Berezovo: A Revolutionary Russian Epic

A.J. Allen THE BEREZOVO TRILOGY

Characters

The Men

Captain Vladimir Pavelovich STEKLOV – C.O. Garrison, Berezovo

Colonel Konstantin Illyich IZOROV – Chief of Police

Father Arkady MALENYOV – Priest

Anatoli Mikhailovich POBEDNYEV – Mayor of Berezovo

Modest Andreyevich TOLKACH – Hospital Administrator

Dr. Vasili Semionovich TORTSOV – Medical Practitioner

Dimitri Borisovich SKYRALENKO – Prison Director

Vissarion Augustovich LEPISHINSKY – Vet & owner of the Livery Stables

Alexander Vissarionovich MASLOV – Librarian & Printer

Nikolai Alexeyevich DRESNYAKOV – Schoolteacher

Andrey Vladimirovich ROSHKOVSKY – Land Surveyor

Yuli Nikitavich BELINSKY – Builder

Gleb Yakovlevich PIROGOV – Carpenter

Fyodor Gregorivich SOBOLSKY – Proprietor, ‘Hotel New Century’

Sergei Levinovich KUPRIN – Revenue officer

Fyodor Fyodorovich IZMINSKY – Banker

Illya Moiseyevich KUIBYSHEV – Fur merchant

Pavel Stepanovich NADNIKOV – Grain merchant

Leonid Sergeivich KAVELIN – Timber merchant

Nikita Osipovich SHIMINSKI – General merchant

Ivan Tarpelovich KIBALSCHOV – General merchant

Serapion Alexeyevich PUSNYEN – General merchant

Pyotr Razinovich DELYANOV – Haberdasher

Kuzma Antonivich GVORDYEN – Baker

Yevgeni Yevgenivich SVORTSOV – Butcher

Irkaly Georgeyivich OVSEENKO – Carpenter

Isaac Davidovich AVERBUCH – Jewish carpenter

Lev Dubreivich POLEZHAYEV – Jewish tailor

Noi Nikolayevich PYATKONOV – ‘Goat’s Foot’, a Peasant

Semyon Konstantinovich LAVROV – Landlord of ‘The Black Eagle Inn’

Mikhail SHELGUNOV – Potboy

Innokenty Arseneyevich CHIRIKOV – Blacksmith

Anton Ivanovich CHEVANIN – Dr. Tortsov’s assistant

Abram Malachayivich USOV – Leader of the Jewish Bund

Yfem Borisovich BLONSKI – Corporal, Military Stores

Sergeant GREDNYEN – Commissariat Sergeant

JANINSKI – Prison warden

Pyotr Ivanovich ARKOV – Local prisoner

David Davidovich LANDEMANN – Jewish Bundist

Oleg KARSENEV – Leader, Berezovo Menshevik R.S.D.L.P.

FATIEV – Leader, Berezovo Bolshevik R.S.D.L.P.

The Women

Katya – Housemaid to Dr. TORTSOV

Anastasia Christianovna WRENSKAYA – Widow

Mariya – Housemaid to Madame WRENSKAYA

Yeliena TORTSOVA – Wife of Dr. TORTSOV

Tatyana KAVELINA – Wife of Leonid KAVELIN

Irena KUIBYSHEVA – Wife of Illya KUIBYSHEV

Olga NADNIKOVA – Wife of Pavel NADNIKOV

Raisa IZMINSKAYA – Wife of Fyodor IZMINSKY

Matriona POBEDNYEVA – Mayoress

Lidiya PUSNYENA – Wife of Serapion PUSNYEN

Nina ROSHKOVSKAYA – Wife of Andrey ROSHKOVSKY

Alexandra DRESNYAKOVA – Sister of Nikolai DRESNYAKOV

Tamara KARSENEVA – Wife of Oleg KARSENEV

Book One A Small Town in Siberia

Prologue

Even at noon the sun was little more than a lemon coloured disc, peering bleakly through the grey leaden clouds. It gave no promise of warmth to the passengers in the prison convoy of troikas heading swiftly northwards through the forest that lined this section of the Great Tobolsk Highway.

In the second troika, the young man was struggling to stay awake. The hiss of the runners on the frozen ground, the glare of the snow, the gentle rocking motion of the sleigh and the incessant tintinnabulation of the harness that bound the ponies to the vehicle all conspired to mesmerise him, with the effect that he was finding it harder to hold logically consistent thoughts. Beside him, a guard sat with his chin resting on his chest; his grizzled head occasionally nodded in time to the motion of the carriage. He was fast asleep and the young man was able to study the features of his companion at length. There was not much to see. The soldier wore his dark brown fox fur hat pulled low over his forehead and the broad collar of his thick greatcoat stood up like wings, so that his profile was fragmented: a collage of fur, coarse cloth and pockmarked skin.

It was not, the young man decided, the face of an intelligent man. True, the lines around the eyes and mouth spoke eloquently of experience and deprivation. The Sibirsky regiment had been badly mauled in the war against the Japanese and had had to be almost entirely reformed. Any veteran of the old Sibirsky would know the meaning of suffering and endurance. Yet this man had learnt nothing from the experience. He still wore the uniform of the hated and discredited regime; he still upheld in word and deed the terrible despotism that ruled this vast wasteland with an iron grip. Ergo: he was not an intelligent man.

The young man smiled privately to himself, his dark, handsome Jewish features assuming a rare expression of self-mockery.

If I’m so smart, he thought, how come I’m the prisoner and he’s the guard?

The soldier stirred in his sleep.