118 исторических миниатюр и 108 авторских текстов на 13 иностранных языках. Сборник
Шрифт:
Gorky has smiled:
– 'History - a reason for reflections.'
– 'It would be desirable to speak out. I want to verify the correctness of the assimilation of what was heard', - the Memoirist has continued.
– 'Please', - Gorky has reacted.
– 'Whether it is impossible to find logical links between a December Moscow armed revolt of 1905 (and - in general - Revolution of 1905) and events on July 3-8, 1917? At the beginning of July, 1917 some parts of the Petrograd garrison, workers and other participants of events have tried to overthrow Provisional Government. Bolsheviks have well learned the lessons of 1905: and not especially interfered with events (can be, have even pushed them), but also weren't involved.
A peculiar historical test has been executed. The peculiar rehearsal. Feeler.
How your opinion, Alexey Maksimovich?'
It was quiet. Gorky admired a landscape. Beauty of Vesuvius has drawn attention of all attendees.
The evening is turning into night, Italy, Villa, Mediterrian sea, Vesuvius, silence...
May 19, 2017
Translation from Russian into English: 21 November 2017 17:01, 21 November 2017 19:59.
Владимир
LIV. The Tale about the Academician Tarle
Gorky has joined the readers of cafe-library who have decided to exchange opinions on the read books behind cups of coffee.
– 'Alexey Maksimovich', - the Writer has addressed him.
– 'You were fond of Tarle?'
– '"Napoleon", misters', - Gorky has explained, laying before himself on a table the book "Napoleon" by Yevgeny Tarle .
– 'Listen, misters!
– the Builder has quickened.
– 'All listened to the lectures Tarle. Who - before revolution, who - after the revolution. Who before the Great Patriotic War, who - later. Who - being the student, who - already with ranks and awards.'
– 'And who didn't read his books?!' - the Politician has connected to review.
– 'All at least something, but - were reading. Or, at least, - heard.'
– 'The audience were breaking into the auditoriums!' - The Builder has added.
– 'Happened, he arrives to a hall, is scheduled for the performance, and he have to stop at distance for one city block or two away. The streets are crammed with parked cars belonging to fans of lectures.
In peacetime, sometimes, the audience broke through and ticket collectors, and controllers and persons on duty.'
– 'Imagine, misters!' - the Writer couldn't appease emotions.
– 'Wartime: hunger, fatigue. There wasn't enough the most necessary things. . But the crowds were flocking for the lectures of Tarle.
Both the commanders and the soldiers listened. also the Wounded in hospitals. Engineers and workers. Defenders of the Homeland!'
– 'He, by the way, transported me more than once on the automobile', - the Builder has connected to talk.
– 'He on hand had not the own car. But attached governmental car in continuous use. Less hassle and distractions. And he had the same driver - a constant. Driver helped the academician much.'
– 'He once transported me in his railroad car-salon', - the Technical Designer remembered..
– 'During the military period all lived very modestly. All starved. And he was moving in "own" railroad car-salon. Accompanied by two conductoresses. Thanks to his railroad car-salon and its mobility I quickly and with comfort have moved from one city to another.'
– 'All this so, misters', - was added by the Writer.
– 'But you would see his apartment in St. Petersburg, that is in Leningrad, on Neva Embankment near the Winter Palace. His flat is the former apartment of count Witte. He was writing in the office-room, looking at Neva, at a silhouette of Peter and Paul Cathedral... He liked to work there.
I will afford, misters, to conjecture. The academician begins to work. And he addresses to Witte for advices, recommendations. Witte was a person of enormous knowledge: and he will not recommend a bad offers.'
– 'You dreams, dear Writer', - has reacted the Technical Designer.
– 'Knowledge of the academician Tarle had the same sources which are available to all: education, self-training, libraries, archives. Many saw him. In different libraries. Simultaneously. How he managed?
However, it isn't reasonable to deny intellectual continuity. But let's imagine the academician in the company of Napoleon, Talleyrand... Nakhimov, Ushakov, Kutuzov...'
After a pause, the Technical Designer added:
– 'And what a dacha he had!" In a coniferous-deciduous forest! On the banks of the Moskva River. he liked to walk, to get some fresh air. Dreamed on the conquest of the cosmos.'
– 'Dreamed on conquest of space?' - the Writer has expressed some doubt.
– 'He also traveled to Moscow on different affairs: publishings, for example. I visited him in a Moscow apartment.'
Gorky has put a palm on the book with pleasure and has cleaned away a nonexistent tiny specks of dust off a book-cover.
The Writer has continued:
– 'Evgeny Viktorovich was familiar more than twenty years with the writer Eugene Lannes. Because of the circumstances E. Lannes was the namesake of the Napoleonic Marshal Jean Lannes. The writer Eugene Lannes, - according some memoirs, - acquired an engraving with the image of the Marshal Jean Lannes on a white horse. Eugene Lannes has allegedly hung up this engraving among family photos over a desk. One of memoirists reports that Eugene Lannes didn't deny what is a descendant of the marshal Jean Lannes in a straight line.
Imagine, gentlemen, the auditorium - for example, the huge hall - is filled with listeners. Evgeny Tarle read lecture about Napoleon. But many people know that in his environment, as well as in the environment of Napoleon, - Lannes.
Evgeny Viktorovich is fond of a subject. Listeners are fond of his story. And here they see before themselves (image of) Napoleon.
You would have refused, gentlemen, to go to a lecture, look at Napoleon?'