NABATOFF AND MARKEL.
One of the men who came in was a short, thin, young man, who had a cloth-covered sheepskin coat on, and high top-boots. He stepped lightly and quickly, carrying two steaming teapots, and holding a loaf wrapped in a cloth under his arm.
"Well, so our prince has put in an appearance again," he said, as he placed the teapot beside the cups, and handed the bread to Rintzeva. "We have bought wonderful things," he continued, as he took off his sheepskin, and flung it over the heads of the others into the corner of the bedstead. "Markel has bought milk and eggs. Why, we'll have a regular ball to-day. And Rintzeva is spreading out her aesthetic cleanliness," he said, and looked with a smile at Rintzeva, "and now she will make the tea."
The whole presence of this man--his motion, his voice, his look--seemed to breathe vigour and merriment. The other newcomer was just the reverse of the first. He looked despondent and sad. He was short, bony, had very prominent cheek bones, a sallow complexion, thin lips and beautiful, greenish eyes, rather far apart. He wore an old wadded coat, top-boots and goloshes, and was carrying two pots of milk and two round boxes made of birch bark, which he placed in front of Rintzeva. He bowed to Nekhludoff, bending only his neck, and with his eyes fixed on him. Then, having reluctantly given him his damp hand to shake, he began to take out the provisions.
Both these political prisoners were of the people; the first was Nabatoff, a peasant; the second, Markel Kondratieff, a factory hand. Markel did not come among the revolutionists till he was quite a man, Nabatoff only eighteen. After leaving the village school, owing to his exceptional talents Nabatoff entered the gymnasium, and maintained himself by giving lessons all the time he studied there, and obtained the gold medal. He did not go to the university because, while still in the seventh class of the gymnasium, he made up his mind to go among the people and enlighten his neglected brethren. This he did, first getting the place of a Government clerk in a large village. He was soon arrested because he read to the peasants and arranged a co-operative industrial association among them. They kept him imprisoned for eight months and then set him free, but he remained under police supervision. As soon as he was liberated he went to another village, got a place as schoolmaster, and did the same as he had done in the first village. He was again taken up and kept fourteen months in prison, where his convictions became yet stronger. After that he was exiled to the Perm Government, from where he escaped. Then he was put to prison for seven months and after that exiled to Archangel. There he refused to take the oath of allegiance that was required of them and was condemned to be exiled to the Takoutsk Government, so that half his life since he reached manhood was passed in prison and exile. All these adventures did not embitter him nor weaken his energy, but rather stimulated it. He was a lively young fellow, with a splendid digestion, always active, gay and vigorous. He never repented of anything, never looked far ahead, and used all his powers, his cleverness, his practical knowledge to act in the present. When free he worked towards the aim he had set himself, the enlightening and the uniting of the working men, especially the country labourers. When in prison he was just as energetic and practical in finding means to come in contact with the outer world, and in arranging his own life and the life of his group as comfortably as the conditions would allow. Above all things he was a communist. He wanted, as it seemed to him, nothing for himself and contented himself with very little, but demanded very much for the group of his comrades, and could work for it either physically or mentally day and night, without sleep or food. As a peasant he had been industrious, observant, clever at his work, and naturally self-controlled, polite without any effort, and attentive not only to the wishes but also the opinions of others. His widowed mother, an illiterate, superstitious, old peasant woman, was still living, and Nabatoff helped her and went to see her while he was free. During the time he spent at home he entered into all the interests of his mother's life, helped her in her work, and continued his intercourse with former playfellows; smoked cheap tobacco with them in so-called "dog's feet," [a kind of cigarette that the peasants smoke, made of a bit of paper and bent at one end into a hook] took part in their fist fights, and explained to them how they were all being deceived by the State, and how they ought to disentangle themselves out of the deception they were kept in. When he thought or spoke of what a revolution would do for the people he always imagined this people from whom he had sprung himself left in very nearly the same conditions as they were in, only with sufficient land and without the gentry and without officials. The revolution, according to him, and in this he differed from Novodvoroff and Novodvoroff's follower, Markel Kondratieff, should not alter the elementary forms of the life of the people, should not break down the whole edifice, but should only alter the inner walls of the beautiful, strong, enormous old structure he loved so dearly. He was also a typical peasant in his views on religion, never thinking about metaphysical questions, about the origin of all origin, or the future life. God was to him, as also to Arago, an hypothesis, which he had had no need of up to now. He had no business with the origin of the world, whether Moses or Darwin was right. Darwinism, which seemed so important to his fellows, was only the same kind of plaything of the mind as the creation in six days. The question how the world had originated did not interest him, just because the question how it would be best to live in this world was ever before him. He never thought about future life, always bearing in the depth of his soul the firm and quiet conviction inherited from his forefathers, and common to all labourers on the land, that just as in the world of plants and animals nothing ceases to exist, but continually changes its form, the manure into grain, the grain into a food, the tadpole into a frog, the caterpillar into a butterfly, the acorn into an oak, so man also does not perish, but only undergoes a change. He believed in this, and therefore always looked death straight in the face, and bravely bore the sufferings that lead towards it, but did not care and did not know how to speak about it. He loved work, was always employed in some practical business, and put his comrades in the way of the same kind of practical work.
The other political prisoner from among the people, Markel Kondratieff, was a very different kind of man. He began to work at the age of fifteen, and took to smoking and drinking in order to stifle a dense sense of being wronged. He first realised he was wronged one Christmas when they, the factory children, were invited to a Christmas tree, got up by the employer's wife, where he received a farthing whistle, an apple, a gilt walnut and a fig, while the employer's children had presents given them which seemed gifts from fairyland, and had cost more than fifty roubles, as he afterwards heard.
When he was twenty a celebrated revolutionist came to their factory to work as a working girl, and noticing his superior qualities began giving books and pamphlets to Kondratieff and to talk and explain his position to him, and how to remedy it. When the possibility of freeing himself and others from their oppressed state rose clearly in his mind, the injustice of this state appeared more cruel and more terrible than before, and he longed passionately not only for freedom, but also for the punishment of those who had arranged and who kept up this cruel injustice. Kondratieff devoted himself with passion to the acquirement of knowledge. It was not clear to him how knowledge should bring about the realisation of the social ideal, but he believed that the knowledge that had shown him the injustice of the state in which he lived would also abolish that injustice itself. Besides knowledge would, in his opinion, raise him above others. Therefore he left off drinking and smoking, and devoted all his leisure time to study. The revolutionist gave him lessons, and his thirst for every kind of knowledge, and the facility with which he took it in, surprised her. In two years he had mastered algebra, geometry, history--which he was specially fond of--and made acquaintance with artistic and critical, and especially socialistic literature. The revolutionist was arrested, and Kondratieff with her, forbidden books having been found in their possession, and they were imprisoned and then exiled to the Vologda Government. There Kondratieff became acquainted with Novodvoroff, and read a great deal more revolutionary literature, remembered it all, and became still firmer in his socialistic views. While in exile he became leader in a large strike, which ended in the destruction of a factory and the murder of the director. He was again arrested and condemned to Siberia.
His religious views were of the same negative nature as his views of the existing economic conditions. Having seen the absurdity of the religion in which he was brought up, and having gained with great effort, and at first with fear, but later with rapture, freedom from it, he did not tire of viciously and with venom ridiculing priests and religious dogmas, as if wishing to revenge himself for the deception that had been practised on him.
He was ascetic through habit, contented himself with very little, and, like all those used to work from childhood and whose muscles have been developed, he could work much and easily, and was quick at any manual labour; but what he valued most was the leisure in prisons and halting stations, which enabled him to continue his studies. He was now studying the first volume of Karl Marks's, and carefully hid the book in his sack as if it were a great treasure. He behaved with reserve and indifference to all his comrades, except Novodvoroff, to whom he was greatly attached, and whose arguments on all subjects he accepted as unanswerable truths.
He had an indefinite contempt for women, whom he looked upon as a hindrance in all necessary business. But he pitied Maslova and was gentle with her, for he considered her an example of the way the lower are exploited by the upper classes. The same reason made him dislike Nekhludoff, so that he talked little with him, and never pressed Nekhludoff's hand, but only held out his own to be pressed when greeting him.
进来的两个人当中有一个是青年,个儿不高,身一体干瘦,穿一件有挂面的皮袄,脚登一双高统皮靴.他步伐轻快地走进来,手里提着两壶热气腾腾的开水,胳肢窝里夹一着一块用头巾包着的面包.
"哦,原来是我们的公爵来了,"他说着将茶壶放在茶杯中间,把面包一交一给玛丝洛娃①."我们买到些好东西,"他说着脱掉皮袄,把它从大家头顶上扔到板铺角上."玛尔凯买了牛一奶一和鸡蛋,今天简直可以开舞会了.艾米丽雅总是把屋子收拾得干干净净,整整齐齐的,"他笑眯眯地瞧着艾米丽雅说.
"来,现在你来沏茶吧,"他对她说.
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①从上下文看,这里应是艾米丽雅.一毛一德英译本作艾米丽雅看来是对的.
这人的外表,动作,腔调和眼神都洋溢着生气和欢乐.进来的另一个人,个儿也不高,瘦骨棱棱,灰白的脸上颧骨很高,生有一双距离很宽的好看的淡绿色眼睛和两片薄薄的嘴唇.他同前面那个人正好相反,神态忧郁,一精一神萎一靡一.他身上穿着一件旧的棉大衣,靴子外面套着套鞋,手里提着两个瓦罐和两只树皮篮.他把东西放在艾米丽雅面前,对聂赫留朵夫只点了点头,但眼睛一直瞅着他.然后勉强向他伸出一只汗湿的手,慢吞吞地把食物从篮子里取出来放好.
这两个政治犯都是平民出身:第一个是农民纳巴托夫,第二个是工人玛尔凯.玛尔凯参加革命活动时已是个三十五岁的中年人;纳巴托夫却是十八岁时参加的.纳巴托夫先是在乡村小学读书,因成绩优良进了中学,并靠当家庭教师维持生活,中学毕业时得金质奖章,但他没有进大学,还在念七年级的时候就决心到他出身的平民中间去,去教育被遗忘的弟兄.他真的这样做了:先到一个乡里当文书,不久就因向农民朗读小册子和在农民中间创办生产消费合作社而被捕.第一次他坐了八个月牢,出狱后暗中仍受到监视.他一出狱,就到另一个省的一个乡里,在那里当了教员,仍旧搞那些活动.他再次被捕.这次他被关了一年零两个月,在狱中更加强了革命信念.
他第二次出狱后,被流放到彼尔姆省.他从那里逃跑了.他又一次被捕,又坐了七个月牢,然后被流放到阿尔汉格尔斯克省.他在那里又因拒绝向新沙皇宣誓效忠,被判流放雅库茨克区.因此他成年后有一半日子倒是在监狱和流放中度过的.这种颠沛流离的生活丝毫没有使他变得暴躁,也没有损耗他的一精一力,反而使他更加一精一神焕发.他喜一爱一活动,胃口奇好,永远一精一力旺盛,生气勃勃,干这干那,忙个不停.不论做什么事,他从不后悔,也不海阔天空地一胡一思乱想,而总是把全部智慧,机灵和经验用在现实生活中.他出了监狱,总是为自己确定的目标奋斗,也就是教育和一团一结以农村平民为主的劳动者.一旦坐了牢,他仍旧一精一力旺盛,脚踏实地地同外界保持联系,并且就现有条件尽量把生活安排好,不仅为他自己,而且为集体.他首先是个村社社员,总是以村社利益为重.他自己一无所求,安贫乐穷,但处处为集体谋利益,并且可以废寝忘食不停地工作,不论是体力劳动还是脑力工作.他出身农民,勤劳机灵,干活利落,善于控制情绪,待人彬彬有礼,不但能体贴人家的感情,而且能尊重人家的意见.他的老母亲是个寡一妇,不识字,满脑子迷信.纳巴托夫一直照顾她,没有坐牢时常去看她.他每次回家,总是仔细了解她的生活,帮她干活,并且同他以前的伙伴,那些农村青年,来往频繁.他跟他们一起吸劣等烟草卷成的狗腿烟①,同他们比武斗拳,向他们宣传,说他们都受了骗,应该从这种骗局中醒悟过来.每逢他思索或说明革命会给人民带来什么好处时,他这个平民出身的人,总认为人民的生活条件将与原来相似,只不过将拥有土地,而且不会再有地主和官僚.他认为,革命不应该改变人民的基本生活方式.在这一点上,他同诺伏德伏罗夫和诺伏德伏罗夫的信徒玛尔凯的看法不同.照他看来,不应该摧毁这座他所热一爱一的美丽,坚固,宏伟的古老大厦,只要把里面的房间重新分配一下就行了.
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①俄国农民自卷的纸烟,形似狗腿.
对待宗教,他也采取十足的农民态度.他从来不思索虚无缥缈的问题,不考虑万物的本源,也不猜度一�一间的生活.他和阿拉哥①一样看待上帝是否存在的问题,只是他至今还认为没有必要提出这种假设.世界是怎样创造的,究竟是摩西说的对,还是达尔文说的对,他根本不关心.他的同志们认为达尔文学说极其重要,他却觉得这种学说同六天创造世界一样,无非是思想游戏罢了.
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①阿拉哥(1786-1853)--法国物理学家,天文学家.
他对世界是怎样产生的这个问题不感兴趣,因为他面前总是摆着人怎样才能在世界上生活得更好的问题.关于来世的生活他从不考虑.他内心深处有一种从祖先传下来并为种田人所共有的坚定信念,那就是世间一切动物和植物永远不会消灭,它们只是经常从一种形式转变成另一种形式,例如粪肥变成谷子,谷子变成母鸡,蝌蚪变成青蛙,青虫变成蝴蝶,橡实变成橡树,人也不会消灭,只不过发生变化罢了.他有这样的信念,因此总是无所畏惧,甚至高高兴兴地面对死亡,并且坚强地忍受各种导致死亡的痛苦,但他不喜欢也不善于谈论这一类问题.他热一爱一工作,总是忙于事务,并且推动同志们也致力于实际工作.
在这批犯人中,另一个来自民间的政治犯玛尔凯的气质就完全不同.他十五岁当上工人,开始吸烟喝酒,以排遣心头蒙蒙��感觉到的屈辱.他第一次感到这种屈辱,是过圣诞节的时候.当时他们做童工的被带到工厂老板一娘一装饰好的圣诞树跟前,他和同伴们得到的礼物是只值一戈比的小笛,一个苹果,一个用金纸包的核桃和一个干无花果,可是老板的儿女得到的,都是些奇妙的玩具,他后来才知道价值在五十卢布以上.他二十岁那年,有位著名的女革命家到他们厂里做工,她发现玛尔凯超人的才能,就送书和小册子给他看,并且同他谈话,向他解释他处于这种悲惨境地的原因和改善生活的办法.一旦他明白自己和别人能从这种受压迫的处境中获得解放,他就越发觉得这种不合理的处境是极其残酷极其可怕的,他不仅强烈要求解放,而且要求惩罚造成和维护这种不合理局面的人.人家说,实现这个目标需要知识,玛尔凯就废寝忘食地追求知识.他不清楚,怎样依靠知识来实现社会主义理想,但他相信,知识既然能使他懂得他的处境是不合理的,那么知识也就能消除这种不合理现象.再说,有了知识,也可以使他显得比别人高明.他因此戒绝烟酒,一有空就读书,而他自从当上仓库管理员以后,空闲的时间就更多了.
女革命家教他读书,对他如饥似渴地吸收知识的特异能力感到惊讶.两年中间,他学会了代数,几何和他特别喜一爱一的历史,涉猎了各种文学作品和评论著作,特别是社会主义著作.
后来女革命家被捕,玛尔凯一起被捕,因为在他家里搜出了禁书.他坐了牢,后来又被流放到伏洛戈德省.他在那里认识了诺伏德伏罗夫,又读了许多革命书籍,并且记在心里,更加坚定了他的社会主义思想.流放期满,他领导一次大罢工,最后砸烂了工厂,打死了厂长.他再次被捕,判处褫夺公权,流放西伯利亚.
他对宗教也象对现行经济制度那样,抱否定态度.一旦看出他从小信奉的宗教的荒唐无稽,他就毅然把它抛弃,开头不免有点顾虑,后来却觉得轻松愉快.从此以后,他仿佛要为自己和祖祖辈辈所受的欺骗进行报复,一有机会总要尖刻地嘲笑教士和教条.
长期来他养成禁欲一习一惯,对物质的要求极低.他象一切从小劳动惯的人那样,肌肉发达,不论干什么体力活都能胜任愉快,得心应手.他十分珍惜时间,在监狱里和旅站上始终努力学一习一.他现在正在钻研马克思著作第一卷①,小心地把这书藏在袋子里,当作无价之宝.他对同志们都比较疏远,冷淡,唯独对诺伏德伏罗夫特别崇拜.诺伏德伏罗夫不论发表什么意见,他都认为是无可争辩的真理.
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①指俄译本<资本论>第一卷,出版于一八七二年.
他对女人抱着无法克制的轻蔑态度,认为女人是一切正经工作的障碍.不过他同情玛丝洛娃,待她亲切,认为她是下层阶级受上层阶级剥削的一个实例.就因为这个缘故,他不喜欢聂赫留朵夫,不同他一交一谈,不同他握手,除非聂赫留朵夫先同他打招呼,他才伸出手去同他握一下.
