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but without any noticeable success.
'We were invited in by your own government.'
'You just name one member of the government who invited you to
interfere in our affairs.'
'Comrades!'
'We're not your comrades!' And the political deputy was struck in the
face. He reached for his pistol, but the soldiers pulled him back out of the
crowd.
'Bloody fascists!'
'It's you who are the bloody fascists!'
'You brought your own country to a state of starvation and now you
want all those around you to sit and starve!'
'Those are only temporary difficulties, later things will be much better
in our country.'
'And without you it would have been better than ever!'
'Get the hell out of here, wherever you came from! And take your
Marx and Lenin with you!'
'Citizens, keep calm!'
'Go to hell!'
'Citizens, by your unreasonable behaviour, you are putting all the
victories of socialism on the verge of . . .'
'Your socialism should have been tested on dogs first, just as all normal
scientists do. Your Lenin was stupid and no good at science.'
'Don't you dare speak in such a way about Lenin!' A rotten egg landed
smack in the middle of the political deputy's red face.
'But if Pavlov had been given the task of introducing communism, he'd
have quickly proved, by experimenting on dogs, that this way of life isn't
suitable for a living soul!'
At the very back of the column, the discussion had taken on an even
more agitated form. Youths were hurling stones at the last three tanks,
forcing the crews to hide inside, and then with crowbars had broken open
the spare fuel tanks which are fixed to the outsides of tanks during long
advances. A minute later, the last but one tank began to smoke, and then
another. Disorganised shooting could be heard. The crowd reeled back
from the last tank, but only for a moment.
Two crews tried vainly to put out the flames while the third tank
swivelled its turret sharply round, trying to throw off the youths who had
climbed on to it. Two platoons of tankmen from the centre of the column
fought their way through the crowd to help their comrades.
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'Keep clear! The shells in the tanks will start exploding at any moment!'
'You bloody fascists!'
Zhuravlev, who had watched all this from the bank window, secretly
rejoiced at the others' misfortune. Why the hell start a discussion? You've
come here to liberate them, so get on with it. Don't start any political
discussions!
The reconnaissance tanks of Zhuravlev's battalion were standing there
too. But the crowd somehow didn't notice them. The soldiers were
obediently carrying out their orders and swearing at everybody right, left
and centre. The Czechs either understood the tones only too well, or else
preferred not to carry on any discussions in such tones, or they were
simply convinced that they would be unable to out-swear the Russians. In
any case the people just did not linger near the reconnaissance tanks. All
the swearing and scuffles took place in the tank column itself at those
places where the political deputies were especially active, trying to
convince the people of things that they did not even know for sure
themselves.
'Stalinism and the personality cult in general were accidents in our
history! Like hell, they were! For thirty years out of fifty, it was
Stalinism. And how long during the last twenty years did you live without
a cult? Without the cult of Lenin, Khrushchev and the others?'
'And why is there no personality cult in America? And never has been?'
'There is imperialism in America, Comrades, and that is much worse!'
'How do you know it's much worse? Have you ever been there?'
'Why is there a personality cult in every single socialist country from
Cuba to Albania, from Korea to Rumania? All these countries are
different: their communism is also different, but the personality cult is
always the same. It all began with the cult of Lenin
'Don't you dare insult Lenin! Lenin was a genius for all mankind!'
'Lenin was a pederast.'
'Silence!'
An old man with a little wedge-shaped beard twisted one of the buttons
on the regimental political deputy's tunic.
'Now don't go and get too excited. Have you read Lenin?'
'Of course I have!'
'And Stalin?'
'Ah . . . Ah . . . well . . .'
'Well, my old lad, you read them both and count how many times each
of them uses the word 'shoot'. There are some very interesting
173
statistics. Did you know that, in comparison with Lenin, Stalin was a
pitiful amateur and ignoramus. Lenin was an out and out sadist, one of
those degenerates who happens only once in a thousand years!' 'But
Lenin didn't annihilate as many innocents as Stalin did!' 'History stopped
him in time. It removed him from the scene at the right time. But
remember that Stalin didn't let himself go completely from the very
outset, but only after ten to fifteen years of unlimited power. Lenin's start
had much more impetus. And, if he had lived longer, he would have done
things which would have made Stalin's thirty million dead look like
child's play in comparison. Stalin never, I repeat never, signed orders
authorising the killing of children without trial. And Lenin did so in his
very first year of power, isn't that so?' 'But, under Stalin, children were
shot in their thousands.' 'That's right, Comrade Colonel, quite right, but
you just try and name me at least one child who was shot without trial on
Stalin's orders! There you are, you can't say anything! I repeat, Lenin was
one of the most bloodthirsty degenerates who ever lived. Stalin at least
tried to conceal his crimes, not so Lenin. Stalin never gave official orders
for the murder of hostages. But Lenin killed children as well as hostages
and never felt the least compunction about it. Lenin, Comrade Colonel, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]