The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956 An Experiment In Literary Investigation, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, copyright 1973
Excerpted from Volume II, Part III – The Destructive-Labor Camps – Chapter 10. In Place of Politicals
(Solzhenitsyn is discussing the “58’s”, or so-called “political” prisoners.)
“A tailor laying aside his needle stuck it into a newspaper on the wall so it wouldn’t get lost and happened to stick it in the eye of a portrait of Kaganovich. A customer observed this: Article 58, ten years (terrorism).
“A saleswoman accepting merchandise from a forwarder noted it down on a sheet of newspaper. There was no other paper. The number of pieces of soap happened to fall on the forehead of Comrade Stalin. Article 58, ten years.
“A tractor driver of the Znamenka Machinery and Tractor Station lined his thin shoes for warmth with a pamphlet about the candidate for elections to the Supreme Soviet, but a charwoman noticed it was missing (she was responsible for the leaflets) and found out who had it. KRA – Counter-Revolutionary Agitation – ten years.
“The village club manager went with his watchman to buy a bust of Comrade Stalin. They bought it. The bust was big and heavy. They ought to have carried it in a hand barrow, both of them together, but the manager’s status did not allow him to. ‘All right, you’ll manage it if you take it slowly.’ And he went off ahead. The old watchman couldn’t work out how to do it for a long time. If he tried to carry it at his side, he couldn’t get his arm around it. If he tried to carry it in front of him, his back hurt and he was thrown off balance backward. Finally he figured out how to do it. He took off his belt, made a noose for Comrade Stalin, put it around his neck, and in this was carried it over his shoulder through the village. Will, there was nothing here to argue about. It was an open-and-shut case. Article 58-8, terrorism, ten years.
“A sailor sold an Englishman a ‘Katyusha’ cigarette lighter – a wick in a piece of pipe with a striking wheel – as a souvenir for one pound sterling. Subversion of the Motherland’s dignity – 58, ten years.
“A shepherd in a fit of anger swore at a cow for not obeying: ‘You collective-farm whore!’ And he got 58, and a term.
“A deaf and dumb carpenter got a term for counterrevolutionary agitation! How? He was laying floors in a club. Everything had been removed from a big hall, and there was no nail or hook anywhere. While he was working, he hung his jacket and his service cap on a bust of Lenin. Someone came in and saw it. 58, ten years.
“Maksimov had served from the beginning of the war in an antiaircraft battery. During the winter their political commissar had assembled them to discuss with them the Pravda lead editorial of January 16, 1942: ‘During the winter we must smash the German so badly that in the spring he will not be able to rise again.’ He assigned Maksimov to speak on this topic too. The latter said: ‘That’s right! We have to drive him out, the bastard, while the storms are raging, while he has no felt boots, even though we ourselves have ordinary shoes on now and then. But in the spring it’s going to be worse because of his equipment.’ And the political commissar applauded as if everything was all right. But then Maksimov was summoned to SMERSH and had eight years tied on him for…’praising German equipment,’ 58.
“The children in a collective farm club got out of hand, had a fight, and accidentally knocked some poster or other off the wall with their backs. The two eldest were sentenced under Article 58. (On the basis of the Decree of 1935, children from the age of twelve on had full criminal responsibility for all crimes!) They also sentenced the parents for having allegedly told them to and sent them to do it.
“A sixteen-year-old Chuvash schoolboy made a mistake in Russian in a slogan in the wall newspaper; it was not his native language. Article 58, five years.
“And in a state farm bookkeeping office the slogan hung: ‘Life has become better; life has become more gay. (Stalin)’ And someone added a letter in red pencil to Stalin’s name, making the slogan read as though life had become more gay for Stalin. They didn’t look for the guilty party – but sentenced the entire bookkeeping office.
“The charge against G. Y. Generalov, from Smolensk Province, was that he ‘used to drink heavily because he hated the Soviet government.’ (And actually he used to drink heavily because he and his wife got along badly.) He got eight years.
“Irina Tuchinskaya was arrested while leaving church. (The intention was to arrest the whole family.) And she was charged with having ‘praying in church for the death of Stalin.’ (Who could have heard that prayer?!) Terrorism! Twenty-five years!”
https://kimkiminy.wordpress.com/2010/10/08/the-gulag-archipelago-%E2%80%93-excer...
Forum
Pages: 
