I'm rewriting a novel published in 1989. Meanwhile, do a preview ...
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Chapter I
Two dry and melancholy tolling of the bell municipal Scoccati made him hasten the pace as he walked the streets dark and cold of a suburb: another half hour of walking and would be within the refuge, located in the heart of the city still shaken by the arms. Was felt in the air and the acrid smell of gunpowder death. From endless hours
kept falling snowflakes from the sky obscured by clouds: Ivan Nikon walked with difficulty and around him was a pure white blanket that covered the streets, balconies and roofs of palaces visited by the Revolution, the darkness of that night would have been the undisputed Zarinas if they had not been opposed to the weak yellowish light, emanating from some gas lamps which, apart a little more than fifty paces down the sidewalk right, were placed on top of street lamps in most rusty of their original green paint now preserved solo qualche indelebile traccia.
Ovunque il gelo regnava e investiva con un mordente e prepotente abbraccio ciò che si animava e ciò che era definitivamente morto, mentre il vento portava con sé - fino a farlo spegnere - il fruscio dei rami dei pochi alberi che adornavano la strada: mesi addietro il freddo autunnale aveva divorato le loro foglie. Senza ombra e con le cortecce tagliate dal gelo attendevano il primo sole primaverile. Un sole che tardava a venire.
Non era per nulla piacevole circolare per quelle stradine, ma Ivan si sentiva protetto. Non doveva temere solo per la sua vita ma anche per ciò che portava con sé; avvolto nella sua pesante casacca di lana, l'uomo era impegnato a trascinare una slitta carica di burro e patate. C'era always the danger of hitting a few rounds Bolshevik despite the thermometer was several degrees below zero, but we know that prudence is never enough and that anything can happen, especially what is not acceptable. To this Ivan is often looked around, ready to catch any signal that might indicate the unpleasant presence of armed men. A few weeks ago did not hear the shots as coming from the main square, a sign that the shootings were done or were about to end, although they were still so many cellars, attics and closets of the city that continues to hide bourgeois and aristocratic .
"The walls of the square - it was said Ivan to himself - are now fed up of spilled blood." Instead, it was not. The national revolutionary committee had other problems to be solved urgently and had to return as soon as the suppression of hate and racial minority of men who have squeezed their fellows from the moment when the world was created. While living among the comforts and luxury of the powerful unbridled did not hesitate to squeeze the marrow of the wretched peasants and miners. Ivan tried to delude themselves. He hoped that the evil would never have touched. He could not die he was born to live, or something that could happen would irretrievably taken away all hope. For a moment he stared at the flame of a lamp: a small light in the darkness of night and reassured him. "It can happen to anything wrong," si disse tra sé mentre compiva uno sforzo maggiore nel trascinare la slitta.
Negli ultimi giorni si era allentata la caccia ai nobili rimasti intrappolati in città, che ora pagavano anche per quelli che erano riusciti a riparare all'estero e per quelli che si erano rifugiati nelle zone tenute dall'armata bianca. Il comitato rivoluzionario era conscio del pericolo che i soldati di Kolkàk potessero rientrare in città con le loro insegne, quelle insegne che per secoli avevano rappresentato il dominio dei pochi sui molti.
"Kolkàk ci riuscirà - disse con un filo di voce Ivan tra sé - a restituirci la libertà e quanto è nostro. Le acque del Volga non gli impediranno di arrivare fin qui e questi straccioni si troveranno con il snout against the walls of the square to cry and ask for clemency. "
The chief of the Bolsheviks had run for cover and kept in constant contact with the capital, where he came from news and encouragement. The new government wanted to make peace with Germany and have thus a free hand to organize and direct a faithful animal population with everything she needed to always be efficient to solve the internal problems of the country. The civil war was to end in Russia only to be turned on from nation to nation until all men were truly free. But what is freedom? Another task that the Bolshevik leaders wanted to complete as soon as possible, concerned the education of the people: l'ignoranza culturale andava debellata con un sano indottrinamento e con le nuove idee che la rivoluzione portava con sé. Prima di insegnare a leggere e a scrivere bisognava liberare la mente dei contadini e dei proletari da tutte quelle schiavitù proprie del sistema imperialista.
Quanti discorsi pronunciati dai capi bolscevichi aveva ascoltato Ivan coperto dalla sua casacca, confuso tra la gente accorsa nelle piazze prima di ogni esecuzione capitale! Ma a lui non interessavano quei propositi, ed ora che si ritrovava a camminare tra i vicoli semibui non poteva fare a meno di pensare alla sua prospera fattoria che un pugno di ignoranti e superstiziosi contadini gli avevano tolto: come era possibile, si era chiesto più volte, che lui potesse perdere la sua property because of some beggars who had since left the womb had only learned to serve him with fear and provide for his every need? That farm had not perhaps inherited from his father, who in turn had inherited from his ancestors? Because now the world collapsed, bringing ruin and mourning? "In my life - it was said Ivan - everyone should learn to accept that role. It does not matter if you want to poor it was God or nature or men. If now there are just wars for the conquest of power, it is because the servants of countryside and the urban workers are refusing to do what they are entitled. But this irresponsibility will pay dear and they will answer with their lives. As soon as our bayonets to restore public order, justice will triumph, and the servants will recognize the boyars and nobles as their masters on this earth for all created and ruled by the rich. "Frost continued to bite the face of Ivan, who felt the pain of his hands as he pulled the sled. "Kolkàk will clean our towns and countryside haunted by the Bolsheviks eliminate them, as the Bible suggests that destroy the chaff and the tares: Burning." Even him, restoration has been completed, return to his farm in order to restore his will to there is peace and interests thrive as it should be. "We will return with the court and with the guards." He said to himself, while Ivan shunned a hole. "Ci ritornerò con il giudice". Ripeté ancora, sapendo bene però che bisognava nominare un nuovo magistrato dopo che quello di prima si era ritrovato a penzolare dall'alto di un albero con una fune attorno al collo. Ivan sapeva anche che mentre impiccavano il giudice, un contadino gli aveva gridato che non poteva presiedere il tribunale del villaggio quando proprio lui era il più delle volte chiamato a fare da imputato. "Avremo un nuovo giudice", pensò Ivan che non vedeva l'ora di arrivare nel suo rifugio. "Ma ora basta pensare al futuro - si disse tra sé - e guardiamo piuttosto al presente". Bisognava proprio pensare al presente, che sia per lui che per sua sorella Anastasia, ma anche per la loro cameriera Nina, significava guadagnare money to the new reality. A reality not wanted by them and where they were found as a catapult. Anastasia told him many times that he wanted to return to his world, but now had to adapt to this reality and also draw benefits. There was in fact a way to make money. A lot of money.
Both aristocrats who contemptuously called the Bolsheviks bourgeois, in the rush to move from their sumptuous palaces or luxury apartments in the shelter found the good, he had brought with them the riches they had been able to load on their shoulders. Barricaded themselves in their lairs waiting time of release or escape, and in the meantime, however, their fortunes were swallowed by those who sold food on the black market. Many nobles were tracked down, arrested and dragged through the streets, and if it were not subject to the lynching were ostensibly for weapons, many had not yet been captured by the revolutionary militia, awaited their fate sealed in local confined between wealth and fear, cursing against the unknown that had allowed the Bolsheviks to come to seize power. They needed to get some food, and were ready to get rid of their wealth just to have one of those pieces of bread that, at the time of their glory, they would not even deign to look. Before long, was born in the city a flourishing black market, where everything that was precious could easily be traded for anything che era commestibile. Pochi nobili avevano il coraggio di mettere il piede fuori dal proprio nascondiglio, ma quando i morsi della fame erano troppo violenti, provavano a confondersi con i popolani, recandosi nei luoghi o nelle case di chi poteva vendere. Non mancava chi per istrada veniva riconosciuto, e sul selciato spesso lasciava il proprio sangue misto a qualche gioiello o ad un tozzo di pane. Chi poteva mandava, in giro il proprio servo, mentre i più facoltosi ricevevano nei loro rifugi i mercanti della borsa nera.
In poco tempo Anastasia si organizzò per praticare questo commercio mandando Ivan nelle estese campagne che circondavano la città, a procurarsi dai contadini generi alimentari come patate e burro, mentre lei e Nina provvedevano a smerciarli. Ivan si era abituato ben presto a questo lavoro anche se non gli andava di correre dei pericoli: vestito come un mandriano si accorse di essere una persona prudente e di saper trattare anche con i contadini più avidi del circondario. All'inizio Anastasia ed Ivan dovettero superare mille ostacoli, ma poi iniziò a filare tutto per il verso migliore. Grazie ad alcune amicizie che Anastasia era riuscita a coltivarsi nel suo salotto prima della Rivoluzione, poteva ora contare sull'aiuto di alcuni giovani intellettuali che ora militavano nella milizia bolscevica o rossa, e che le permettevano di praticare i suoi lucrosi affari. "Fino a qualche anno fa non avrei scommesso una rapa sul loro futuro", amava dire spesso Anastasia quando si riferiva a quei giovanotti che ora, armed to the teeth, they appropriated military ranks are convinced that their moment had come for gold. The support and coverage that they had a price guaranteed to Anastasia, and footing the bill were the purchasers.
Some members of the revolutionary committee knew very well the refuge of many aristocrats, but did not intervene. For the new rulers agreed to protect the nobles of the city because if one day, as they feared, the revolution had failed, would have been useful then the support of those who persecuted and were now illegal. In addition, to capture the poor wretches meant not being able to suck more wealth which would otherwise be lost into the coffers of the people. At
Ivan showed himself intolerant and fearful for these close relations with the Bolsheviks, but soon the words and the facts made by Anastasia convinced him. She, after all, did nothing but repeat: "What we take it with your left hand with his right hand during this step and something has to fall on our laps." Something substantial, that comforted when Ivan in the early hours of the morning had decided to leave the shelter to go to the countryside. Soon, the refuge began to fill with everything you could want: expensive clothes were carefully placed on a shelf against the wall of one of the two rooms of hiding, some gold and silver candelabras were kept in un barile consumato dal tempo e sistemato proprio vicino all'ingresso, mentre diverse tele di celebri pittori erano avvolte con cura e nascoste nei cassettoni di un armadio zeppo di piccoli oggetti d'oro. Non mancava qualche collana di pietre preziose. Il denaro era raccolto in tanti mazzetti con dei piccoli nastrini color azzurro e verde, che Anastasia scioglieva e legava ogni giorno quando puntualmente le veniva il desiderio di sognare e contare la propria fortuna: non l'abbandonava mai la speranza di andare a vivere in un luogo dove ogni capriccio sarebbe stato appagato nel modo più semplice possibile. Anastasia non si faceva scrupoli e in quei duri mesi di latitanza non faceva altro che ripetere ad Ivan e all'amica Nina che quei tempi dovevano essere accettati, that should be adapted to derive all the possible benefits until they had been restored to normal with the return of the Tsar on the throne. "When the Kremlin again flown our flag we still have several days to enjoy this good fortune," Anastasia said, pointing to Ivan, and more money were able to earn. "Our world, the dancing, our wealth, can not dissolve because it decided the Bolsheviks. Who are these communists? - Asked enraged Anastasia - From where, if not from scratch, because it has no value what comes from the most abject poverty, the shacks where people and pigs live together since they were born. The Revolution is only a moment of our lives. It 's a proof that we face, but soon will ... and once we left that behind us we will be stronger, our staff will be more tempered and we can return our property to enjoy what belongs to us, what has been handed down and that we must pass on to those who have the same blood. "
Ivan and Anastasia Nina listened with pleasure: they felt a sense of security and consoled themselves with the thought that their sentences were voted to finish. It did not matter if they came to know something about the royal family and the imperative and their existence is intended to be consumed in the Ekaterinburg cellar: some of Anastasia avrebbe trovato le parole per incoraggiarli anche in un momento così difficile.
Ancora pochi minuti ed Ivan sarebbe arrivato al suo rifugio: vi avrebbe trovato Anastasia, un piatto caldo e il denaro frutto dei lucrosi traffici della giornata. Il gelo continuava a tormentargli il viso ed a rassicurarlo: si sentiva protetto perché pensava che i suoi nemici non avrebbero sopportato il freddo. "Mentre loro se ne stanno in qualche cantina ad ubriacarsi - pensò Ivan - io posso andare in giro per la città". Il suo nascondiglio era a poche decine di metri: il tempo di svoltare nel primo vicolo a destra. Il suo vicolo era eternamente al buio, data l'altezza dei palazzi che distavano tra loro poco più di due metri. Aveva molta fame, cosa comprensibile per un uomo che solo nel primo pomeriggio si era nutrito con un tozzo di pane, della carne secca ed un uovo sodo. Il freddo continuava a non dargli tregua, e nonostante si fosse abbottonato per bene il bavero, percepiva dei brividi lungo la schiena come se il vento potesse scorrere liberamente lungo la sua pelle. "Il freddo è un mio alleato", si ripeté Ivan.
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