ANDREY PLATONOV
579
Long afterwards an elderly partisan came across the front to our lines
and recounted the story of Gershanovich's end. He had been the eighth,
the last in the queue of prisoners sentenced to death, and Gershanovich
had stood behind him. So well had he managed to feign death and atten–
uate his breathing that his body had even gone cold, which was how, for
the sake of life, he had deceived the German officer and had even fooled
Gershanovich when the latter had tried the back of his head.
The candle in the cellar had gone out-they had not bothered to light
another-and this old man, without any proper verification of his death,
had been carted off and thrown into a gully together with the truly
deceased, and from there he had sli pped away. To save manpower, the fas–
cists do not always dig graves, especially in winter-when the ground is
frozen.
Translated from the Russian
by
Robert and
Elizabeth Chandler and Angela Livingstone
