The Russian thieves are also the “blatarí” and the “úrki.” They are also “tsvetnýe”—in other words “colored.” And a person “polutsvetnói”—“half-colored” or “mulatto”—is a nonthief who has begun to take up the ways of the thieves.
By and large, to the extent that these and other terms appear in their original form in this translation they are clearly enough explained. But wherever the word “thief” appears it means one of the “blatnýe.”
The language of the Russian thieves is used in this work to refer to much more than themselves.
Thus a nonthief in thief language is a “fráyer.” By virtue of being a nonthief he is also naturally “a mark,” “a cull,” “a pigeon,” “an innocent,” “a sucker.” In this translation, “frayer” has been rendered throughout as “sucker.”
Some other terms that relate to the world of Gulag require special explanation:
At times in the text “ugolóvniki” (which we have translated as “habitual criminals”) and “bytovikí” (which we have translated as “nonpolitical offenders”) have been grouped together in contrast to the political prisoners.
A “bytovík” is any prisoner who is not a political nor one of the Russian thieves—and the “bytovikí” or “nonpolitical offenders” make up the enormous main mass of the prisoners. The distinction here is just as much psychological as legal, and in English there is nothing that exactly translates this Russian term.
The “ugolóvniki” or “habitual criminals” are obviously professionals and therefore approximately the same as the thieves.
Chapter 3 in Part I is entitled in Russian “Slédstviye.” The correct, legally formal rendering of this word into English would be “investigation.” The official conducting the “investigation” is a “slédovatel” or, again in the formal rendering, “investigator.” I have, however, chosen, deliberately and after consideration and consultation, generally to translate these Russian terms respectively as “interrogation” and “interrogator.” The text of the book makes the reason amply clear. There was in the period and the cases described here no content of “investigation” in this process, nor was there anyone who could legitimately be called an “investigator.” There was interrogation and there were interrogators.
In camps prisoners were divided into those who went out on general-assignment work every day—and therefore died off—and those who got “cushy” jobs within the camp compound at office work, as hospital orderlies, as cooks, bread cutters, assistants in the mess hall, etc., etc.—and thereby were in a better position to survive. These latter were contemptuously christened by the other prisoners “pridúrki”—derived from a verb meaning to shirk general-assignment work. I have here translated “pridúrki” as “trusties.” As in many other cases there is no exact English equivalent, but this is certainly as close as there is.
Anyone who wishes to delve further into the lingo of Russian thieves and camps can well make use of the valuable book Soviet Prison Camp Speech, a Survivor’s Glossary, compiled by Meyer Galler and Harlan E. Marquess, University of Wisconsin Press, 1972.
I wish to thank those who have given me invaluable assistance with this translation—and in the first place and in particular Frances Lindley, my experienced, able, and long-suffering editor at Harper & Row; Dick Passmore, my brilliant copy editor; Theodore Shabad, who has labored long and industriously over the glossary and details in footnotes and text; and also Nina Sobolev, for her long faithful hours of help of all kinds.
Michael Scammell, the well-known British translator and editor, was kind enough to come to New York during the final stages of the preparation of this manuscript and provide the benefit of his own considerable experience in giving the text one last thorough and most useful going over. I am deeply grateful to him.
There are several others who have done more for this project than I can possibly thank them for. But I can at least try—in the knowledge that they will know whom I mean when they read these lines.
Yet with all this, if there are faults in this translation, as no doubt there are, mine is the responsibility.
T.P.W.
Glossary
Names
Abakumov, Viktor Semyonovich (1894–1954). Stalin’s Minister of State Security, 1946–1952. Executed in December, 1954, under Khrushchev.
Agranov, Yakov Savlovich (?–1939). Deputy People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs under Yagoda and Yezhov. Played important role in preparing show trials of 1936–1938. Shot in purges.
Aikhenvald, Yuli Isayevich (1872–1928). Critic and essayist, translated Schopenhauer into Russian. Exiled in 1922.
Akhmatova (Gorenko), Anna Andreyevna (1889–1966). Acmeist poet, wife of Nikolai Gumilyev. Denounced in 1946 as “alien to the Soviet people.” Long unpublished in Soviet Union; some works published after 1956.
Aldanov (Landau), Mark Aleksandrovich (1886–1957). Writer of historical novels; emigrated 1919 to Paris, and later to New York.
Aldan-Semyonov, Andrei Ignatyevich (1908–). Soviet writer; imprisoned in Far East camps, 1938–1953. Author of memoirs.
Aleksandrov, A. I. Head of Arts Section of All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries; purged in 1935.
Alliluyevs. Family of Stalin’s second wife, Nadezhda Sergeyevna.
Amfiteatrov, Aleksandr Valentinovich (1862–1938). Russian writer; emigrated 1920.
Anders, Wladyslaw (1892–1970). Polish general; formed Polish military units in Soviet Union and led them out to Iran in 1943.
Andreyev, Leonid Nikolayevich (1871–1919). Playwright and short story writer, close to Expressionism; died in Finland.
Andreyushkin, Pakhomi Ivanovich (1865–1887). Member of Narodnaya Volya terrorist group; executed after attempt to assassinate Alexander III in 1887.
Antonov-Saratovsky, Vladimir Pavlovich (1884–1965). Old Bolshevik, served as judge in Shakhty (1928) and Promparty (1930) trials.
Averbakh, I. L. Soviet jurist; associate of Vyshinsky.
Babushkin, Ivan Vasilyevich (1873–1906). Russian revolutionary.
Bakhtin, Mikhail Mikhailovich (1895–). Literary scholar, expert on Dostoyevsky. Unpublished in Soviet Union from 1930 to 1963.
Bakunin, Mikhail Aleksandrovich (1814–1876). A founder of Anarchism.
Bandera, Stepan (1909–1959). Ukrainian nationalist; led anti-Soviet forces in Ukraine after World War II until 1947; assassinated in Munich by a Soviet agent.
Bedny, Demyan (1883–1945). Soviet poet.
Belinsky, Vissarion Grigoryevich (1811–1848). Literary critic and ardent liberal, champion of socially-conscious literature.
Benois, Aleksandr Nikolayevich (1870–1960). Scenic designer; emigrated 1926 to Paris.
Berdyayev, Nikolai Aleksandrovich (1874–1948). Philosopher, religious thinker; opposed atheism and materialism. Expelled in 1922; lived in Paris after 1924.
Beria, Lavrenti Pavlovich (1899–1953). Georgian Bolshevik, became close Stalin associate in 1938, in charge of secret police and national security. Executed after Stalin’s death.
Biron or Biren. Russian name of Count Ernst Johann Bühren (1690–1772). A favorite of Empress Anna Ivanovna, under whom he instituted a tyrannical rule.
Blok, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich (1880–1921). Symbolist poet.
Blücher, Marshal Vasily Konstantinovich (1890–1938). Commander of Far East Military District, 1929–1938; shot in purge.
Blyumkin, Yakov Grigoryevich (1898–1929). A Left Socialist Revolutionary; assassinated German Ambassador Mirbach in Moscow in 1918; later joined Cheka; executed after he took message from Trotsky to Radek.
Boky, Gleb Ivanovich (1879–1941). Secret police official; member of Supreme Court after 1927; arrested in 1937.
Bonch-Bruyevich, Vladimir Dmitriyevich (1873–1955). Bolshevik revolutionary; administrative officer of Council of People’s Commissars, 1917–1920.
Bondarin, Sergei Aleksandrovich (1903–). Children’s writer.
Budenny, Marshal Semyon Mi
khailovich (1883–1973). Civil War hero; commander of Bolshevik cavalry; commander Southwest Front in early phase of World War II.
Bukharin, Nikolai Ivanovich (1888–1938). Prominent Party official and economic theorist; member of Politburo after 1924 and general secretary of Comintern after 1926; expelled from Party in 1929; executed after 1938 show trial.
Bulgakov, Mikhail Afanasyevich (1891–1940). Satirist, most of whose writings have not been published in Soviet Union.
Bulgakov, Sergei Nikolayevich (1871–1944). Religious philosopher; exiled in 1922, lived in Paris.
Bunin, Ivan Alekseyevich (1870–1953). Writer; emigrated 1920 to France; won Nobel Prize in 1933.
Bunyachenko, Sergei K. (?–1946). Commander of 1st Division of Vlasov’s forces in World War II; executed in Soviet Union in 1946.
Charnovsky, N. F. (1868–?). Soviet economic official; among defendants in 1930 Promparty trial.
Chekhovsky, Vladimir Moiseyevich (1877–?). Ukrainian nationalist.
Chernov, Viktor Mikhailovich (1873–1952). Socialist Revolutionary Party leader; emigrated in 1920.
Chubar, Vlas Yakovlevich (1891–1939). High Soviet Ukrainian official; shot in purges.
Chukovskaya, Lidiya Korneyevna (1907–). Soviet literary critic and writer (samizdat).
Dal (Dahl), Vladimir Ivanovich (1801–1872). Lexicographer.
Dan (Gurvich), Fyodor Ilyich (1871–1947). Menshevik leader, physician; exiled in 1922.
Denikin, Anton Ivanovich (1872–1947). Tsarist military leader; commanded anti-Bolshevik (White) forces in south, 1918–1920; emigrated.
Derzhavin, Gavriil Romanovich (1743–1816). Poet and statesman under Catherine II.
Dimitrov, Georgi Mikhailovich (1882–1949). Bulgarian Communist leader; chief defendant in 1933 Reichstag trial in Leipzig.
Dolgun, Alexander M. (Alexander D.) (1926–). American-born former employee of United States Embassy in Moscow; spent eight years (1948–1956) in Soviet prisons and labor camps; allowed to leave Soviet Union in 1971.
Donskoi, D. D. (1881–1936). Right Socialist Revolutionary.
Doyarenko, Aleksei G. Soviet agronomist; a defendant in Working Peasants Party case of 1931.
Dukhonin, Nikolai Nikolayevich (1876–1917). Commander in Chief of Tsarist Army; slain by soldiers.
Dyakov, Boris Aleksandrovich (1902–). Author of labor-camp memoirs.
Dzerzhinsky, Feliks Edmundovich (1877–1926). First chief of the secret police (Cheka-GPU-OGPU); succeeded by Menzhinsky.
Ehrenburg, Ilya Grigoryevich (1891–1967). Soviet writer and journalist; spent many years in Paris; author of memoirs of Stalin era.
Etinger, Y. G. (?–1952). Soviet physician, arrested in 1952 in so-called “doctors’ case.” Died under interrogation.
Fedotov, A. A. (1864–?). A Soviet official; defendant in Shakhty trial.
Figner, Vera Nikolayevna (1852–1942). A leader of Narodnaya Volya group, took part in successful conspiracy to assassinate Alexander II in 1881.
Filonenko, Maksimilian Maksimilianovich. Right Socialist Revolutionary; led anti-Bolshevik forces in Archangel in 1918.
Frank, Semyon Lyudvigovich (1877–1950). Religious philosopher, pupil of Solovyev; exiled in 1922.
Fyodor Ivanovich (1557–1598). Halfwit son of Ivan the Terrible, whom he succeeded in 1584. His regent was Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar, 1598–1605.
Gaaz, Fyodor Petrovich (Haas, Friedrich-Joseph) (1780–1853). German-born physician of Moscow prison hospital; sought penal reforms.
Gamarnik, Yan Borisovich (1894–1937). Soviet military leader who committed suicide during purge.
Garin, N. (Mikhailovsky, Nikolai Georgiyevich) (1852–1906). Marxist writer, who depicted young Tsarist engineers.
Gernet, Mikhail Nikolayevich (1874–?). Writer on the death penalty.
Ginzburg, Yevgeniya Semyonovna (1911–). Author of labor-camp memoirs, Journey into the Whirlwind.
Gippius, Zinaida Nikolayevna (1869–1945). Writer, wife of Merezhkovsky; emigrated in 1920.
Golikov, Marshal Filipp Ivanovich (1900–). Soviet military leader; supervised repatriation of Red Army prisoners from Germany.
Golyakov, Ivan Terentyevich. Presiding judge of Supreme Court under Stalin.
Gorky, Maxim (Peshkov, Aleksei Maksimovich) (1868–1936). Writer; opposed Bolsheviks at first and lived abroad (1921—1928); returned to Russia in 1931; died under mysterious circumstances.
Gots, Abram Rafailovich (1882–1940). A Right Socialist Revolutionary leader; a defendant in 1922 trial.
Govorov, Marshal Leonid Aleksandrovich (1897–1955). Soviet military leader.
Griboyedov, Aleksandr Sergeyevich (1795–1829). Playwright and diplomat.
Grigorenko, Pyotr Grigoryevich (1907–). Former Red Army general, became a dissident in 1961; in mental asylums since 1969.
Grigoryev, Iosif Fyodorovich (1890–1949). Prominent Soviet geologist.
Grin (Grinovsky), Aleksandr Stepanovich (1880–1932). Writer of romantic, fantastic adventure stories.
Grinevitsky, Ignati Ioakhimovich (1856–1881). Revolutionary, member of Narodnaya Volya group. Threw bomb that killed Alexander II March 13, 1881; was himself mortally wounded.
Groman, Vladimir Gustavovich (1873–?). High Soviet economic official; a defendant in 1931 trial of Mensheviks.
Gromyko, Andrei Andreyevich (1909–). Soviet diplomat; former ambassador to United States and delegate to United Nations; Foreign Minister since 1957.
Gul (Goul), Roman Borisovich (1896–). Émigré writer of historical works; editor of Novy Zhurnal, a magazine published in New York.
Gumilyev, Nikolai Stepanovich (1886–1921). Acmeist poet, first husband of Akhmatova; accused in anti-Soviet plot and executed.
Herzen, Aleksandr Ivanovich (1812–1870). Liberal writer.
Ilin, Ivan Aleksandrovich (1882–1954). Mystic philosopher, exiled in 1922.
Ivan Kalita (?–1340). Founder of Grand Duchy of Muscovy.
Ivanov-Razumnik (Ivanov, Razumnik Vasilyevich) (1876–1946). Left Socialist Revolutionary; served in Tsarist prison (1901) and in Soviet labor camps; went to Germany in 1941.
Izgoyev (Lande), Aleksandr Solomonovich (1872–C.1938). A Right Cadet writer; expelled from Soviet Union in 1922.
Izmailov, Nikolai Vasilyevich (1893–). Soviet literary scholar, editor of Pushkin’s works.
Kaganovich, Lazar Moiseyevich (1893–). Close associate of Stalin, in charge of railroads. Ousted from leadership in 1957.
Kalinin, Mikhail Ivanovich (1875–1946). Nominal President of Soviet Union (1919–1946), first as Chairman of All-Russian Central Executive Committee until 1922, then as Chairman of Central Executive Committee of U.S.S.R., and after 1938 as Chairman of Presidium of Supreme Soviet.
Kamenev (Rosenfeld), Lev Borisovich (1883–1936). Prominent Bolshevik leader, expelled from Party in 1927, readmitted and re-expelled; executed after 1936 show trial.
Kaplan, Fanya (Dora) (1888–1918). A Left Socialist Revolutionary; executed after unsuccessful attempt on Lenin’s life in 1918.
Karakozov, Dmitri Vladimirovich (1840–1866). Revolutionary; executed after unsuccessful attempt on life of Alexander II in 1866.
Karsavin, Lev Platonovich (1882–1952). Mystic philosopher; expert on medieval history; exiled in 1922.
Kasso, Lev Aristidovich (1865–1914). Reactionary Minister of Education under Nicholas II.
Katanyan, Ruben Pavlovich (1881–1966). Soviet state prosecuting official in 1920’s and 1930’s; arrested 1938.
Kazakov, Ignati Nikolayevich (1891–1938). Physician accused of having murdered Soviet officials through use of “lysates” (antibodies); shot after 1938 show trial.
Kerensky, Aleksandr Fyodorovich (1881–1970). A Socialist Revolutionary leader; headed Provisional Government, July to November, 1917; fled to France; died in New York.
Khrustalev-Nosar, Georgi Stepanovich (1877–1918). Elected Chairman of St. Petersburg Soviet of Workers’ Deputies in 1905; opposed Bolshev
iks in Ukraine in 1918; shot by Bolsheviks.
Kirov (Kostrikov), Sergei Mironovich (1886–1934). Close Stalin associate; his murder in Leningrad, reputedly inspired by Stalin, set off wave of mass reprisals.
Kishkin, Nikolai Mikhailovich (1864–1930). A leader of Constitutional Democratic Party; a defendant in 1921 trial of famine-relief aides.
Kizevetter (Kiesewetter), Aleksandr Aleksandrovich (1866–1933). Cadet leader and historian; expelled in 1922; lived in Prague.
Klyuchevsky, Vasily Osipovich (1841–1911). Prominent historian.
Klyuyev, Nikolai Alekseyevich (1887–1937). Peasant poet; glorified ancient Russian values, opposing Western cultural influences; exiled to Siberia in early 1930’s.
Kolchak, Aleksandr Vasilyevich (1873–1920). Tsarist admiral; led anti-Bolshevik forces in Siberia, 1918–1920; executed.
Koltsov, Nikolai Konstantinovich (1872–1940). Prominent biologist; founded experimental school in Russian biology.
Kondratyev, Nikolai Dmitriyevich (1892–?). Agricultural economist; figure in Working Peasants Party case in 1931.
Kornilov, Lavr Georgiyevich (1870–1918). Commander in Chief of Russian forces under Provisional Government; led revolt against Kerensky in August, 1917; fought Bolsheviks in Don area; killed in battle.
Korolenko, Vladimir Galaktionovich (1853–1921). Peasant democratic writer; persecuted under Tsars; viewed as bourgeois by Bolsheviks.
Kosarev, Aleksandr Vasilyevich (1903–1939). Leader of the Komsomol, 1929–1938.
Kosior, Stanislav Vikentyevich (1889–1939). Ukrainian Bolshevik leader; shot in purges.
Kozyrev, Nikolai Aleksandrovich (1908–). Astronomer; in prison, 1937–1948.
Krasikov, Pyotr Ananyevich (1870–1939). Old Bolshevik; prosecuting and justice official in 1920’s and 1930’s.
Krasnov (Levitin), Anatoly Emanuilovich (1915—). Religious writer; imprisoned under Stalin; in dissident movement after 1960.
Krasnov, Pyotr Nikolayevich (1869–1947). Don Cossack leader; emigrated in 1919; led pro-German Russian units in World War II; handed over by Allies after war and executed in Soviet Union.
The Gulag Archipelago, Volume 1 Page 71
