The Gulag Archipelago Vol. 2 An Experiment in Literary Investigation - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

354 I THE GULAG ARCHIPELAGO
Chapter 12
•
/
Knock, Knock, Knock.
The Cheka-GB (no doubt a resonant, convenient, and concise
. name for this organization and one which also preserves its continuity
in time) would be an insensate leg incapable of carrying
out surveillance over its people if it did not have a constant eye
and a constant ear. In our technological years cameras and photoelectric
elements often work in place of eyes, and microphones,
tape recorders, and laser listening devices often replace ears. But
for the entire epoch covered by this book almost the only eyes
and almost the only ears of the Cheka-GB were stool pigeons.
In the early years of the Cheka they were called, in a businesslike
manner, secret collaborators (in contrast to staff employees
who were in the open). In the manner of-those years this was
abbreviated to the term seksoty," and that is how it passed into
general usage. Whoever thought up this word (not supposing it
would become so widely disseminated-and not taking due care)
did not have the gift of perceiving it with unprejudiced ear and
hearing even in its mere sound the loathsomeness woven into it
-something more disreputable even than sodomy. And over the
years it became colored with the yellowish-brown blood of betrayal-and
there was no nastier word in the whole Russian
language.
But this word was used only in freedom. In the Archipelago
they had their own words: in prison it was a "nasedka"-a "sit~
ting hen"-and in camp it was a "stukach"-a "knocker"......:stool
pigeons all. However, just as many words of the Archipelago
subsequently -moved out into the whole range of the Russian
language and took over. the entire country, "so too the word
"knocker" became in time a common concept. This reflected both
the unity and the universality of the phenomenon itself.
Without having the experience and without having thought
the matter over sufficiently, it is difficult to evaluate the extent to
which we are permeated and enveloped"by stool-pigeoning. Just
as, without a transistor in hand, we do not sense in a field, in a
forest, or on a lake that multitudes of radio waves are constantly
pouring through us.
It is difficult to school oneself to ask that constant question:
Who is the stool pigeon among us? In our apartment, in our
courtyard, in our watch-repair shop, in our school, in our editorial
office, in our workshop, in our design bureau, and even
in our police. It is difficult to school oneSelf, and it is repulsive
to become schooled-but for safety one must. It is impossible
to expel the stoolies or to fire them-they will recruit new ones.
But you have to know them-sometimes in order to beware of.
them; sometimes to put on an act in their presence, to pretend
to be something you aren't; sometimes in order to quarrel openly
with the informer and by this means. devalue his testimony
against you.
We will speak in a special chapter on freedom about the density
of the network of informers. Many sense this density, but
they do not make the effort to imagine the informer's face-his
simple human face. And for this reason the network seems more
enigmatic' and more fearsome than in actual fact it is. And yet
me informer is that very same pleasant Anna Fyodorovna who
lives next door and came in to ask you for some yeast and then
ran to report at a prearranged contact point (perhaps a shop or
a drugstore) that an unregistered visitor is in your apartment.
It is that very same Ivan Nikiforovich whom you like so much,
with whom you drank a glass of vodka, and he reported that you
cursed because there was nothing in the store to buy and said
the higher-ups were getting it all under the counter. You don't
know informers face to face, and then you are surprised that the
omnipresent Organs couid know that during the mass singing of
the "Song on Stalin" you merely opened your mouth and didn't .
waste your voice? Or that you didn't enjoy yourself at the November
7 demonstration? Well, where were they, those penetrating
and burning informer's eyes? But the informer's eyes can- be
353