390
ISAAC BABel
for Russia. Queen Louise, her mother, who ruled over a small
kingdom, had taken care to place her children well: she married
off one of her daughters
to
Edward VII, Emperor of India and
King of England; another was married
to
a Romanov; her son
George was made King of Greece. Princess Dagmara became
Maria in Russia. Far away now were the canals of Copenhagen
and King Christian's chocolate-brown sideburns. Bearing the last
Czars, this little woman raged like an angry vixen behind her
guard of Preobrazhensky Grenadiers, but her blood flowed into
an implacable vengeful granite earth....
Till dawn we could not tear ourselves away from this mute,
disastrous chronicle. Abdul-Hamid's cigar was smoked to the
end. In the morning Kalugin took me to the Cheka at Number
2 Gorokhovaya Street. He spoke to Uritsky. I stood behind the
draperies which flowed to the floor in waves of cloth. Snatches of
the conversation reached me through them.
"He is one of ours," said Kalugin. "His father is a shop–
keeper, but he has broken with them.... He knows languages.
"
The Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Northern Com–
munes walked out of the office with his swaying gait. Behind
his pince-nez bulged swollen flabby eyelids, scorched with sleep–
lessness.
I was made a translator in the Foreign Department. I re–
ceived a soldier's uniform and meal coupons. In a corner as–
signed to me in the large hall of the former Governor's palace,
I went to work translating the testimony of diplomats, incendia–
ries and spies.
Before the day was over, I had everything-clothes, food,
work and comrades, true in friendship and in death, such com–
rades as are found
in
no country in the world but ours.
Thus, thirteen years ago, began my splendid life, a life of ..
thought and merriment.
(Translated by Mirra Ginsburg)
