Возвращаясь на круги своя
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"At the beginning this Peresman (or Perelman, or whatever his name was) did everything by himself - put electrical poles, laid wires, even walked around the town to collect money for electricity (there were no electrical counters then and he collected money depending on how many bulbs each customer had - very crude way to collect money), did repair and other stuff but when he got rich he hired Dovid der Shloser to do the dirty work for him. In other words - Dovid was the blue color worker, sympathetic to our cause..."
"What had happened to him later? To whom - to Dovid der Shloser? No? Peresman? I thought you are interesting in Kohanskis."
"Oh, I see, just for curiosity? Well, if you are so curious...We (I mean - NKVD, which is how then the KGB was called) arrested him. I believe it happened in 1940, in autumn, to be more precise, right after dictator Smetona was removed from the power and Lithuania became democratic country and joined Soviet Union. Most likely, he was sent later to Siberia, to the labor camp. That is where all criminals eventually ended. Together with his family, of cause."
"What for? For the felony, young man, for the felony."
"Oh, I see. Well, I am sure you have heard the lies of the capitalist propaganda that communists were arresting people just because they were rich. This is not true: for example, this Perelman was arrested not because he was rich but for the crime he actually committed. He tried to destroy his own generator when we confiscated it. You see he was a scoundrel - this Perelman; he used the generator to make money by servicing only rich people at a very high price. He was looking only for the profit. But everybody needs electricity - does not? Even poor people do - those who could not afford his prices. Right? So, we nationalized the generator, paid him some money to compensate for the losses and that could be the end of the story. But the crook got upset and tried to destroy the generator. It was a criminal offense, called sabotage: destruction of the government property. He was punished according to the law."
"Why his entire family? That was the law then too."
"You think - it was draconian and irrational law? There is nothing irrational in life, young man. Everything has the reason. The law was made to avoid vendetta, to exterminate an "eye for eye" culture: it was made to prevent what you might call "cycle of violence". If a relative or a friend of the convicted criminal would be left alone, he or she could take revenge on authorities and then somebody else could take revenge on this person as well. And so on. But if you remove the entire family then peace comes to everybody, even to those who were sent to Siberia. Perhaps the law was not fair for everybody but braking the "cycle of violence" never is - correct? Or do you think that continuing of violence could be a better solution?"
"Me? I would accept my fate without any regret or hard feelings and I am telling you the truth. Many of my friends, young man, were unjustly persecuted by the Soviet authorities; their loved ones perished in the hands of KGB. Never the less, despite of the personal tragedies, most of them remained devoted communists and actively supported communist party all the time, even when they themselves had been unjustly persecuted. More than that. Few members of the KGB were involved in prosecution of their own families and friends but they still continued to work for that organization. Why? Well, because the true communists always believe in a higher predestination than to respond to the despicable actions of individual villain or fool, who, by pure accident, one time or another was able to obtain power and commit acts of injustice. Individuals could be wrong and evil, young man, but the communist idea which promotes equality and social justice for all - cannot."
"Oh, yes, I am sorry; I deviated too much from our original conversation. It is your fault, young man - you are asking too many questions. And my too - I like to answer them. So, returning back to Kohanskis. I just wanted to tell you how different two brothers were. One of them, Dovid der Shloser, was, (and I think I mentioned to you this already) (did I?), a "blue color" worker, he had large family and, if I"m not mistaken, rented from the older brother apartment in his own house. When we, communists, gained power in 1940 and asked for volunteers to run local affairs he offered himself to be a deputy chief of police. He learned this new trade pretty fast and did a good job by catching thieves, burglars and bandits - those who wanted restoration of the old dictatorial regime, although he did not join our party... "
"Were all communists Jewish? Why did you ask that? Of course, not. There were non-Jewish communists also. My late husband Yurgis, for example, was not Jewish. (I am Jewish in case if you are curious. No, not in religious sense, that is for sure, but just Jewish). Jurgis, though, was from the devoted and very strict catholic family (he himself later became an atheist). It might be difficult for you to understand... We were internationalists (if you know what it means); we did not differentiate people by the color of their skin or by their religion or by their culture. We differentiated people only on the account of oppressors and oppressed - those who were rich and those who were poor. And we always were on the side of the oppressed poor people."
"Yes, you are correct in that respect - indeed majority of communists were Jews. Why? I don"t know - why. Maybe because Jews were more educated. Or maybe because they were more oppressed than others. In Smetona"s time Jews in Lithuania were second-class citizens - they were discriminated and constantly abused by the authorities. Officially Jews had the same rights as native Lithuanians did but unofficially they were barred from many important positions and fields, like from taking top administrative posts in the government or military or police. Jews wanted to change such unfairness; they wanted to be equal as all other citizens in their country. That was probably the main reason. I guess. Besides, young man, communists were fighting for the rights of all people, not only for the Jews. They wanted to give freedom and equality to everybody. You might be mixing something up... These were Zionists who fought exclusively for the Jews. We, Lithuanian communists, Jews and non-Jews, both, on a contrary, did not accept such backward and racist ideology and fought Zionists the same way we fought all other nationalists, including those Lithuanian fascists who are now gained power in this country."
"Oh - the other brother? The other brother was Moishe-Boruh. He was a completely different apple. During time of Smetona regime he became a merchant. He operated the wholesale business, buying flax and wheat from peasants and then reselling those items. He was famous in our town for his enormous cupidity - he was afraid to lose even a penny. During market days, when farmers were bringing produce into the town, he was waiting them on Gymnasium Street, stopping their carriages and inspecting. If he would see the flax he would ask a farmer to pull his carriage over to the Moteyaus Pozela"s yard and then he examined its content even more carefully, from the close distance: he would take bundle of flax and scrutinize it from the different sides and angles, strike it and sometimes even lick. As soon as he would make his mind he would start bargaining. The process usually would take very long time, with a lot of screams and scolds from both sides, until both of them, Moishe -Boruch and a farmer, got sick and tired of each other. Sometimes a farmer could leave the yard even without selling anything and then Moishe-Boruh would run after him offering a lower price. He was such a character. When we were kids we often followed him - it was a lot of fun for us to watch how he quarrels with farmers. Is he the one who you are looking for? "
"Possible? Well, I could feel nothing but sorry for you if he was your distant relative. But what can we do - right? We don"t choose relatives. Besides, they all, good and bad, right and wrong, old and young, communists, capitalists, liberals and conservatives - all, without exception, were murdered by the criminals, who are now glorified in Lithuania as national heroes. Let their souls rest in peace."
"Yes, young man, that is true. Lithuanian partisans murdered all the members of my family, except me. Not Germans, not Nazis but Lithuanian fascists. The same thing happened to the Kohanskis family and almost every other Jewish family in our town."