Infuriated, Kirilovsky dragged Popoff from the sofa and flung him away so violently that his head went through the door. Popoff, however, managed to give him a blow in the face, smashing his glasses. Shots were fired. Popoff was dragged out of Kirilovsky's quarters and taken home, where he broke all the windows with his fists and, shedding bitter tears, began to bellow so that all the camp could hear him:
"They've killed me! They've killed me!"
It would appear that such a manner of life is ideal Communism, for in November, 1924, at the time of the anniversary of the October Revolution, the Natchuslon received a letter of thanks from the Moscow Gpu, in which the latter expressed its gratitude to Nogteff and his colleagues for "holding the banner of Communism aloft."
In the time which their alcoholic occupations leave at their disposal, the "administrators" of the Solovetsky Islands amuse themselves by amnestying prisoners of the shpana category. Every day, after navigation has begun, some five hundred prisoners are released.
The procedure is as follows. The ordinary criminals, male and female, are stripped of their last rags ("State clothing"), are given railway tickets to the towns where they live, and a supply of bread in accordance with the length of their journey. Then they are put into freight trucks stark naked, and sent off to Kem station! Naturally half the shpana rob somebody to get clothes directly they arrive at Kem station, and return to the camp to undergo an extra year's imprisonment. The rest go away naked.
None of the "K.R.'s" are ever liberated. From time to time it is rumoured that the politicals are to be released or transferred to a prison on the mainland of Russia. These rumours usually remain rumours; if politicals leave the Solovky it is only for another place of exile.
PART III
OUR ESCAPE
CHAPTER I
THE ONLY WAY OUT
Bolshevist Hypocrisy — Prisoners for Life — The Student Nikolaeff's Escape — Failure of other Attempts.
The foreign workmen who come to Moscow in batches are given to understand by the Soviet Government that it, of course, is against the Solovky; it is willing to admit that the Solovky are a discredit to the "humane" rule of the workers and peasants. But, it asks, what is to be done? —— the counter-revolutionaries continue their struggle with the Soviet power, and so the Gpu insists on the maintenance of the concentration camps. The Gpu, for its part, puts the blame on the Council of People's Commissaries.