those who had been overcome by sleep at the beginning of the meeting looked about them with wide-open bewildered and terrified eyes, and clapped harder than the others, trying to wake up as quickly as possible, to drive the last shreds of sleep from their eyelids, and to participate in the life of the meeting. Some comrades had tears in their eyes, and were sniffling loudly, reaching for their handkerchiefs. The aged leader of the solderers’ group awoke too late; rubbing his eyes violently, he cried, “Long live—” Someone added at once, “Long live the Soviet solderers—the builders of the Dneprostroi!” The cry was at once taken up by the entire audience, and for several minutes shouts went up from a hundred throats in honor of the builders of the Dneprostroi, Magnitogorsk, and Komsomolsk; of the Donbas miners; of the Kuban Cossacks; the Ukraine kolkhozniks; the Byelorussian guerrillas; the Soviet scientists; the Sevastopol sailors; the heroic defenders of Stalingrad; the explorers of the Arctic Circle; Lysenko, Michurin, and Olga Lepeshchinskaya; the clamor concluded with hurrahs in honor of Joseph Stalin’s works in the field of linguistics.
After Jablonka’s self-criticism, the atmosphere in the room grew warm and cordial. People smiled at each other, exchanged cigarettes, and made animated and approving comments on Jablonka’s speech. After a moment of confusion, almost unavoidable in such cases, the First Secretary took the floor. He stated in a few words his opinion of Jablonka’s case, and spoke appreciatively of the man’s sincerity andcourage. The next item on the agenda was the case of Comrade Gierwatowski.
But before Gierwatowski, who had risen from his seat, had time to collect his thoughts and speak, someone cried out: “Comrade Nowak has an Airedale terrier called Sambo. I ask you, why Sambo? We must put a stop to this, once and for all.”
Franciszek recognized the voice of the young Blizniaczek.
“That should be in the ad lib motions,” people cried. “The ad lib motions!”
“Why wait?” others cried. “Such things must be settled at once. One day it’s Sambo, and the next day—what? Throwing napalm bombs on Korean children, maybe?”
“More vigilance, comrades!”
“Disgusting!”
“Sambo! Why not Bombo?”
“So that’s where you get your inspiration, Nowak?”
“Put a stop to all this!”
“There was starvation, there was misery, there was capitalism …”
“Hand in your party card!”
“It was people like you that shot women and children in Korea!”
Comrade Nowak stood up and explained in a trembling voice that he had bought the dog after it had been named, and that when he tried to call it Bouquet the dog did not react, and on one occasion even bit Nowak’s mother-in-law on the leg; but he promised that beginning today he would call his dog Red, no matter what happened. After a moment of extraordinary tumult, the meeting was resumed.
“Comrades,” began Gierwatowski, a gray-haired locksmith with a mighty mustache, “I’ll speak briefly, in ourworking-class way. I am a simple man, and I don’t like fancy talk. So I’ll ask plainly: Is it true that peoples come from monkeys?”
The audience was dumbfounded. People stared at one another in consternation. The eyebrows of the district delegate rose to his hairline; the Second Secretary’s face looked more like a rabbit’s than ever. The first to speak was Blizniaczek—he was at the meeting as the delegate of the Young Communist League. “Comrade Zamodzinski collects the labels of bottles,” he said.
“Not now, Comrade Blizniaczek,” several voices interrupted him. “This should come in the ad lib motions. Let Gierwatowski speak. Speak up, Comrade Gierwatowski.”
“Speak up,” the district delegate said.
“Speak up,” Pawlak said.
“Speak up,” Blizniaczek said simultaneously with the Second Secretary.
“Well, I am speaking,” said Gierwatowski. “Is it true that peoples come from
After Jablonka’s self-criticism, the atmosphere in the room grew warm and cordial. People smiled at each other, exchanged cigarettes, and made animated and approving comments on Jablonka’s speech. After a moment of confusion, almost unavoidable in such cases, the First Secretary took the floor. He stated in a few words his opinion of Jablonka’s case, and spoke appreciatively of the man’s sincerity andcourage. The next item on the agenda was the case of Comrade Gierwatowski.
But before Gierwatowski, who had risen from his seat, had time to collect his thoughts and speak, someone cried out: “Comrade Nowak has an Airedale terrier called Sambo. I ask you, why Sambo? We must put a stop to this, once and for all.”
Franciszek recognized the voice of the young Blizniaczek.
“That should be in the ad lib motions,” people cried. “The ad lib motions!”
“Why wait?” others cried. “Such things must be settled at once. One day it’s Sambo, and the next day—what? Throwing napalm bombs on Korean children, maybe?”
“More vigilance, comrades!”
“Disgusting!”
“Sambo! Why not Bombo?”
“So that’s where you get your inspiration, Nowak?”
“Put a stop to all this!”
“There was starvation, there was misery, there was capitalism …”
“Hand in your party card!”
“It was people like you that shot women and children in Korea!”
Comrade Nowak stood up and explained in a trembling voice that he had bought the dog after it had been named, and that when he tried to call it Bouquet the dog did not react, and on one occasion even bit Nowak’s mother-in-law on the leg; but he promised that beginning today he would call his dog Red, no matter what happened. After a moment of extraordinary tumult, the meeting was resumed.
“Comrades,” began Gierwatowski, a gray-haired locksmith with a mighty mustache, “I’ll speak briefly, in ourworking-class way. I am a simple man, and I don’t like fancy talk. So I’ll ask plainly: Is it true that peoples come from monkeys?”
The audience was dumbfounded. People stared at one another in consternation. The eyebrows of the district delegate rose to his hairline; the Second Secretary’s face looked more like a rabbit’s than ever. The first to speak was Blizniaczek—he was at the meeting as the delegate of the Young Communist League. “Comrade Zamodzinski collects the labels of bottles,” he said.
“Not now, Comrade Blizniaczek,” several voices interrupted him. “This should come in the ad lib motions. Let Gierwatowski speak. Speak up, Comrade Gierwatowski.”
“Speak up,” the district delegate said.
“Speak up,” Pawlak said.
“Speak up,” Blizniaczek said simultaneously with the Second Secretary.
“Well, I am speaking,” said Gierwatowski. “Is it true that peoples come from
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