Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - The GULag Archipelago Volume 1 - An Experiment in Literary Investigation

The “ugolovniki” or “habitual criminals” are obviously professionals and therefore approximately the same as the thieves.

Chapter 3 in Part I is entitled in Russian “Sledstviye.” The correct, legally formal rendering of this word into English would be “investigation.” The official conducting the “investigation” is a “sledovatel” 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 “pridurki”—derived from a verb meaning to shirk general-assignment work. I have here translated “pridurki” 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.

Abakumov, Viktor Semyonovich (1894-1954). Stalin’s Minister of State Security, 1946-1952. Executed in December, 1954, under Khrushchev.

Agranov, Yakov Savlovich (7-1939). 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 Yalentinovich (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 Yasilyevich (1873-1906). Russian revolutionary.

Bakhtin, Mikhail Mikhailovich (189S-). 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 Buhren (1690-1772). A favorite of Empress Anna Ivanovna, under whom he instituted a tyrannical rule.

Blok, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich (1880-1921). Symbolist poet.

Bliicher, 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 Mikhailovich (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. (7-1946). 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).