SERGEI DOVLATOV
191
kov stopped coughing, picked up the receiver, and fell into even
greater thought.
A few emboldened prisoners in the audience started yelling,
"Come on, Stilts, don't drag this out!"
At that moment, Lenin appeared carrying an enormous yellow
suitcase. "Greetings, Felix Edmundovich."
"Hello there," Dzerzhinsky answered without getting up.
Gurin set down the suitcase, squinted cunningly, and asked,
"Do you know, Felix Edmundovich, what I have here in my hand?"
"A suitcase, Vladimir Ilych."
"And just what it's for- can you guess?"
"Haven't the slightest idea." Tsurikov even turned away slightly,
showing complete indifference.
From the audience, some shouted again , "Get up, Stilts! What
kind of a way is that to talk to the Boss?"
"Sha!" Tsurikov answered. "We know about that. . .. There
are too many of you here overeducated ." Reluctantly, he rose
slightly.
Gurin waited for silence and continued. "The little suitcase is
for you, Felix Edmundovich. So that you, dear fellow, can go off to
take a rest at once."
"I can't, Vladimir Ilych. There's counterrevolution all around
us . The Mensheviks , the Social Revolutionaries," Tsurikov glanced
angrily at the audience, "bourgeois ... what do you call them?"
"Scouts?" Gurin prompted.
"'At's it, 'at's it...."
"Your health, Felix Edmundovich, belongs to the Revolution.
The comrades and I discussed it and decided: you must take a rest. I
say this to you as a member of the ruling body."
Tsurikov was silent.
"Do you understand me, Felix Edmundovich?"
"I understand," Tsurikov replied, and grinned stupidly. It was
blatantly obvious that he had forgotten his lines .
Khuriev came near the stage and whispered loudly, "'Do what
you want .. . ,,,
"And what can I want to do," Tsurikov said in the same loud
whisper, "if my memory's gone full of holes?"
'''Do what you want,'" the P.I. repeated louder, "'but I'm not
leaving service.'''
"Everything's clear," Tsurikov said. "I'm not leaving-"
Lenin interrupted him . "The main asset of the Revolution is
