24
PARTISAN REVIEW
Stalin. To build Socialism in One Country, one must destroy the
peasants' freedom to sow what they like and sell what they like. Stalin
didn't shilly-shally-he liquidated millions of peasants. Our Hitler
saw that the Jews were the enemy hindering the German National
Socialist movement. And he liquidated millions ofJews . But Hitler's
no mere student; he's a genius in his own right. And he's not one to
be squeamish either.
It
was the Roehm purge that gave Stalin the
idea of the purge of the Party in 1937 ... You must believe me .
You've kept silent while I've been talking, but I know that I'm like a
mirror for you - a surgical mirror."
"A mirror?" said Mostovskoy. "Every word you've said from be–
ginning to end is a lie. It's beneath me to refute your filthy, stinking,
provocative blatherings. A mirror? You must be crazy . But Sta–
lingrad will bring you back
to
your senses."
Liss stood up . In painful confusion, feeling both hatred and
ecstasy, Mostovskoy thought, "Now he's going to shoot me . That's it."
But Liss seemed not to have heard Mostovskoy. He bowed
from the waist.
"Teacher," he said, "you will continue to teach us and continue
to learn from us. We shall think together."
Liss's face was sad and serious, but his eyes were laughing.
Once again the poisoned needle entered Mostovskoy's heart.
Liss looked at his watch and said : "Well , time will tell."
He rang a bell and said quietly: "You can have this back if you
want it. We shall meet again soon.
Cute Nacht!"
Without knowing why, Mostovskoy picked the papers up and
thrust them into his pocket.
He was led out of the administration building and back out into
the cold night. Cool damp air, the howl of sirens in the gloom before
dawn - how pleasant it all was after the Gestapo office and the quiet
voice of the National Socialist theoretician.
A car with violet headlamps passed them as they reached the
sick-bay . Mostovskoy realized that Liss was on his way home . Once
again he was seized by a deep melancholy. The guard took him to his
cubicle and locked the door. He sat down on the boards and thought:
"If
I believed in God, I would think that this terrible interrogator had
been sent to me as a punishment for my sins."
A new day was already beginning and he was unable to sleep.
Leaning back against the rough, splintering planks of pine that had
been knocked together into a wall, Mostovskoy began to peruse
Ikonnikov's scribblings.
