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The Whisperers

Page 94

by Orlando Figes


  bullied, 289

  and Osip’s arrest, 307–8

  turns himself in, 313–14

  Piatnitsky family, 228–9, 288–9

  pilots, 376–7, 416

  Pilsudski, Marshal Jozef, 241

  Pioneers, 20, 25–8, 39, 45, 480

  aim, 27

  confidence, 46, 126

  exclusion from, 26, 142, 146

  as family, 125

  function, 129

  in labour camps, 359

  militarism, 417

  and renunciation, 300

  ‘reviews’, 27

  and sense of acceptance, 341, 343, 349

  ‘work plans’, 27

  Pirozhkova, Vera, 438

  Podlubny, Stepan, 143–5

  poetry

  patriotism and, 401, 414–15

  Socialist Realism, 397, 400

  wartime, 396–401

  Poland

  German invasion (1939), 372

  invasion of Russia, 164, 241

  invasion of Ukraine, 240–41

  reluctance to allow Soviet troops, 372

  Soviet invasion of (1939), 372, 373

  uprising (1862–4), 55

  wartime devastation, 456n

  Poles post-war arrests, 467, 468, 469

  seen as spies, 240

  Politburo

  collective leadership, 536

  decree against History of European Philosophy, 492

  and forced labour, 113, 117

  internal passport system, 98

  and ‘kulaks’, 87, 93

  Leningraders in, 465–6

  purge (1933), 155

  and Zhukov, 465

  Pollitt, Harry, 229

  Polovyk, Vasily, 375

  Poloz family, 218–23

  Popov, Yevgeny, 626–7

  Popovkin, Yevgeny, 622

  Portugalov, Valentin, 268

  Potapov, Pyotr, 244

  Potma labour camps, 331, 449, 450, 511, 561, 570, 650

  Potupchik, Ivan, 124

  poverty after arrests, 234, 249–51, 318, 405, 563

  equality in, 181

  hierarchy of, 171

  post-war, 458

  socialism and, 158

  urban, 7

  POWs, see prisoners-of-war

  Pozern, Boris, 333–4‘

  Prague Spring’, 623

  Pravda, 93, 143, 159, 191, 397, 434, 490n, 491, 495, 498, 522, 527, 528, 592

  Preobrazhensky family, 54

  Priazhka Psychiatric

  Hospital, Petrograd, 54

  prices, inflation, 72, 467

  Priestley, J. B., 482

  priests arrest, 85, 113, 347, 348

  social exclusion, 136, 137

  under Soviet regime, 54

  Prishvin, Mikhail, 251, 255–6, 257–8, 440

  prisoners amnesty (1945–6), 467, 468

  amnesty (1953–4), 530, 534, 535–7, 538, 539, 542, 552–73

  amnesty (1956), 424

  attitudes towards, 575

  camp marriages, 566–71

  children, conception, 364, 570

  commitment to Soviet ideal, 578

  compensation, 580–81

  contribution to economy, 638, 640

  correspondence, 142, 203, 218, 220–22, 224–6, 278, 311, 322, 359, 360–61, 368

  demand for human dignity, 532–3, 534

  effect of labour camps on, 553–60, 563, 571–2

  employment on release, 575–6

  and family, 218

  fear of rearrest, 605–7

  friendships, 565–72

  Gulag change in values

  and priorities, 218

  housing on release, 572–5

  informers, confronted, 583–9

  in labour force, 467

  loyalty to regime, 360

  memoirs, 633–7

  murder (1937–8), 234

  patriotic pride, 447

  political, 536, 538, 575

  politics on release, 561–3, 564–5

  promotion, 208‘redeeming guilt’, 425

  rehabilitation (1953–7), 576–80

  release certificates, 572, 573, 576

  secrecy about fate, 581–3

  silence on release, 560, 564, 565, 599–604, 605–7

  speaking out, 598–9

  and Stalin’s death, 529–31, 532–4

  stoicism, 607

  unknown crimes, 241

  visits, 517

  work for Gulag after release, 213, 214–15, 567, 576 See also

  ‘reforging’ (perekovka)

  prisoners-of-war (POWs) Axis nationalities, 467

  ‘filtration camps’, 469, 531

  German, 467

  Soviet, 469–70, 531

  US camps, 531

  privacy, 161, 173

  communal apartments

  and, 180, 182–4 private housing, 152

  private life, 7

  public scrutiny, 34–40, 160, 183, 474

  rejection of idea, 160

  subordination to Party, 1, 2, 3–4, 8–9, 19

  private property attitudes towards, 168, 169

  eradicated, 5, 9

  peasants’ loss, 97

  return to (mid 30s), 158

  Prokofiev, Sergei, 492

  Proletarians of Zion, 70

  ‘proletariat’ dilution, 136

  portrayed as ‘big family’, 162

  propaganda, 111, 113, 131, 273–4, 275, 341

  Provisional Government (1917), 3n, 18

  pseudonyms, use by Jewish writers, 519–20Pudovkin, Vsevolod, 43, 166, 195, 254

  Pukhova, Nadezhda, 120–21

  purges, 508

  Academy of Sciences, 208‘class enemies’, 137

  culture of, 36, 137

  denunciation as, 36

  Great Purge (1937), 154, 239, 240, 283, 540

  innocence and, 34

  as inquisition into souls, 33

  intensified (1933–), 155, 157, 192

  Jews, 517, 519

  Komsomol (1938), 376

  legal academics, 205

  meetings, 36–7, 268, 269, 369, 376, 473, 492

  military (1937–8), 237–9, 289, 383, 422, 615

  military (1946–8), 464–5, 625

  origins, 34

  targets of, 34

  Writers’ Union, 505, 519

  Pushkarev, Lev, 414

  questionnaires (anketa), 35, 344, 354, 436, 473, 474, 475, 478, 510, 548, 598, 601, 654, 662

  Rachkovaia, Maria 323–4Radchenko family, 3n, 22–4 (23), 73, 165

  Radek, Karl, 237, 246

  RAPP, see Russian Association of Writers

  rationing, 5, 39, 74, 119, 423

  Razgon, Lev, 310, 629–30Razumikhina, Zina, 55

  Red Army

  abandoned children with, 387–8Civil War, 4, 13, 35, 54, 58

  commanders arrested (1941), 411

  counter-offensive (1941–2), 393, 441

  criticism and debate in, 434, 439–43equipment, 422–3Fourth, 395

  invades Poland (1939), 373

  invincibility, 371‘kulaks’ banned from front line, 355

  losses (1941–2), 381–3, 386–7, 410, 420–21 military command, 422, 615

  Party control, 422

  portrayed as ‘big family’, 162

  post-war purge, 464–5, 625

  purge, 237–8, 289, 383, 422, 615

  recruiting grounds, 341

  reform movement, wartime, 441–3 retreat (1941), 381–4, 382, 411, 416

  size, 441

  Third, 382, 399

  women in, 4, 417–19 See also soldiers Red Army Theatre, 500

  Red Arsenal Factory, Leningrad, 155n

  Redens, Stanislav, 284–5Red Guards, 3, 164

  Red Putilov factory, Leningrad, 30

  Reds and Whites, children’s game, 24–5Red Terror (1918), 5, 57–8‘reforging’ (perekovka), 205–7, 211, 212, 213, 215

  failure, 206–7importance, in Gulag system, 101, 117

  ‘kulak�
�� children, 353

  writers and, 193–4, 196, 197–8, 200

  refuseniks, 646

  rehabilitation, 576–80compensation and, 580–81 need for, 578, 579

  process of, 577

  Reifshneider family, 177, 182, 183

  religion campaign against, 5, 7, 68, 127

  family conflict over, 45–6

  relaxation of controls on, 435, 437

  secret observance, 46–7, 61

  transmission, 44–6 See also Church, Russian Orthodox; priests renunciation, by children, 130–32, 300–304, 343–4, 349, 475–7repentance, Party and, 35, 244

  Republic of Shkid (Belykh), 12–13residence, rights of, 98, 573–4, 652–3Revolution (1905), 3

  Revolution (1917) ascetic culture, 158

  fundamental goal, 4

  intelligentsia and, 593

  internationalism, 67

  Jews and, 65

  utopian projections, 187Revolution Betrayed, The (Trotsky), 157

  Riazan, 47, 49, 50, 58, 61, 201, 293

  Military School, 58

  Right Opposition (1930s), 154, 230

  Riutin, N. N., 154

  Rodak, Maia, 277–80Rodchenko, Aleksandr, 193

  Rokossovsky, General Konstantin, 395, 465

  Romashkin, Vasily, 27–8, 29–30, 640, 640

  Roskin, Gregorii, 492

  ROVS, see Russian General Military Union Rubina, Liubov, 445–6

  Rublyov family, 90–91, 104–5, 105, 526

  Russian Association of Proletarian Writers (RAPP), 132, 256

  Russian Empire, anti-Semitism, 508

  Russian General Military Union (ROVS), 240

  Russians, cultural/political superiority, 487

  Rykov, A. I., 154, 230, 238, 438

  ‘saboteurs’, arrest, 113

  sacrifice, military, as ideal, 487

  sacrifice, personal cult of, 416

  post-war, 467

  readiness for, 416–17, 419

  Revolution and, 30, 158

  Sagatsky, Aleksandr, 548–52, 551

  St Petersburg (later Petrograd and Leningrad), 3, 18, 365, 430

  Sakharov, Andrei, 541n

  Sakharov, Nikolai, 265

  Salisbury, Harrison, 492–3Saltykov, Leonid, 476–7, 642, 642–3Salyn, Eduard, 283

  samizdat literature, 605, 634, 635, 647

  Samoilov, David, 416, 443–4Samoyeds, 210

  Saratov, 38, 63, 139, 141

  Sartre, Jean-Paul, 499

  satirists, Soviet, 489

  Sazonov family, 175, 184

  Sbitneva, Svetlana, 525–6

  schools, Soviet and change in children’s values, 32, 126

  curriculum, 20

  exclusion from, 142, 294–5, 330, 345

  humanitarian teachers, 294–8 and ‘kulak’ children, 142, 145–6

  ‘Lenin corners’, 21, 24

  Marxism, role, 20

  peasants in, 126

  population, 471

  primary role, 20, 24

  progressive, 21–2propaganda, 273–4 sciences ‘anti-Soviet elements’, repressive measures, 492

  Soviet achievements, 487–8Scout movement, 25

  Search and Requisition, children’s game, 25

  Second World War (1941–45), 379–87, 392–4anti-Stalin songs, 434

  Belorussian Front, 381, 441, 442

  Briansk Front, 395, 399, 410

  censorship in, 371, 383, 443, 464

  Church in, 414

  citizens’ defence, 420

  as defining event, 618

  demographic consequences, 456–7devastation caused, 455–8evacuees, 387, 388–92factories transported east (1941), 388, 423

  food shortages (1941), 392

  German retreat, 421–2German surrender, 446

  government evacuated to Kuibyshev (1941), 392

  industrial reorganization, 422–3Kerch offensive (1942), 395, 410‘labour army’, 423–5as ‘liberation’, 431–46memories, 618–20Minsk front, 411

  national unity in, 419–20, 440

  newspapers, 619

  Operation Little Saturn, 418, 421

  Operation Uranus, 418, 421

  ‘panic-mongerers’, war on, 381, 383, 385–6patriotism in, 413–15as people’s victory, 615–16, 617, 618

  propaganda, 383, 401, 411, 413–14, 624–5railways built, 423

  rationing, 423

  rumours, spread, 384

  South-West Front, 418

  Soviet counter-offensive (1941–2), 393

  Soviet losses (1941–2), 420–21, 616, 625

  Soviet mortality, 456–7Soviet retreat (1941), 381–4, 411, 416

  as spiritual purification, 440–41‘spontaneous de-Stalinization’ (1941–3), 432, 618

  Stalin’s role, 615–16, 619

  Ukrainian Front, 418–19, 441

  victory, 446–9, 617, 618–20 Voronezh lost (1942), 410

  Western Front, 386 See also Great Patriotic War Semashko, Nikolai, 14

  Semyonova, Anna, 279

  Serebrianyi Bor, 165

  Serov, Anatoly, 376–7Serova, Valentina, 375, 375–8, 482, 484

  alcoholism, 402, 608

  breakdown, 609–10 divorce from Simonov, 608–10Simonov and, 375, 377–8, 394–7, 401–3, 403, 609 Stalin and, 377

  Severnaia Zemlia, 214, 276

  sexual attitudes, 11, 161

  Shalamov, Varlam, 117, 566, 607, 635

  Shaltyr ‘special settlement’, 100–103, 121, 122, 145, 656

  Shaporina, Liubov, 241

  Shaw, G. B., 482

  Shcherbakov, Aleksandr, 401

  Shcherbov-Nefedovich, Irina, 386

  Sherbakova, Irina, 587, 635

  Shklov, German capture (1941), 382

  Shklovsky, Viktor, 193, 194–5‘shock labour’, 159n, 212

  Sholokov, Mikhail, 519Short Course, The (Stalin), 156, 354, 511

  shortages chronic, 6, 170, 171–2 private trade and, 171–2 (1920s), 66, 72

  wartime, 438

  Shostakovich, Dmitry, 492, 495n

  show trials, 33, 230, 235, 237–8, 248, 276

  Shreider, Mikhail, 283–5, 358

  Shtakelberg, Iurii, 584–5Shtein, Galina, 548–52, 551 Shtern, Yevgeniia, 435

  Shuvalova, Elena, 462

  Shweitser, Viktoriia, 559–60Siberia anti-Semitism, 420

  exile to, 55, 87, 90, 95, 128, 215, 349, 424, 543, 555

  grain, 82

  Japan’s imperial ambitions, 371‘kulak operation’, 240

  ‘kulaks’, 82, 88, 99, 100, 108

  labour camps, 88, 93, 100–101, 112, 113, 117, 206, 332, 333, 349, 357, 430, 475, 602

  mineral resources, 112, 113, 208

  rumoured Japanese invasion, 240

  Virgin Lands Campaign, 544

  silence children, 254

  ex-prisoners’, 560, 564, 565, 599–604, 605–7 trauma, perpetuating, 607

  Simonov, Aleksei, 370, 377, 401, 406, 447, 512–15, 514, 517, 535, 539–40, 592, 611, 617

  health, 405, 512–13 political views, 614–15relationship with

  Simonov, 513–14, 612–14

  Simonov, Kirill (Konstantin), 60, 195–204, 199, 406, 407, 409, 416, 443, 483, 492, 495, 504, 507, 592, 617, 627

  and Akhmatova, 490, 491

  and ‘anti-cosmopolitan’ campaign, 496–501, 507, 518–19

  and arrests review, 280

  and Borshchagovsky, 497–501

  broken relationships, 610–11career, 199, 201, 266, 270

  caution, 486–7censorship, 621

  childhood, 58–64, 61 conscience, 503

  death, 627, 628–9Dolmatovsky, denunciation, 269–70, 369

  education, 139, 141, 198, 199, 200

  factory work, 139, 141–2, 613

  foreign visits, 481–2 and Great Terror, 266–7, 270–71 and hate campaign, 414

  importance, wartime, 401

  informed on, 259

  and intellectuals who

  avoided ‘struggle’, 490–91 and Ivanishev, 58–9, 406
/>
  and Koshchenko, 490, 491–2 and Laskin family, 612

  liberalization, 622–7

  liberal writers, attack on, 591, 592–3lifestyle, 483–4 literary talent, 198, 199, 269

  at Literaturnaia gazeta, 483, 518–19, 520, 591

  marriage to Larisa Zhadova, 608, 611

  marriage to Valentina Serova, 401–2, 403, 608–9

  marriage to Natalia Tipot (Sokolova), 198, 369

  marriage to Zhenia Laskina, 198, 369–70, 370, 378, 517

  as moderate conservative (1956–64), 616

  mother’s criticism, 403–6 and Nazi–Soviet Pact, 373–4

  at Novyi mir, 483, 484–5, 486, 489, 497, 499, 591, 592, 593, 615

  as parent, 513–15, 612–14 and Pasternak, 484–5patronage, exercise, 485–7, 518, 574–5personal appearance, 199, 409, 483, 484, 507

  political obedience, 278, 501–6, 507–8, 519, 612

  pressured to inform, 267–8, 270–71 proletarian identity, 197, 203

  public duty, sense of, 503

  recycles love poems, 369, 377–8 and ‘reforging’, 197–8, 200

  and relative’s arrest, 278

  remorse, 622, 624, 625, 629

  self-censorship, 506

  self-criticism, 269, 506

  and Serova, 375, 377–8, 394–7, 401–3, 403, 609

  social origins, 56–7, 60–62, 63, 64, 139, 141, 197, 198, 199, 268

  as Soviet deputy, 457

  and Stalin, 266, 385, 409, 410–11, 503–6, 591, 593, 595, 611, 615, 621–2, 624–5, 626

  Stalin and, 497

  and Stalin’s death, 522–3, 524

  success, 401, 415, 481, 482–3

  support for regime, 60, 64, 141, 198, 204, 270, 406, 409, 410, 411, 507, 510, 616, 622, 624–5

  and ‘thaw’ (1956–64), 615, 616

  as war correspondent, 370–71, 381–4, 394, 399, 406–12, 446

  wartime archive, 620n

  whispering campaign against, 520

  and White Sea Canal, 195–7

  in Writers’ Union leadership, 482–3, 489

  writings banned, 621

  and ‘Zhdanovshchina’, 487, 489–90, 491, 506

  WORKS: Alien Shadow, 505; Days and Nights, 419, 482; ‘Father’, 59; ‘Five Pages’, 369; Four Is, 627–8; ‘The General’, 200; ‘Horizon’, 198; A Hundred Days of War, 621; ‘Ice Battle, 270; If Your House is Dear to You (film), 621; ‘Kill Him!’, 414–15; The Living and the Dead, 383, 411, 614, 615–16, 619n; ‘New Year’s Toast’, 201; ‘Ode to Stalin’, 591; ‘An Open Letter to the Woman of Vichuga’, 399; ‘Parade’, 270; ‘Pavel Chorny’, 198; ‘Photograph’, 370; The Russian People, 415; Smoke of the Fatherland, 503–5; So

  It Will Be, 449; Soldiers Are Not Born (film), 621; A Soldier Went (film), 620–21; ‘Tank’, 371; Through the Eyes of a Person of My Generation, 628; Various Days of War, 621; Wait For Me (film), 397; ‘Wait For Me’, 378, 396–401, 403–4, 449, 482; ‘The White Sea Canal’, 195;

  With You and Without You, 400; A Young Man from Our Town, 374–5, 377

 

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