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

674 TRANSLATOR'S NOTES
Translator' s Notes
Page
1 The Destructive-Labor Camps: This, the title of Part· III of this
work, is a play on· words which is not as effective in English translation
as in the original Russian. The full official title .of Soviet
corrective-labor camps in Russian is Ispravitelno-Trudovye Lagerya.
The author switches "corrective" labor to "destructive" labor (or
"extermination" labor) by rendering this in abbreviated· form
Istrebitelno-Trudovye.
Hutzul: The Hutzuls are a mountain people of the. Carpathians who
speak a Ruthenian dialect-and this quotation is given in that
dialect.
9 the shots of the cruiser Aurora: Began the October Revolution in
Petrograd.
9 the militia: Following· the October Revolution, when most govern­
IDental terminology was radically changed, the police were rechristened
"the militia." This is one of the few new revolutionary
teflIlS which has stuck, and the ordinary police in the Soviet Union
are still called ''the militia." Throughout the rest of the book
"militsiya" is translated as "police."
10 Razliv: When Lenin went into hiding in July, 1917, at a time when
he was being sought by the Provisional Government, he found
shelter at Razliv, a summer home village about twenty miles from
Petrograd, where he camped out in a hunter's shack.
14 "subbotniki" (sing.: "subbotnik"): These were "voluntary Saturdays,"
in which Soviet citizens allegedly volunteered for .socially useful
labor on their day of rest. In actual fact, as a mass movement
sponsored by the Soviet leadership from April, 1919, on, there was
nothing voluntary about them.
16 Central Penal Department: The term here translated as "penal"
could also be translated as "punitive" and is the same Russian term
as that used in the official title "punitive detachments," which were
sent by the Bolsheviks to carry out bloody reprisals against protest-
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ing peasants.in rural areas. Hence the name Central Penal Department
carried to Soviet ears an implication of terror.
18 SLON: This acronym for the Northern Special Purpose Camps is
also the Russian word for elephant.
19 ''general work": "General-assignment work." In Russian "obshchye
raboty"-general work or common labor. The general wor~ was
'whatever primary work the camp was established to performlogging,
construction, mining, heavy labor of any and all sorts. -
23 convo)': The term in Russian is "konvoi"--escort guard.
25 kremlin: The Russian term'''kreml'' (kremlin) refers to any fortified
urban center or citadel-not just the one in Moscow.
25 capercaillies: Also known as "cock of the wood"-a large European
true grouse, the male of which is approximately the size of a wild
turkey.
27 ''pyatina'': A "pyatina" was one of the five administrative territories
into which the lands of Novgorod were divided at the end of the
fifteenth century.
34 passing marks: The word here in Russian is "zachyoty." And there is
a play on this term: on t~ one hand it means "passing marks" in an
exam or a course in school, and on the other hand in Soviet prison
life it means "time off ~ntence" given for'good work. '
35 Metropole Restaurant: Refers to the Metropole Hotel Restaurant in
the center of Moscow near the Bolshoi Theatre.
43 work assigner: Work assignment supervisor. The term in Russian
is "naryadchik."
44 Berry.Yagoda: In'Russian the word "yagoda" means "berry."
59 S. A. Malsagotr: An Island Hell: A Soviet Prison in the Far North,
translated by F. H. Lyon, London, Philpot, 1926, 233 pp.
81 I. L. Averbakh: In the Paris edition in-Russian (p. 78) the initials of
the second editor are given as A. L. Averbakh. In the actuat book
under reference the initials on the title page are given as I. L.
Avet:bakh.
84 MatVei Berman: It was said by employees of the American Embassy ,
in Moscow that the dacha or country house at Tarasovka, north of
Moscow, rented by the Soviet government to the American Am-,
bassador during World War II and the postwar period, had been
built by Berman as his personal country residence.
145 Below Sbmidtikha: This Is no doubt a reference to Academician·
Otto Shmidt, famous Soviet polar explorer and scientist, and Chief
of the Northern/Sea Route from 1932 to 1939.
149 ''barshc:hIna'': "Barshchina" was the Russian equivalent of coryee.
It was the assessment paid the Russian serf owner by his serfs'in the
form of free labor on his lands, often amounting to three days out
of a week. Not all Russians were under the "barshchina" system;
about as many paid their assessment in the- form of "obrok." See
below.
153 "obrok" system: Russian serfs under the "obrok" system paid their
assessment in the form of "obrok"-money and sometimes produce
as well. Frequently the serfs had to work as hired labOrers i; factories
or elsewhere, often at some distance from their native
villages, in order to earn the money.