دانلود کتاب One long night: A tale of truth

MARIA JOFFE. widow of leading Bolshevik Adolf Joffe. and herself prominent with her husband in the Trotskyist opposition to Stalin, survived 29 years in the prison camps of Soviet Russia to tell this story . Here for the first time ever is the only first-hand account published of the reign of Stalin "s most feared and hated prison boss. Kashketin. In a letter to the publishers the author has this to say : ' One Long Night - neither a novel. nor a chronicle. nor a diary. Like any other story. it is bound by scope. time and atmosphere. and most of all by its theme . The theme of this story : The first two years (1937-1938) of the mass terror. Protesting. fighting , the Trotskyists were the first to be martyred - the first victims of the shootings . This theme of barbed wire and convoys I have followed through to the end. About my husband. my son - whom I saw for the last time when he was 13 - and myself I have written only as much as events demand. The characters of both father and son are clearly defined in the few pages I have devoted to them . You can use my few biographical details as a preface to t~e story. With reference to page 208 on the deaths of the main characters. I can confirm that their real names were Andrei Konstannov (party name Kostya) , Carlo Patskashvili, and Zina Kozlova. The story-teller is first of all a living witness . recording what she saw.knew, lived through and thought about at that time. Not a single person or event has been invented. (Let history be my judge.) It can be said that all the characters in this story describe themselves. living out their times in their words and actions . Please note : the reader does not belong to the NKVD. He does not need a file on every person . One of the assistants of the chief persecutor Kashketin was an interrogator by the name of Zaprava. He is mentioned on pages 87. 148. 208 and 216. The names of the warders were never known to us. A common Russian word. chudak meaning an odd person was the nickname given by Cell No 1 to a goodhearted jailer who was unlike the others ... NKVD workers - interrogators Kashketin Zaprava : prison officers Zelenkov Grigoriev - appear in the story under their real names . The names have been kept of all who perished. These words will I think be understood by the reader . To name the living would be dangerous . . .