusion, that she chocked the child to death being in the condition of a strong sexual arousal. There is enough guilt of premature deaths lays on the consciousness of the doctors. My daughter Berta, had been unable to find any service, after some time of correspondence with the elder sister residing in the distant North America, on the 6 of March, 1913, sat off there alone with only her shifscard in the pocket. There she got married a man a descendant from the Vinnitsa city, my former student Penya Nudelman. My second son Yevsey came up with a desire to go abroad to Belgium, where all high educational institutions where accessible to everyone. With big difficulties I could give him some money to pay his fair to Lhyezh, where my nephew Khariton Isakovitch Karp from Berdichev was attending lectures. Yevsey some how got there, was accepted for auditing, in the polytechnic college there, some how earned his bread by giving lessons since I simply could not give him any financial support. But his stay in Lhyezh was not so long. With the invasion of Germany on the 4-5 of August 1914, he with many other students was captured and sent to Germany to a concentration camp. About life of these captives, you can find in Literature. I appealed to the ministry of Foreign affairs for his release, to the Red Cross organization, but nothing came out of this.
The flared up European war, having an impact on the economical life of the country, rocked and sat into motion the darkest, most backward and hardened classes of the Russian land population. Mobilization was fully under way; the people abandoned their time-peaceful occupations, their families and went on the secret mission (?) to defend the Tsar and their Fatherland. But the apprise, caused by the patriotic press, venal, subsidized by the government; apprise caused by patriotic manifestations of the reactionary part of the Orthodox Christianity and Jewish populations at the beginning of the war and by the solemn prayers of the previous conquers, fell according to, sorely concealed, an increase in the incredible losses of human lives and the hard defeats of the triumphant Russian military. All Food and all other life necessities disappeared from the shelves and the prices shot up, an unbelievable speculation began rising. Many shrewd wheeler-dealers stuffed their pockets at the expense of the hungry and needy. A great dissatisfaction was growing; one could hear a growing roar in all classes of the population and in the military in particular. It worth to note that on 8th of May, 1916, the tsar Nicolas, with the heir and accompanying him retinue, stopped in Vinnitsa, crossed the city from railroad station to the womanfs gymnasium, did not visit any the city place, did not stop anywhere neither met anyone, and turned back towards his train. I personally saw him, but did not utter any prayer, as practiced by Jews at a sight of a monarch. He was received coldly, without an honorable ceremony. The experiments and plays of base, low-life dignitaries, bacchanalias of the self-attached to the court saint monk, womanizer and scoundrel Gregory Rasputin, holding in his hands the reins of the thronefs power who was finally killed by one of the great dukes with a help of Pushkevicha, disbandment of IV Duma, heavy defeats and huge losses of human lives on the battle fields, on all fronts, overran the cap of the peoplefs patience and caused a deep indignation from the bottom up.
The February Revolution has begun: crumbled, finally, Rosiyskoe Samoderzhavie (the system of eRussian Autocracyf), the bloody tsar Nicolas Romanov was dethroned and sighed with a deep relief his loyalists, everybody from young to old. Deposed from their positions were his multiple satraps, blood–suckers, vampires, parasites, chernosotenets, draining peoples blood, who annihilated, wiped out, the multiple cadres of youth, the best ones and the hope for a better human future. The memories about many great and bright people, who sacrificed their lives for the better common good, will live through the centuries and will never be forgotten. The prisoners of Shlisselbughrgs fortress and other casemates were released as well as the political exiled and prisoners from the Northern remote uninhibited outskirts of the country. Freely spoke up the gripped in the vice of censorship press. From the members of the government Duma (council) of the IV convocation was a government established, with Aleksandr Fyodorovitch Kerensky as the head. It was set to rule the Russian state until the constituent summit. A decree about equality of all ethnic backgrounds populating the Russian State was enounced. Sighed, finally, with relieve the Jewish community, poor, oppressed, enslaved, prosecuted, depressed, and deprived of the basic human rights, which has been a scapegoat of all misfortunes and evils, responsible for the countryfs inner problems and heavy losses in the War. The working class as well as vanguard Jewish youth belonging to the entelligencia took an active participation in the Revolutionary movement, paid their price with human lives and brought forth from its masses many active statesmen. The Vremennoe Provitelhstvo, created in hurry, appeared unexpectedly. Consisting solely of bourgeoisie elements, of rich real-estate owners, it followed its own class interests and have not taken into accounts the vital interest of many millions of people, made a solidarity pack with their European allies to continue the War till the final triumph. It did not take into account the mood of the army, the majority of the military staff, drained by this exhaustive, mindless war, this human butchery which had swallowed the millions of human victims, people dieing to get home, to their families, to productive labor, to their time-peaceful occupations, did not took into account that the army – together with working masses/class, the city proletariat and peasantry, who dethroned autocratic tsar-despot, did not considering a soldier to be a human being (but cannon meet), awakened, educated itself and detached itself from a slave-like state of servitude, blind following. None of the measures taken could stop it. Fermentation did not subsided/calm but grew and multiplied, economic dislocation was growing day after day, discipline fell, the soldiers run away from the trenches and nobody could stop them, the officer did not know what to do.
The Leninfs genius mind took in account this appropriate and great historical moment. He hurried from abroad to his home, in his exhausted, mutilated, socked in blood Mother Land. He raised the masses, invigorated, inspired hearts. People listened to him holding their breath, each and every of his word hypnotized, magnetized, and stirred the masses. He acted as a magician, sorcer, enchanter and the masses unconditionally trusted him, followed him. The Temporarily Government shamelessly collapsed after the October Coup of the second peoplesf revolution which took place on the October 17th, 1917, under the leadership of its great creator and aspirator Vladimir Ilhich Ulhyanov Lenin. Capitalists, imperial countries of both hemispheres could not believe in the possibility of an existence, unheard of, unprecedented in the history of the world, a Soviet Proletarian country, its dictatorship. They could not even imagine that this was not just experiment, temporary avantura of a desperate group of Bolsheviks, but the real creation, which had no precedence in the whole history of human kind, of a new proletarian state. Deych predicted that the state would exist only a count number of days, but at the time when I am writing this lines the okrepshee, well rooted, powerful Soviet state, diplomatically recognized by all countries, celebrates the 22nd anniversary of its existence, celebrates its achievements, its great successes in the all spheres of the country life, building Socialism, social community. Bourgeoisie, lairds, landowners, capitalists of all breads, nobility, officialists, merchants, intelligencia, even some litterateurs-publishers escaped abroad, and those who could not escape – boycotted, sabotaged, harmed, spread smut openly or secretly.
Rose in arms whole Europe, its big countries, recent allies, overtaken by a great fear of bolshevist-communist ideology. Intervention began, the inner civil war. I am not taken upon myself the description of all this events, the only thing I want to say is that during a several years of this war, with a rise of multiple criminal gangs, which had been destroying, robbing, spreading violence, and killing the helpless, defenseless population, especially Jewish one. The country, as if after hordes of Tatars invasion was desolated, turned into the ruins. Czechs, and Germen, and Galichane and Polish, and Petlyura, and Denikin, and hetman Skoropatsky, and gangs, whose atamans were in uncountable numbers, they all were in Ukraine. Ifll bring forth a typical episode. In the head of one gang was one humane ottoman, some Kushnir, a young man with a middle education. He was not involved in the dirty business, that is, killing and violence. Happened, his boys stop a passing by priest, but let him go with peace, saying, that under bolshevism a cult serverfs life is not so good and even give to his startled wife some relieve money. In another case, a passing by peasant arguing with his crying woman is stopped. The ottoman would ask them what a matter is, and found out, that they are taking their cow to the market to sell it there in order to pay their tax, he would give them a necessary amount of money. But if a merchant gets in their hands, kulak, estate owner, a former real-estate holder- Pan, bourgeoisie, he is squeaky cleaned. Arrives he in a Selsovet(village local government), the ottoman would convince the guards there that a resistance will be in vain, takes all the cash there and leaves his endorsement for the amount taken. And finding out that the guards increased it, he writes a letter to Selsovet referring to his note as a supporting document. In such manner he was acting for a long time, backing up by peasants. We leaved through hard nightmarish times, separated from our closed ones, cut off from the outer world. Bolsheviks would come and leave the Ukraine. A first time they arrived to Vinnitsa on the 18th of March. 1919 and left on the 9 of August of the same year and latter, in some time, they returned again. A second time they left on the 27 of April, 1920 and returned on 18th of June the same year. A third time they left on the 30th of October, 1920 and returned sometime in the middle on November. The distressed population met them with an indescribable happiness. With the Bolsheviks arrival, I enter to the service of Soviet of the communal agriculture and during their last departure I evacuated and left to Odessa with my youngest daughter Sophia.
This journey in itself is an extra sad page in my life filled with sorrow. We left Vinnitsa on 29th of September ,1920, in the cargo train and, have waited for a week or two in Biroul, arrived to Odessa in October. Sent to Kharkov to Prombeauro, I lost during the trip my department, where I was counted, I could not find neither for myself not for my daughter any occupation, and was going through a very difficult for us time. The arrival of my middle son Yevsey to Odessa, from the polish front, who was appointed to the chief of Cost-line (??) position, saved me. After receiving the information, that all institutions returning to their previous places, I returned back to Vinnitsa, the daughter left a year earlier, and have spend on the road about two weeks, going from one accidental train to another, during that turbulent times, when trains had waiting periods for a whole day, and could be under all sorts of danger, risking my life, I on the 4th of November, 1920 arrived, finally, to Vinnitsa and returned to my previous place in the service.
During the first Bolshevikfs retreat, son of mine Mark, evacuated from the Lipovets city was killed along with many other comrades by advanced Petlyurafs army on the 16th of August, 1919, about which there is a note in the newspaper gIzvestiyah 24 1917-1922 years. His ashes rest in peace in a mass grave in Kalinovka on Podoliya. I can say that he was an outstanding young man, of a crystal-clear soul, gpurely y tryw~yu{y}yh, in a not religious sense, inclinations. After graduating with success from the Vinnitsafs realniy college, he was admitted to the Kievsky University, but with an arrival of Bolsheviks he enlisted to the service and completely gave himself to the work with all his young soul full of pation, and, have been stationed in the Lipovets city, often visited home, often risking his life during crossing fields and the forest on his foot with the countless number of gangs mainly snooping about less populated remote villages. My parentfs hart felt the upcoming danger, something ominously critical, unavoidable was talking to me, I was tried t hold him, was begging to stay in Vinnitsa, but it is well known that the youth is bezpechna, unable to reason, and finally he fell as an innocent victim from the hands of evil-doers. The poor mother kept a deep sadness about her perished son until the last days of hers, and his clean, bright image arises in my imagination. We were not the ones who lost their loves ones in the Revolution sacrificial fire, but this does not elevate a pain of the loss.
I continued to serve on the alcohol factory, where I occupied a special-union-agent (profupolnomocheniy) position from the labor union of food and chemical industry. The salary was very poor, mainly, because the Soviet monetary currency was devaluated and the currency itself was of different kinds and unstable: the big demand was on <<kerenki>>, named after A.F. Kerensky, in 20 and 40 rubles. The prices on the food of the first necessity were high, unbelievably costly: speculation was everywhere despite the fact that local authorities were taking all kind of measures against it. For example, in the June, 1920, a bottle of milk coasted 20 <<kerenki>> rubles, a pood of rye flower -1000 soviet rubles, a pound of salt - 100-120 <<kerenki>> rubles, a pair of boots - 8000 soviet rubles, a pound of kerosene - 250-300 <<kerenki>> rubles, a pound of lump sugar - 50 <<kerenki>> rubles, in soviet rubles the price was four times higher. In the July 1923, the rye flower was 60 rubles for one pood, wheat flour was 120 <<kerenki>> rubles, one bottle of milk - 2.5 - 3 rubles, one dozen of eggs - 13-14 rubles and in soviet rubles the price was in millions, a box of matches - 1.5 rubles, pound of kerosene – six rubles. The inflation grew until an establishment of a hard currency in tens, appearance of the soviet specie currency in rubles and coins. I have to add that at the beginning of the war in addition to all kinds of deprivations there was another one - the absence of small exchange coins, vanished from the circulation. The endless lines for food products worsened health and exhausted human soul. Many weak people could not endure this challenges, got seek and died. Some others died from starvation, some years in the saint Russian land yielded a poor harvest: people in hamlets and villages starved to death and died from sicknesses caused by malnutrition. Extraordinary events took place. The great writers L.N. Tolstoy and others collected donations, set up tables and fed people. The government issued lottery tickets in small denominations to help people. But in the cities life moved at its own pace, in its usual way, with theaters, all kinds of shows and entertainments and places for spending good time. Cases of plague in some regions scared people by causing a quick death and led to disturbance among masses. And the saint Synod and the ruling clique were opening graves with the remains of long time decomposed saints and sat up a loud scandal Beilis case about g uq|u~yy uru}y, ~p }uyu rus { | ~s }yph. The goal was to divert the Revolution flow to a different direction, but this did not helped, as did not help caskets with wine, taken from the castle of tsaritsa Alexandra Fyodorovnafs cellars during the days of the Februaryfs revolution, in order to make the guards drunk, and to safe the rattletrap throne. Without making any conclusions, I would only say that the element of nature and the human evil – those are completely different things. I was observing such an outrageous, though, quite common scenes: a street-merchant woman would take her line at midnight near a financial department building in order to pay for her license, for the right to trade, having in her hands many different monetary bank notes. When finally the transactions to accept the currency would take place, a shrewd clerk steals part of the cash from one or the other merchant and in an angry voice announces right to their face about the shortage. No one have a courage to argue with the strict authority, and there is no place and no one to complain to. They loose their line, cry with tears loudly and go home to fill in the missing amount.
The
burden of life was aggravated by the fact, as I already mentioned, that we
were cut off of the outer world and did not have any information about our
children spread around the world. Under
a heavy burden of life misfortunes, the twists of fait, a lost of the elder
brother who died in his young years from cattle-plague, the murder of the son
and the death of the parents, undercut, without all of these, the weak health
of my life-friend Feiga-Len Abramovna, maiden name Karp.
She fell sick and have spend almost two years in constant torment
passed away in unbelievable pain in the Vinnitsa city on 27th of
June, 1924, where she was buried on the local Jewish cemetery, where with the
childrenfs help a memorial was put on her grave.
Usually, we appreciate people according to their achievements after
their death. The passed away wife
of mine, with whom I spend almost forty years of my life, left about herself
good and unforgettable memories. She
was quite, peaceful, humble, honest and ingenious, with open soul.
She was of a rare kindness woman.
Cherishly lovable mother, a woman of the strict moral rules, untainted
honesty, for whom the family hearth was secret. I had with her eleven children, from whom two died in their
orphan age, one was killed, and eight are doing well.
All life adversities, she endured with heroic bravery, quietly, without
hesitations and complains. She
did not live for herself but for the life of the children, their welfare,
their interests and their needs. Brought
up in her parentsf home in the religious spirit, she adhered to the believes
of her ancestors, visiting during the big Jewish religious celebrations the
synagogue. However, she had
never created any obstacles in anything neither me, circular man, nor
children, brought up in the spirit of atheism.
All her life she spent at home endlessly taking care of our children,
of home chores, and during her free time, she liked to read, mainly Jewish
books, and during her last years she was interested in reading a newspaper
written in the Jewish slang. Her
departure marked a final break of the family, and have lost with her death the
best friend in this life, I became alone, helpless and sir.
On the above lines, I was talking about many ugly facts of a provincial city life, but, apparently, I did not mention everything that I want to say such as a case which took place in Berdichev. There besides a state post office, as a government institution, a private one has existed which was headed by some Leyserman. He received all the arriving correspondence, regular, registered, monetary, there were no money transfers at that time with an exception of that for the aristocratic part of the population, and all this mail he was handling out to recipients from himself. For that, he received 2-3 kopeyeks per letter from merchants, and 10 kopeyeks and more from the rest. By the way, he manipulated with financial letters, especially foreign currency, helping the shady characters to receive money without them presenting personal identity documents. But one day, he pocketed the money arrived from America on the name of some Tartakovskoy, the wife of a brother Shalom-Aleikhem, Rabinovitch, a very good friend of mine. Immediately, the one who is writing these lines intervened and the post office was liquidated. Contraband flourished. It was one of main sources making money: from Berdichev to the Radzivilova hamlet and Volochistka, Austrian boarder – lying within a stretched hand. One did not have to apply even for a foreign passport: to your service there were always factors available who could smuggle you across a boarder. Three brother Kishkas, contrabandist kings, were employed by merchantfs guild.
Next, I want to show one of the many cases where a small man became a rich factory owner. A fur-trader Zelman Granat was bankrupt not ones, but right before the last time he acquired goods on a quite large amount, quitted his trading, sold out all his merchandize, left yurodivuyu wife and a half-idiotic son and vanished from the horizon. His only daughter the beauty, he married on a clerk Shmulh Burko, a shrewd and bright young man. He did not only gave her a large dowry, but, living and in order not to be recognized as a fraudulent bankrupt, which was punishable by imprisonment, left her a large sum of the stolen money. Burko searched for businesses for a join development of profitable enterprises and a factor matched him with a scrubby German Tselhner, an owner of a small tannery, who needed some financial resources to buy row materials for his enterprise. The German professionally managed the factory and worked himself there as a specialist, and Burko shipped the final products to the stores around the city. After Burko got acquainted with the tannery production, he decided to part with a naïve and narrow-minded German, who has been doing nothing but smoking, chewing cigars, drinking beer and was getting fatter and fatter with every day. The Germanfs demands, as a man without family and children, were small and he was quite satisfied with his companionfs perks, whom he trusted. Not long before that, a construction of big new tannery started in Berdichev. It was build by a rich Russian contractor Mal-knyazh, for the needs of the Russian Army during the Russian-Japan war. When the war was lost by Russia, Steselh gave Port Artur without a fight, the Commander-in-Chief Kuropatkin, who turned out to be a complete untalented man, and Vitt made a shameful peace in America, the need for the factory disappeared and the factory was staying empty. As soon as the advertisement about selling the factory was published in newspapers, Burko hurried to Moscow and bought it for pennies. After working there for a short time, he sat it on fire and having received a large amount of insurance premium compensation opened another business. Property arson for the sake of receiving insurance premiums, as I already mentioned, was very common. The agents and authority were coaxed, and directorate in Petersburg received big dividends: there was enough for everything and everybody. On this factory a poor Jew with his only son worked. The son fell into a kettle with the calcimine solution, where animal skins were socked, got ill and died shortly. The poor father has not only received any compensation from the factory owner but soon himself was laid off. By that time a fabric inspection already was born. I wrote a descriptive complain, an inspector arrived to the factory and was accepted, as expected, very good: was fed with a good dinner, awarded with good money and was told that the complainer left the city. I wrote to the chief factory inspector and the offended old man was reinstated to his previous position. The factory was as a stand alone kingdom where autocracy and arbitrariness ruled. On the conciseness of this low-life fabricant, upstart, was not only one death. He sends his agent to Warsaw to find a director-specialist there. The latter stumbled upon a naïve, manager of a big corporation and promises him mountains of gold. That one agreed and accepted the offer. Having served only for a short time, after acquainting the son of the factory owner with all stages of the business production processes, he was, as no longer needed, laid off without any petty and any compensation. Unfortunately, nobody could help him since he did not have a written agreement. On the way to Warsaw, he died from a frustration. Right near the factory a shinok found a shelter: on a Saturday after receiving his salary, a worker comes in to get some food, takes one drink than the next, gets buzzed, loose control, leaves with his pockets empty, beats his wife and children, and in the morning pawns the house things in order to buy some bread and a drink to get rid-off of hang-over. In Kiev, nomernoy-sluzhaka Gladinyuk bought a hotel in the center of the city where, at least, there were no, I would say, capital crimes. The pictures of peasant life, existence of laity, ignorance and the slave work, I witnessed myself when I served about fifteen years to an urban real-estate owner Pavel Stepanovich Krasnoshovitch. Despite difficulties of my tutoring, despite of insecurity and instability of my everyday life, my financial situation, I, despite of all of these, enjoyed some relative degree of freedom and independence which I especially cherished. Whether I was at home where I enjoyed a special high degree of trust, where I could bring forth my opinions and believes, thoughts and my ideas, where my words had a weight and influence, all of that was deeply felt in my sole and yielded good results. In some large households I tutored for many years. I, for instance, asked to memorize by hart the following words: gThe institution of the honest press – this is a window through which a human being condemned to the existence in the restricted area of one place and time, watches the whole immense, manifold and marvelous world. In the suffocating cities from which the village nature is expelled – happiness cannot exist, since it is only there, where a human being on everyday bases comes in contact with nature, one may come to terms with himself, as compels his sense of duty.h
The surrounding life, rolling its chilling waves along the bed of onefs personal well-being, with a merciless constancy erodes in us the best feelings, unity with love to our close ones. The general characteristic features of the life style during that time, its way of leaving, foundations, characteristics and customs are expressed by superstitions, darkness, wild prejudices, by damnation of hard, against onefs will labor, a slave work and a passion for bacchanalia. The desire for wealth, profit, under the capitalist system of the tsarfs Russia, can be explained by the fact that wealth gave not only independence, the material comfort, but a sense of respect, all so desirable great importance and different sorts of external attributes associated with the mundane highness. In our times, when all ways to the enrichment, quick or slow, are cut off, when a new individual is being created, new reality and a different life style, and another psychology; the people of the past, who became obsolete, the generation which did not get over their narrowly egoistic mentality firmly enrooted into their private property attitude of their whimsical desires, try to adjust by all possible means to the build current reality, covering and disguising themselves in the mantle of the modern people of the great new epoch. That will be not them who will build Socialism, Socialistic Society. In the massive hurricane of the fast paced life, a manfs life completely absorbed by his everyday work, completely foreign to their communal and social interests, strange political and economic life of a country, completely numb to one or the other life expression as it does not cross the direct interests of their personal lives. I am speaking about the old so common intelligencia class, which due to the received high education, put itself on the higher level of the social hierarchy than dark, ignorant, masses, people without class, the class which demanded for itself a special kind of advantages and privileges. With what it lives and breathes. Its life is not complicated and even quite simple, as is the life of many primitive kinds of organisms, of the animal world in the kingdom of life. It is dead-calm, serene due to its ignorance, simple mindedness, and the spiritual shortsightedness. These miserable people, pygmies of ideas and poor in spirit, trample, very often, on one and the same place in the narrow sphere of their existence, in the tight frame of their business, their everyday occupations, like worms in a moor and boasts with all their pitiful and inflated importance in their restricted and small world with they insignificant role which they play in their circles; but before powerful and fearsome forces of nature, before the great historical events, immense changes, coming on before their eyes, but which they according to their stupidity, shortsightedness completely missed, before the fearsome element of death their pride spirit calms down: only then their realize that all their innocuous problems, pokey/squalid existence and concerns which had went in contradiction with the human conciseness, the great human genius, the Prince of the World, are simply the primitive hustle of all bustles. A conciseness starts talking inside them, regrets, they start feeling a petty on themselves, and how they would like to start all from beginning, like a convicted criminal, a new and righteous life. If you ever had a chance to see a human being showing off before others with their rich outfit, with his or her external, physical look, who was put by a will of chance on the higher stage of the public service, in the attire of the primitive Adam, then you start experience some repulsive feelings to that frail and naked animal. And an even greater feeling of repulsion and contempt is caused by its mental poverty, its squalid spirituality. This inner spiritual emptiness, this absence of any kind of service to a cult, absence of a deep knowledge, reflecting a respect for science, respect to the great discoveries of the human genius, for a duration of many centuries, thousand years leads to mistitsion, a creation of a the believes similar to that of Chinese Gods, and even more, it leads to drunkenness, to revelry, to orgies and to lewdness. If only this, of course, may not be called enrichment of onefs life, then in the drunken state a person sees a chance to obscure his restless spirit. Our great proletarian writer Maxim Gorkiy many years ago said: maybe, from all of you, only five on every thousand of those of you who passionately believe that a man is a creator and ruler of the universe. The majority of you – are the slaves of your lives and insolent/barefaced owners of it and all are the meek bourgeoisies, temporarily occupying position of real men. To live you do not have room, to think you are too lazy, to move you are too afraid. Around you, like in a cocottefs a sitting-room knick-knack on shelves protrude half-rotten traditions and lifefs rules, useless for nothing. The Literature for you – a spicy dressing to your tasteless murky life; you like when people write with their blood and gall, but only like. And neither love nor hate the literature arises in you, nothing except loud outcries of approval, or reviling. You only want to be full, live in warmth, rape and seduce women, under the pretence of love to them; you only want to leave easy, comfortably, but quietlyc. Here is your happiness. Happiness is caught with the strong and masculine hands, but you are cowards, weak and feeble – you even cannot catch a fly without an outsider help. I state: all low and repulsive, which catches attention on the every street corner, lively, strongly and blooms so flowery around us only because it all is supported by a hard ground – on the fear for our own skin, for our villein feelings. Innertia, fear of any movement, brainless life, from day to day, the lack of need in the conscious, alife work, laying outside our everyday existence, inability to a bright some self expression oneself – that is the essence of meshanstva. By the way , many of my thinking here, may be, and not be quite right which would be explained by a sycology of the old age. Somewhere I read, that the tradgedy of humanity lyes in the fact that old age and death arrive too early, when we havenft developed the instinct of death yeat , when a burning and unquenched desire to live is not yet extinguished. The arrival of the old edge when the instinct of life is not yet extinguished, when the desires of youth has not expired in us – is the gratest disgarmony of the human nature and the cruelest evil in a life of a man. It lies in the foundation of pessimism which makes us to have a dark view on life. For the gift to live a flowery and various life, for our ability mnogogranno reflect the surrounding in our complicated soul, for the high gift of the feeling of pondering, consciesness, vostorga, despareation – for all these prerogatives we paid to nature with death. To In every thinking person has a desire to share with his closest ones, relatives and friends, equantences with their thoughts, feelings, observations, perezhivaniyami and their life experience. And the happiest of all, as I already mentioned, are those who have a gift of a word and able to convert their suzhdeniya, thoughts and feelings into literal works.@
The surrounding life, rolling its chilling waves along the bed of onefs personal well-being, with a merciless constancy erodes in
us the best feelings, unity with love to our close ones. The general features of the life style during that time, its way of leaving,
moral foundations and customs are characterized by superstitions, darkness, wild prejudices, damnation of/with hard, against onefs
will labor, a slave work and a passion for bacchanalia. The desire for wealth, profit, under the tsarfs Russia capitalist system, can
be explained by the fact that wealth gave not only independence, the material comfort, but a sense of respect, all so desirable great
importance and different sorts of external attributes associated with the mundane highness. In our times, when all ways to the
enrichment, quick or slow, are cut off, when a new individual is being created, new reality and a different life style, and another
psychology; the people of the past, who became obsolete, the generation which did not get over their narrowly egoistic mentality
firmly enrooted into their private property attitude of their whimsical desires, try to adjust by all possible means to the build current
reality, covering and disguising themselves in the mantle of the modern people of the great new epoch. That will be not them who
will build Socialism, Socialistic Society. In the massive hurricane of the fast paced life, a manfs life completely absorbed by his
everyday work, completely foreign to their communal and social interests, strange political and economic life of a country,
completely numb to one or the other life expression as it does not cross the direct interests of their personal lives. I am speaking
about the old so common intelligencia class, which due to the received high education, put itself on the higher level of the social
hierarchy than dark, ignorant, masses, people without class, the class which demanded for itself a special kind of advantages and
privileges. With what it lives and breathes. Its life is not complicated and even quite simple, as is the life of many primitive kinds
of organisms, of the animal world in the kingdom of life. It is dead-calm, serene due to its ignorance, simple mindedness, and the
spiritual shortsightedness. These miserable people, pygmies of ideas and poor in spirit, trample, very often, on one and the same
place in the narrow sphere of their existence, in the tight frame of their business, their everyday occupations, like worms in a moor
and boasts with all their pitiful and inflated importance in their restricted and small world with they insignificant role which they
play in their circles; but before powerful and fearsome forces of nature, before the great historical events, immense changes,
coming on before their eyes, but which they according to their stupidity, shortsightedness completely missed, before the fearsome
element of death their pride spirit calms down: only then their realize that all their innocuous problems, pokey/squalid existence
and concerns which had went in contradiction with the human conciseness, the great human genius, the Prince of the World,
are simply the primitive hustle of all bustles. A conciseness starts talking inside them, regrets, they start feeling a petty on themselves,
and how they would like to start all from beginning, like a convicted criminal, a new and righteous life. If you ever had a chance to
see a human being showing off before others with their rich outfit, with his or her external, physical look, who was put by a will of
chance on the higher stage of the public service, in the attire of the primitive Adam, then you start experience some repulsive feelings
to that frail and naked animal. And an even greater feeling of repulsion and contempt is caused by its mental poverty, its squalid
spirituality. This inner spiritual emptiness, this absence of any kind of service to a cult, absence of a deep knowledge, reflecting a
respect for science, respect to the great discoveries of the human genius, for a duration of many centuries, thousand years leads to
mistitsion, a creation of a the believes similar to that of Chinese Gods, and even more, it leads to drunkenness, to revelry, to orgies and
to lewdness. If only this, of course, may not be called enrichment of onefs life, then in the drunken state a person sees a chance to
obscure his restless spirit. Our great proletarian writer Maxim Gorkiy many years ago said: maybe, from all of you, only five on
every thousand of those of you who passionately believe that a man is a creator and ruler of the universe. The majority of you –
are the slaves of your lives and insolent/barefaced owners of it and all are the meek bourgeoisies, temporarily occupying position
of real men. To live you do not have room, to think you are too lazy, to move you are too afraid. Around you, like in a cocottefs a
sitting-room knick-knack on shelves protrude half-rotten traditions and lifefs rules, useless for nothing. The Literature for you –
a spicy dressing to your tasteless murky life; you like when people write with their blood and gall, but only like. And neither love
nor hate the literature arises in you, nothing at all except loud outcries of approval, or reviling. You only want to be full, live in
warmth, rape and seduce women, under the pretence of love to them; you only want to leave easy, comfortably, but quietlyc.
Here is your happiness. Happiness is caught with the strong and masculine hands, but you are cowards, wick and feeble –
you even cannot catch a fly without an outsiderfs help. I state: everything low and repulsive that catches an eye attention on the
every street corner, lives, strongly and blooms flowery around us only because it all based on and supported by the hard and steady
ground – the fear for our own skin and our vain thoughts and feelings. Inertia, fear of any movement, brainless life from one day
to the next, a lack of a need for the conscious, creative, life work, paves our everyday existence, inability to express oneself – that is
the essence of the lower-middle class. By the way, many of my thoughts here are, could be, not right in their entirety which would
be explained by a psychology of the old age. Somewhere I read, that the tragedy of humanity lies in the fact that the old age and the
death arrive to us too early, when we havenft developed the instinct of them yet, when the burning and unquenched desire to live is
not been extinguished yet. The arrival of an old edge when the instincts of life is not yet extinguished, when the desires of youth
years has not yet expired in us – this is the greatest disharmony of the human nature and the cruelest evil in the life of a man.
This lies in the foundation of our pessimism towards life and is expressed in our dark view for the future in our lives. For the
gift to live a flowery and various lives, for our ability to see the surrounding in multi-sided way and reflect in our complicated soul,
for the highest gift of all, pondering, consciousness, the feelings of happiness and desperation – for all these prerogatives we paid
to the nature with death. In every thinking person lives a desire to share with his closest ones, relatives and friends, acquaintances
their thoughts, feelings, observations, anxieties and their life experience. And the happiest of all, as I already mentioned, are those
who have a gift of a word and able to convert their reasoning, thoughts and feelings into literal forms.
There was plenty said about the pre-Revolutionary epoch, by the best people of that time. To take in account the greatness of the
present times, the massive ascend, creation, creation of a new realty, new forms of life, reevaluation of all values, furious class
struggles, furious struggle with religion, darkness, ignorance, superstitions, the centuries old believes is very hard. Our time,
I repeat, is a transitional one: a difficult process of regeneration of an individual human being with his private property ideology
to a collectivist, a social player, is underway. In a hard labor, the social system is created step by step. The whole society is being
reborn and retrained, the socialism is building in the greatest proletarian country right before the eyes of the capitalistic European
countries and the countries over the Atlantic which are helpless in their struggle with communist ideology, which reinforced its
deep roots in the work masses of the whole world, whose attention is on their new fatherland – The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
And is not far that moment when the rotten building of imperialism will collapse: Will collapse the centuryfs old tradition of the
consciousness exploitation of people by people, burden of the life with little or no rights, slavery and the control of a small group
of people over the masses. And thankful descendants in their deep understanding will remember a human price paid by the victims,
the great people, who gave away their lives for the welfare of future generations. And since the desire to the personal wellbeing under
the Soviet System, in a socialist society, becomes obsolete, since all ways of a personal benefiting at the expense of the others which
lead to impoverishment of the close ones are cut off for a man, with time there would be no need in struggle for the existence and
no need for a low, selfish thoughts leading to there would be no lyubostyazheniya, concern for older people, in a case of loose their
jobs, disability since the community as a whole will take a care of all of this. And what is left is only labor according to your talents
and skills for the grater benefit of a specific circle of people, to bring your spec of goodness in your arterial environment.
No words: to an average, an everyday person from masses, to an average person from the intellectual class, who spent his long years
under the previous conditions of the capitalistic society, accustomed, probably, to work less and to enjoy fruits of life and labor of others
more, would be difficult and maybe impossible to coup with a new system/order of life, new reality, new conditions of a free, equal to
everybody life: this grandiose historical move is foreign to him, but this unfitted to the new order generation is dying out, and a new
generation is being born, raised in pioneering, komsomol, and communistic spirit; and that spirit will build the socialist society.
I am repeating that the great historical events of life big changes pass by the people of mass and even the people of from the intellectual
masses. Our intelligencia, at least, in its biggest part- it is servitude army which as in the past leaves separately, isolated, close, divided,
keeps their eyes to the side, sits in its offices, in one or another department of institution, produces its small contribution, not because
their conciseness dictates them to do so but because of fear and happy to its existential, merchant like welfare, outside of which it does
not have any life vibrant public questions, no any other interests: the surrounding, captivated life is passing by it. As a counterbalance
to it a full of conciseness and power, experienced in the turmoilfs and the forged in the boiling power-full kettle of the plant-fabric life
stands adamant worker class which is way more listen in, way more reactionary and responsive to the changes of life here and abroad.
It leaves with full life and displays that pioneering and powerful collective force which is capable of creation of all sorts of miracles and
make reality the wishes of untaintable Ilhich whose birth market the new epoch for the humanity around the globe.
From the workerfs class and the peasant environment come out remarkable people, organic intellectuals. They came out; they are coming
out and will come out grate people who build the socialist society, creators of the worldwide upcoming revolution and endorsement of peace
and justice on the planet. Loneliness after forty years of family life, nostalgia, the civil war, problems, deprivations, problems in the public
work, where I had to fight all sorts of trespassers, seeking their own benefits, profiteers searching for profit at the expense of the feeble,
public poverty with many kinds of c..
@
@
@