The Russian Masters: Works by Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Tolstoy, Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev and More. Максим Горький

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СКАЧАТЬ then? Do you fear God?

      KONDRATY

      Yes, I do.

      SAVVA

      But you don't believe in God—you believe in the devil.

      KONDRATY

      Who knows? Maybe some day I'll suddenly discover that He does exist. In that case, Mr. Savva, I thank you, but I'd rather not. Why should I? I live a nice, quiet existence. Of course, it's all a humbug, an imposition. But what business is it of mine? The people want to believe—let them. It wasn't I who invented God.

      SAVVA

      Look here. You know I could have done it myself. All I need have done was to take a bomb and throw it into the procession. That's all. But that would mean the killing of many people, which at the present juncture would serve no useful purpose. I therefore ask you to do it. If you refuse, then the blood will rest on you. You understand?

      KONDRATY

      Why on me? I am not going to throw the bomb. And then, what have I got to do with them—I mean the people that get killed? What concern are they of mine? There are plenty of people in the world. You can't kill them all, no matter how many bombs you throw.

      SAVVA

      Aren't you sorry for them?

      KONDRATY

      If I were to be sorry for everybody, I should have no sympathy left for myself.

      SAVVA

      That's right. You are a bright man. You have a good mind. I have already told you so. And yet you hesitate. You are clever, and yet you are afraid to smash a piece of wood.

      KONDRATY

      If it is nothing but a piece of wood, then why go to so much trouble about it? The point is, it is not a piece of wood, it is an image.

      SAVVA

      For me it is a piece of wood. For the people it is a sacred object. That is why I want to destroy it. Imagine how they'll open their mouths and stare. Ah, brother, if you were not a coward, I would tell you some things.

      KONDRATY

      Go ahead and talk. It's no sin to listen. I am not a coward either. I am simply careful.

      SAVVA

      This would only be the beginning, brother.

      KONDRATY

      A good beginning, I won't deny it. And what will be the end?

      SAVVA

      The earth stripped naked, a tabula rasa, do you understand? And on this naked earth, naked man, naked as his mother bore him. No breeches on him, no orders, no pockets, nothing. Imagine men without pockets. Queer, isn't it? Yes indeed, brother, the ikon is only the beginning.

      KONDRATY

      Oh, they'll make new ones.

      SAVVA

      But they won't be the same as before. And they'll never forget this much—that dynamite is mightier than their God, and that man is mightier than dynamite. Look at them; see them yonder praying and kneeling, not daring to raise their heads and look you straight in the face, mean slaves that they are! Then comes a real man, and smash goes the whole humbug. Done for!

      KONDRATY

      Really!

      SAVVA

      And when a dozen of their idols have gone the same way, the slaves will begin to understand that the kingdom of their God is at an end, and that the kingdom of man has come. Lots of them will drop from sheer terror. Some will lose their wits, and others will throw themselves into the fire. They'll say that Antichrist has come. Think of it, Kondraty!

      KONDRATY

      And aren't you sorry for them?

      SAVVA

      Sorry for them? Why, they built a prison for me, and I am to be sorry for them. They put me in a torture chamber, and I am to be sorry for them. Bah!

      KONDRATY

      Who are you to be above pity?

      SAVVA

      I? I am a man who have been born. And having been born, I began to look about. I saw churches and penitentiaries. I saw universities and houses of prostitution. I saw factories and picture galleries. I saw palaces and filthy dens. I calculated the number of prisons there are to each gallery, and I resolved that the whole edifice must go, the whole of it must be overturned, annihilated. And we are going to do it. Our day of reckoning has come. It is time.

      KONDRATY

      Who are "we"?

      SAVVA

      I, you Kondraty, and others.

      KONDRATY

      The people are stupid. They won't understand.

      SAVVA

      When the conflagration rages all around them, they will understand.

       Fire is a good teacher, old boy. Have you ever heard of Raphael?

      KONDRATY

      No, I haven't.

      SAVVA

      Well, when we are through with God, we'll go for fellows like him. There are lots of them—Titian, Shakespeare, Byron. We'll make a nice pile of the whole lot and pour oil over it. Then we'll burn their cities.

      KONDRATY

      Now, now you are joking. How is that possible? How can you burn the cities?

      SAVVA

      No, why should I be joking? All the cities. Look here, what are their cities? Graves, stone graves. And if you don't stop those fools, if you let them go on making more, they will cover the whole earth with stone, and then all will suffocate—all.

      KONDRATY

      The poor people will have a hard time of it.

      SAVVA

      All will be poor then. What is it that makes a man rich? His having a house and money, and the fact that he has surrounded himself with a fence. But when there are no houses, no money, and no fences—

      KONDRATY

      That's so. And there won't be any legal papers either, no stocks, no bonds, no title-deeds. They will all have been burnt up.

      SAVVA

      No, there will be no legal papers. It's work then—you'll have to go to work even if you are a nobleman.

      KONDRATY СКАЧАТЬ