Short summary to memoirs by Grigory Grigorov “The turns of destiny and tyranny”

Grigorov is the conspiracy nickname given to the author in 1916 when, as a member of the revolutionary underground in Ukraine, he began to fulfill his duties. Later it became his family name while his name by birth was Monastyrsky. He was born in 1900 in a large Jewish working family. One of the strongest child impressions of five years old Gershele Monastyrsky was a Jewish pogrom witnessed him in the town of Alexandrovsk on the Dniepr River. The Memoirs begin with the description of this event.

Gershele had to begin to work when he was eleven but he always wished to study very much. At sixteen, during one year and keeping working in a factory, he passed examinations for a full course of a high school classical education. From his very young years he had reacted very strongly on any suppression of his dignity, dreamed about freedom and democracy in ideal fair society and fought for these ideals. At the age of fifteen Gershele became a participant of stormy events preceding February Revolution. He believed that the  monarchy was the reason of all the troubles. Grigory Grigorov was a political instructor in the Red Army division during the Civil War and believed that the war itself was a continuation of the struggle against czarism. By the end of 1920 he found himself in Moscow and made efforts for demobilization. He entered Moscow University and, later, the Institute of Red Professorship. Since 1923 Grigory had suffered from persecutions. In his memoirs he gives the following very original summing up:

1923-1927 – Party-administrative  exiles directed by party central committee without passing legal sentences took place. These years passed not in a jail or concentration camp but under watchful supervision of the GPA spies.

1928-1952 – Several times he was sentenced to imprisonment, for 29 years in total. He was accused in counterrevolutionary activities and Trotskyism. The last term Grigory Grigorov received when he was in a concentration camp in 1952: 10 years of imprisonment in concentration camps and 1 year in concentration camp jail. The accusation was “anti-Soviet agitation and Zionism”. He had not served two terms completely and spent twenty and a half years in imprisonment. He was twice released before time. In 1955 he was released from a concentration camp 8 years ahead of time.

1940 , 1941 and 1955-1965 years.  The life under supervision of MIA/CGB without a right to be occupied with activity related to ideological problems, 11.5 years in total.

Assume that physically and mentally healthy person can work successfully from 16 till 75. Five years of Grigory’s Grigorov life was work in the underground and service in the Red army during the civil war. Therefore, he could devote to his favorite job only 17.5 years, from which 10 years were in the age of 65 to 75. This is a tragedy for any, and especially for a creative person. And in spite of that, Grigory Grigorov did a lot.

In 1921 - 1925 he wrote several big works, including "The Freedom and Necessity in the Philosophical System of Spinosa" and a monograph "Spinosa". After these publications he received a rank of Professor of Philosophy. In 1926 he published the book "Old and New Mode of Life" with a preface by A.V. Lunacharsky. In 1930-1924 he wrote several biff papers:

"Hegel’ism of Belinsky", "Feierbach’ism of Dobrolubov", "What Plechanov We Need"   . During this period, G. Grigorov taught philosophy at the universities of Leningrad. He also ran a seminar on esthetics for composers and playwrights in. In December 1934 G. Grigorov and his wife were arrested. From that moment, his creative activities had stopped for many years.

The most part of those who struggled against the   monarchy were repressed when Stalin came into power. Many of them were executed . A few survived and lived until the death of the Kremlin maniac. Compared to cruel Stalin regime, the monarchy in Russia could be considered as liberal. By the middle of the fifties, there remained very little of those who struggled against monarchy, fought in the Red Army during the Civil war, went through all the circles of the Stalin’s hell and were released without being mentally and physically subdued. G.Grigorov was one of a few. His activity after release from the last concentration camp in 1955 brightly characterizes him. He began to teach geography in the secondary school. During one year, he passed all the exams for 5-year course of Geographic Faculty and graduated with honor as a teacher of geography. Soon he started to work on the monograph "Causality and Relationships in Geography", where he could synthesize his knowledge on philosophy and geography. In that work, he showed the necessity of evolutionary transition from traditional descriptive geography to geography as a science, based on the studies of the causal-consequential relationships of the environmental phenomena. In 1965, after the rehabilitation, G. Grigorov began to write memoirs. First time he felt necessity of telling the truth about enormous cruelty of the Stalin’s regime in the beginning of 1938, in the Kochmes concentration camp. It was then that he heard about mass executions of Brickworks prisoners near Vorkuta. Many of his friends, romantics and idealists, were shot then. He wrote about them in his memoirs. But during his work, the author came to conclusion that he must give wider description of events happened in Russia/USSR in the 20^th century. This induced G. Grigorov to begin the memoirs with 1905, when he was a witness of a Jewish pogrom.

The life of the author, as well as the whole country, went through the periods of suffering often turning into destructive cataclysms. Some of them could be listed here. The wave of brutal Jewish pogroms with numerous victims. Riots in the army and the navy. Peasant uprisings. Shooting of a peaceful demonstration near Winter Palace – Bloody Sunday. Russian-Japanese war and the revolution of 1905. Beilis affair. The rapid growth of revolutionary moods, the 1-St world war, and the February revolution of 1917. Coup in October 1917 and the seizure of power by Bolsheviks. Revolutionary tribunals, when all the legal regulations were substituted by the "revolutionary necessary ". The Civil War, hunger, and destruction. The period of War Communism with the surplus-appropriation system. The struggle with dissidents and the defeat of all kinds of oppositions. The creation of a large network of informers, spies, and false witnesses that entangled all the groups of society. Suppression of “contra-revolution”: struggle against Trotsky and his numerous supporters with the following deportation of Trotsky from the country. Extremely cruel dictatorship of Stalin. "Total collectivization" and "liquidation of kulak elements" as a class, which destroyed peasant farms and the way of life formed during centuries. As e result, severe hunger, which took away millions of lives. The mass terror accepted character of genocide of people unprecedented in the history of mankind. The mutual sympathy for each other of two maniac leaders, Stalin and Hitler, who planned division of the world. The World War II, and the turning of USSR into the center of “export of revolution" and the following international terror. The spread of communism ideas to the countries of Eastern Europe and the countries of the Third World. Stalin became the successor of Hitler in the "final decision of the Jewish problem". The state anti-Semitism, the cruel execution of the Jewish anti-fascist committee, and "the Doctors' Affair". Accused of Zionism Jews arrive to concentration camps. Preparation for the mass transportation of Jews to the Far East. Millions of slaves in concentration camps, millions of broken families and fates.

When browsing the large volume of the memoirs, it is possible to select some themes, thoughts, and descriptions of events and meetings with the strong personalities that are of most interest. It might seem that sometimes G.Grigorov was the only who told of some events, people, and collisions. Here are the brief contents of the memoirs:

1.The parents, brothers and sisters of Gershele Monastyrsky. All members of the family worked from young years. Everyone loved music, songs and theater. Kindness, mutual respect, and aid to each other always reigned in the house in spite of scares means and disturbances in the society. Respect to labor and books were cultivated. The parents were independent in their judgments and had an acute sense of self-respect. The mother was a fatalist and often told:" You can't escape from your fate". Gershele remembered these words and they helped him to bear most difficult times. The father was a wise man and possessed a rather rare quality: a well-developed intuition. He did not approve the enthusiasm of his children involved into politics, and when he found out about Gershele's sympathies to social democrats, he told: "Revolutionaries are good until they get power. After taking a power, they will first of all kill each other".

2. The social atmosphere during several years before February revolution. Many wished to overthrow the monarchy. Very few people, including well-educated ones, understood what actual results of a revolution in Russia could be. Still there were some (they are mentioned in the memoirs) who predicted disastrous development of the events with enormous number of unjustified victims, when the best part of the society would perish. In Ekaterinoslav, Gershele meets Avraam Shlensky ( a future well-known poet of Israel), Matus Kanin, and Esaul Shteingaus, all intelligent, well-educated, progressive-minded young people, who had a big influence on him. Remarkable effect on political self-education of the author was made by D.P.Likhachev, a caster-worker, who participated in the Revolution of 1905, and who entirely diverged with revolutionary ideas. He was the first who sowed the seeds of doubts about the necessity of revolution in Russia, a backward, mainly peasant country, in Gershele's mind.

3. Troubled times after the February Revolution. Endless demonstrations and meetings where socialist-revolutionaries, Mensheviks, Bolsheviks, anarchists, and monarchists had spoken. Sometimes, voices of violent anti-Semites were heard. The following period of dual power: Provisional Government and Soviets. Provisional Government hesitated, continued the war, and did nothing to transfer the land to peasants. Bolsheviks, who initially were not widely supported by people, declared: " Stop the war! " .The land to peasants, plants and factories to workers", "All the power to people". These slogans remarkably influenced on the vast masses, especially on soldiers, who mostly wanted to return to their villages.

- The army of Makhno captures Ekaterinoslav with a swift attack, all the prisoners are relieved from jails. Grigory, aged 19, went out with gray temples. Reminiscences about the life in Makhno Army.

Makhno and the chairman of Revolutionary War Council of his army anarchist Volin (aJew) spoke at the meeting. A brilliant, well-reasoned speech of Volin is given in the memoirs in detail. The author acknowledged that Volin laid a bomb of delayed action under his ideas of dictatorship of the proletariat. It turned out, that anarchists, who rejected the limitation of liberty of personality by the state, were very close to G.Grigorov by their spirit and program.

5. Pavlograd. The tragedy of "the weeks of the poor", when "surplus" was taken from the population to help the poor and the army. The trial by revolutionary tribunal over Korolev, the former member of underground, who spent 3 years in the tsarist jail, was a participant of October revolution and Civil war, a terrible trial, when the laws and legal rules were substituted by sinister "revolutionary expediency". The authors says, that there opened the real face of dictatorship of the proletariat, that had been hidden before behind the facade of romantic notions of revolution.

6. Students of workers' faculty and students of Moscow university Polina Lavler, Volodia Yatsik, Pasha Kunina, who became friends of G.Grigorov. "A case" of professor Karuzin, which caused a group of students, including the author, to meet Lenin in the Kremlin. G.Grigorov saw Lenin close and considered, that all his portraits were far from the original.

7. Studies at Moscow University and Institute of Red Professorship(IRP). The period of intensive scientific work. Earlier knowing of the surrounding world by G.Grigorov was mainly by accumulation in the memory of facts, events, impressions, statements of different people and what he had read in books. Now he began to work at systematize and summarize the accumulated material. The professors A.Bogdanov, A.K. Timiryazev, L.Akselrod, L.Borovoy, M.Pokrovsky, P.Sakulin were brilliant, very interesting personalities, who kept the traditions of free scientific and philosophic ideas and rejected dogmatism. All the named professors often invited students to their home, where it was possible to speak sincerely on any theme. These conversations ment more, that lectures to students. At IRP G.Grigorov was a constant student in two seminars: philosophical, which was led by L.I.Akselrod, and on political economy by I.Rubin. There he also made acquaintance of Olga Tankhilevitch, a very talented student, who intensively studied mathematical logic. Many pages in memoirs were devoted to this woman and her very hard fate. Here I mention her prophetic words:" Stalin, with his inferiority complex, very unhealthy self-esteem and maniacal revengefulness, will never forget, that Jews often stood on his way to power. G.Grigorov writes of "Bukharin school". The students of his group, whose tutor was Bukharin, fulfilled the task of ideological overseers, and according to instruction of the General Committee of the party prepared "a scientific base" for the coming rewriting of the history of revolutionary movement in Russia. "Bukharin school" was also notable for the displeasure of several its members with a large number of Jews -

Professors. So the other students called them "The Union of the Russian people".

8. The trial over Socialists-revolutionaries. The Bolsheviks tried the people, who devoted many years to struggle against tzarism, absence of civil rights, Black Hundreds for the sake of future new, free and democratic society.

9. The theatre in the life of G.Grigorov. He thought the theatre was the second university, which disclosed before him endless variety of collisions and human characters.

10. Oppositions in RCP/b/: a workers' opposition and that of democratic centralists. The appeal of V.I.Lenin to "common will" was the course to dictatorship of party oligarchy, headed by the leaders. The most progressive, politically literate part of workers opposed to Central Committee of the party that supposedly expressed the interests of workers.

11. The funeral of V.I.Lenin . Aggravation of struggle for power. Politburo of the Central Committee of RCB/b/ against L.D.Trotsky.

12. In 1924 Jury Lutovinov, hereditary worker, professional revolutionary, who was a friend of Lenin, committed suicide. In 1920 he was appointed the first secretary of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, and already in 1921 dismissed for belonging to workers' opposition. G.Grigorov was well aquatinted with Lutovinov, they often met in the second House of Soviets, where Lutovinov visited his former Wife Kate and daughter Nadia. During one of the meetings Lutovinov said:"The power in the party now is in the hands of desperate scoundrels." He knew well those, of whom he told this.

13. On many pages , scattered in several parts of memoirs, the author writes of outstanding, very talented personalities, who committed suicide in Soviet time: the poets Sergey Yesenin and Vladimir Mayakovsky, whom the author met in the first half of 20-s in Moscow in public debates in Polytechnical museum. These also were the author's friends Matus Kanin and Olga Tankhilevitch. The author notes, that the will to life is installed in man from the moment of his birth. When he consciously parts with his life, this means, that his intellect overcame the will to life and fear of death. The mentioned suicides realized, that they would never realize their creative forces under Bolshevist regime.

14. The period of 1923-1927 years. G.Grigorov was sent under directions of Central Committee of RCP/b/ - All-Union Communist party (Bolsheviks) to administrative-party exile for re-education three times: to Ivanovo-Voznesensk, Siberia and Kungur. In Ivanovo-Voznesensk he plunged into working surroundings and became well acquainted with local party and State employees. He was stricken by contrasts: on one side - hard conditions of labor and life of workers, half-starving life, the utmost lack of rights (much worse, than it was before February revolution), on the other side - a new social section , "nomenclature" with separate dining-rooms, stores, rations and other privileges, self-satisfied rudeness, drinking, depravity, the lowest cultural and moral level of new local "feudal lords", who rose from social bottom.

In Siberia G.Grigorov worked first in Tomsk, there he conducted a long public dispute with metropolitan Alexander Vvedensky. Then he was sent to Novosibirsk, where he worked in the newspaper " Soviet Siberia", he made a lot of journeys, met with people. Several times he met and spoke with a group of American workers that came to USSR to help in the construction of industrial enterprises. The Americans were not surprised with both low welfare standards of the Soviet workers and their hard conditions of life, they were surprised with utmost depravity of the workers.

In Kungur G.Grigorov was expelled from the party by the Control Committee of the party. In his memoirs he described vividly the whole procedure of the exclusion and a most effective and coordinated functioning of several Soviet institutions: party bodies, labor exchange and the Head Political Administration. On the next day after the exclusion of G.Grigorov from the party he was dismissed from his work and searched by the officers of Head Political Administration.

15. L.D.Trotsky. In a separate big chapter g.Grigorov sums up his meetings and conversations with L.D.Trotsky, gives his estimation of this outstanding, contradictory person. A lot was written about Trotsky. But it should be mentioned, that Soviet "historians" rewrote history of revolutionary movement and Civil war in Russia according to instructions of Central Committee of the ruling party. Such mountains of life are piled up, especially about Trotsky, that it is very difficult to arrive at the truth. In this connection, the evidence of the person, who knew Trotsky and spoke with him, is valuable. Moreover, G.Grigorov considers such aspects of Trotsky's personality that hardly ever were considered. In particular:

- the roots of most erroneous conception of socially political reconstruction of the word, based on the social revolution in Russia, a backward, mainly peasant country and permanent word revolution.

- the causes of strange behavior of Trotsky after Lenin's death: passivity, indecision, discrepancy of opinions, which was not at all peculiar of Trotsky. It seemed he had not the former inner conviction of rightness of what he did and spoke, his deeply hidden breakdown was evident.

G.Grigorov met Trotsky several times in different circumstances in the fronts of Civil war, in meetings and lectures, in the hospital of Revolutionary War Council of the republic, in private apartments. Twice he spoke with Trotsky privately, these conversations are given in the form of dialog. The last conversation took place several days before Trotsky's arrest and his exile to Alma-Ata. The author of the memoirs knew well Trotsky's first wife A.L.Bronshtein and his close friend V.M.Smirnov, ideologist of "democratic centralists" oppositions. Their estimations of Trotsky's personality, his position and behavior are also given.

G.Grigorov considers Trotsky one one of the most outstanding figures in politics of XX -Th century, a very talented person, strong-willed, firm, purposeful, outstanding speaker and organizer, but somehow limited and above all - devoid of intuitive thinking - a natural, rather rare quality. In additional, G.Grigorov as a philosopher, admits, that Trotsky underestimated the necessity of philosophic comprehension of any big political idea, without which very serious mistakes are inevitable

16. The year 1928. Journeys over the country with the aim to convince Trotsky's supporters to dismiss fractions and groups, but someway to remain in the party. G.Grigorov did not like these journeys, but he could not deny E.Preobrazhensky and I.N. Smirnov, who asked him to do it. In these journeys the author of the memoirs learned many interesting things. Here there are several opinions of those , with whom he met.

Baku. An old oil industry worker Vartasar:"Son, all our family struggled with tzar and Nobels, with Mussavatists and Dashnacks… However, these , of to-day, are more terrible." Akhudnov, then already a former chairman of Council of People's Commissar of Azerbaijan SSR:" We are on the eve of catastrophic events, from Avlabarian Kinto you may expect anything." "Avlabarian Kinto" - so Stalin was called by those , who knew about his connections with bandits from Avlabar, suburb of Tiflis.

Tiflis. Many meetings, the most prominent was the meeting with Lado Dumbadze , then already former chairman of Council of People's Commissar of Georgia. He showed an official document , testifying to Iosiff Dzugiashvily's work (nickname "Koba") for tzarist Okhranka.

Bryansk. An old worker: We ought to struggle further, but we are all tired of the struggle… We threw off tzar, Kerensky, drove away Denikin, Vrangel, Germans and Englishmen… We have no more powers, no more belief.

Vladicaucasus. Ingoushes about Stalin: " A former agent of tzarist Okhranka, jackal and cunning fox."

17. Arrest. Loubyanka, the investigation is hold by Yakov Agranov, one of Yagoda's deputies. Butyrka jail, three Jews in one chamber: a philosopher, a tailor and a commander of cavalry brigade. A riot in prison. A hunger-strike in defense of an imprisoned woman with a baby. A meeting with wife.

18. Transport to Siberian exile. A hostess of a transport house of Prokovsky village tells of Grigory Raspoutin. Tobolsk, a colony of exiled people. Demonstration of the exiled near Tobolsk jail gates.

19. Siberian village Suerskoye. "Complete collectivization" and "dispossession of kulaks", led under the guidance of Tumen Prosecuter. Destruction of peasant farm bases and peasant life structure. The peasants do not want to go to kolhoz, slaughter animals, the life in the village comes to a standstill. V.M.Smirnov and his wife V.A. Rozhdestvensky. Discussion with V.M.Smirnov - "Marat of Russian revolution". G.Grigorov and V.M.Smirnov speak in defense of peasants. Dismission from exile. Unforgettable parting with peasants.

20. Leningrad, meeting with family. Professor of philosophy at post-graduate institute VASHNIL. Meeting with N.I. Vavilov and team-work with him. The beginning of persecution of Vavilov, a scientist , well-known in the world.

21. Alexandra Bronshtein (the first wife of Trotsky) and Ada Voitolovsky, friends of G.Grigorov and his wife. A lot is written in the memoirs about these women. The author acknowledges, that it was difficult to write about them, he thought, that there were no words to describe their images. Their fates were different. A.Bronshtein was arrested in December 1934, at the same night, when G.Grigorov and his wife were arrested. In the corridor of the house of imprisonment pending trial they saw each other from the distance. After that they did not meet. The fate of A.Bronshtein is not known, G.Grigorov supposed, that she was killed, as everyone , who was close to Tobolsk. A.Voitolovsky was exiled from Leningrad after the arrest of her husband, then she was arrested in 1936. She spent in imprisonment many years, went through all the circles of Stalin hell, was set free ill, but not broken mentally. I, who wrote this summary, could meet A.Voitolovsky in Kiev at the end of 60-s, when she came to see my parents. A saw a beautiful, thin woman with spiritual face, a charming smile and large, vivid, brilliant black eyes. She spoke of her work at her memoirs. Later I read one of her books "Upon the tracks of my generation's fate". This is a dramatic story of Stalin's jails and concentration camps, of tragic fate of Ada Voitalovsky's and my father's generation.

22. Philosophic seminar at the Union of Leningrad composers and playwrights, the main theme - aesthetics.

23. The murder of S.M. Kirov. Mass arrests in Leningrad. Arrest of G.Grigorov and his wige, Dina Belotserkovsky. The house of imprisonment pending trial. Investigation, fight in the interrogator's room, after that punishment cell and solitary punishment chambers. Sentence: to Grigorov - 5 years of concentration camps, to his wife - 3 years.

In the opinion of the author of the memoirs, undisguised genocide of the USSR people began with "liquidation of kulaks as a class" and "mass collectivization". After S.M. Kirov's murder genocide became global and epigraph to one of the chapters, that expresses very precisely , what was going on:

" So, the king dared to do

what no sovereign should not dare to do, -

undermine the power of his people,

his spirit , his self-respect,

to humiliate it, to destroy it -

to rule it more easily."

                                        / I.Geothe, tragedy "Egmont"/

24. G.Grigorov and his wife entered the first circle of Stalin hell. Transport to the North, escorts cry constantly: " A step to the right, a step to the left - we'll shoot without warning". G.Grigorov's wife - the hero of the special transport's riot in Ukhta deportation, her angry shout to the head of transport, who threatened with his arms:" Shoot, fasxist scum!" - decided the outcome of the riot. Concentration camps in the north of European part of the USSR. Some time G.Grigorov worked together with scientist - chemist G.A. Razuvaev, the future academician , who was frightened for life, in which fact G.Grigorov could come sure, when they met at large in many years.

25. Concentration camp Kochmes. Transported from Vorkuta Pasha Kunin tells of mass hunger-strike of the prisoners , who protested against rise of the cruelty of the regime. Soon Pasha again is sent to Vorkuta , her farewell words:"Grisha, we see each other for the last time, I fell, this is the end." Very soon in the barracks the lists of the shot in Vorkuta were read aloud. Then Pasha Kunin and many of G.Grigorov's friends were shot. He writes, that all his life this fact was breaking his heart. At the beginning of 1939 G.Grigorov's wife was set free, and at the end of the same year he was set free.

26. A year and a half with family. Grigorov teaches geography at secondary school, in 1941 he is called up for military service, he is sent to Karelia.

27. Finnish captivity. Military captive Jew G.Grigorov in the country, that was in the military alliance with fascist Germany. Liberalism and goodwill of Finns. Paradox - just in the Finnish captivity G.Grigorov realized, what is a democratic state, the ideal, for the sake of which many thousands gave their lives.

28. The Red Army enters Petrozavodsk. G.Grigorov in security service SMERSH. Olonetsk jail, investigation , the hardest preliminary incrimination on the clause 58, points 1,3,10. Casemate in Belomorsk. The charge in high treason is repealed and the case is transferred to Special Deliberation. G.Grigorov refuses to sign the investigation report. Kem jail. The decision of Special Deliberation - 10 years of concentration camps.

29. Krasnoyarsk deportation point. Mortal combat of criminals with new-comers from Middle Asia. In the hold of barge down Enisey river , the deads are thrown into the river. Dubinka.

30. The third Norilsk concentration camp Kayerkan - "The valley of death". In the coal pit, a blow, more , than 500 of perished. Convicts in irons. A tragic meeting of father and 12-year old son near concentration camp fence. An imprisoned doctor I.F. Kotsuba saves G.Grigorov from inevitable death. The imprisoned began to kill "informers" . In the barrack of doubled regime and a penal concentration camp Medvezhka he met an indomitable insurgent Volodya Ushakov, doctor Kotsuba and a well-known microbiologist Zilber.

31. Inner jail of penal concentration camp. Investigation again, confrontations with false witnesses. 1952, trial in the concentration camp , G.Grigorov is charged of anti-Soviet agitation and Zionism. The sentence of article 58-10 , point 1 - 10 years of concentration camps and one year of inner jail of concentration camp. Two months alone in a "stone bag" , transfer to a common chamber. They release from inner jail before the appointed time. Extenuation of the regime. Hopes, connected with Stalin's death.

32. Murder near the fence of the concentration camp. A mass riot of the imprisoned , an unforgettable moment of "freedom", several days the power is in the hands of elected committee. Declaration of the imprisoned , addressed to the government. Commission from Moskow, headed by the chief of GULAG Smirnov, negotiations of rules with slaves. In loud speakers network they declare:" The enemies of people broke the law in the country, all the not guilty will be set free". Those, ranked to the initiators of riot, including G.Grigorov , are taken to another concentration camp , where the imprisoned themselves rule. Such a turn of the events was unexpected.

33. Again in the hold of barge , but now up Enisey river. A floating hell , the barge of condemned men. Concentration camp near Tchuna station , well-built by imprisoned Japanese. Concentration camp without guarding , correspondence is allowed. Assize of Irkutsk region court. In Taishet concentration camp affirmation by Moskow of judgment of Irkutsk region court is waited. G.Grigorov leaves his last concentration camp.

34. Meeting with family. G.Grigorov teaches geography at school and simultaneously passed examinations for 5-year course of geographic faculty of Gorky Pedagogical Institute. In the special depository of Gorky regional library a book by G.Grigorov "Old and new mode of life" is found. A school of working youth as a cell of Soviet system, that converted citizens into slaves. Rehabilitation of G.Grigorov's wife at the sitting of regional party Control Committee. She , as an oldest member of Russian social-democratic Working party , attracting her with privileges, is offered to rehabilitate herself in the party, but she categorically reguses.

35. Hardly explainable phenomena of bolshevism. XX-Th congress of CPSU - the congress of Stalinist's, masquerade of pygmies, the model of hypocrisy, lie, banality, cynicism, political and moral marasmus. Stalin is dead, but his couse is alive, Stalinism and Stalinists - this is for a long time. Naivete of western liberals, and, particularly, American ones, that showed itself in the estimation of Khruschev's personality and his policy. May be, political short-sightedness is property of Western democracy, that often cannot see, what is hidden behind outward camouflage of one or another political system, comprising dictatorship.

36. "Freedom under the supervision of KGB". A strange combination : freedom and KGB. G.Grigorov works at manuscript "Causality and connections in geography". However, the author's biography always became an obstacle, when it came to publication. And it was so despite very good references and recommendations of prominent scientists. Only in 1983, after severe censorship, that cut the manuscript down to 2/3 of its original volume, the work was published. Everything, that could throw the least shadow on the economical policy of the party, was withdrawn.

37. Yury Tylin, professor of Leningrad and Moscow conservatories, an intelligent of old formation, aristocrat of spirit. He addressed Deputy General Prosecutor of the USSR with a request of rehabilitation of G.Grigorov. At the beginning of 30-Es is Leningrad Y.N.Tulin attended the lectures of philosophical seminar of G.Grigorov . In 1965 G.Grigorov was rehabilitated, and he began to work hard at the memoirs.

38. About several published memoirs: by I.G.Erenburg "People, years, life" and by general A.Gorbatov and a writer B.Diakov, who went through jails and concentration camps. G.Grigorov could not understand neither Erenburg, who applauded till his hands ached to the bloody Kremlin maniac, nor Gorbatov and Diakov, who considered everything, that happened to them, an accident.

39. The year 1972. The death of wife, Dina Belotserkovsky , a clever, noble, extraordinary fascinating woman, a devoted friend, sharing his views, the first adviser and impartial critic in the work at the memoirs. She was an active participant of many events, knew well a lot of people, mentioned in the memoirs. It was written about Dina Belotserkovsky both in separate parts of the memoirs, and in a big chapter, where everything is collected.

Further several summarizing themes are given with small extracts from the memoirs, concerning them. The author writes, that in the final part of the memoirs he tried to comprehend what happened in Russia/USSR in the XX-Th century, by the way, he acknowledges, that he had no time to write all, what he meant.

40. A young man, who sincerely believed in the possibility of realization in Russia of wonderful ideals of outstanding minds of mankind about freedom, equality and fraternity of all the people, as he grew up, acquired experience and ability to think independently, came to a conclusion, that these ideals were pure Utopia. Furthermore, the author came to a conclusion, that the rise of revolutionary movement from the beginning of the XX-Th century, the peak of which became February revolution of 1917, predetermined the seizure of the power by Bolsheviks and the following bloody Stalin dictatorship.

41. The tragic fate of the generation, that came on the verge of the XIX - Th and XX-Th centuries. This generation accumulated the ideals of the "gold" XIX -Th century, when in Russia literature, poetry, music and painting flourished extraordinarily. This was accompanied by rapid growth of spiritual and moral level, and also political self-conscioness of the youth, first of all in the circles of working intelligentsia, students, liberal nobility, progressive part of workers and bourgeoisie. This youth believed in the triumph of reason and future democratic Russia, hoped, that the break-up of tsarist autocracy would help people to get free of many centuries of slavish obedience and to gain freedom. This youth was the main motive power of the revolutionary enthusiasm, the peak of wich was February revolution of 1917. Young idealists, revolutionary romantics found themselves in the captivity of wounderful, but Utopian ideas. After Bolshevik’s coming to power they were condemned to ruin. G.Grigorov writes, that one of the reasons of his memoirs was a desire to tell about many brilliant, talented, courageous persons of this generation.

42.Stalin. I decided to premise to this theme one of epigraphs, used in the memoirs:

During Civil war, fulfilling the tasks of Yekaterinoslav underground in the rear of White armies, I several times found myself in almost hopeless situations, could not see an escape, and only a lucky chance saved me. During Soviet power I could be many times shot by a decision of some “three”, could be killed by criminals or by escorts during transport “at the attempt of running away”, many times in the concentration camps I could die from exhaustion, illness and back-breaking common works. And still I survived.

The author, summing up his life, thought over questions, that asked themselves M.Y. Lermontov and L.N. Tolstoy: “What for I lived? For what purpose I was fitted?” "Is not nonsense, what I think and what I believe at? “ Many doubts had G. Grigorov at the end of life, but he was sure, that any memoirs, telling of the past, were necessary. A lot has not as yet been disclosed and explained, up to now secret state and party archives, keeping, probably, evidences of terrible crimes, are closed.  Though, it can be supposed, that Stalin, as an inveterate criminal, tried to leave no documental traces of his unprecedented crimes. As yet no attempts have been done to make comprehensive, objective scientific analysis of what occurred in Russia/USSR in the XX-Th century. Hundreds of millions found themselves under the power of a criminal-maniac, who, together with his oprichniks during many years carried out genocide of people, that was unprecedented in the history of mankind. The country plunged into the abyss of obscurantism and slavery. And what about world community? Democratic western countries, constantly declaring the priority of human rights, took a detached view of both the genocide of Jews in Germany and the genocide of the whole people in the USSR. With violation of elementary human rights millions perished by a violent death. The number of victims of the Holocaust of European Jews is well known, but hardly it is possible to tell today, how many millions became victims of genocide in the USSR. The author of the memoirs considers, that for years of Stalin dictatorship only in the permafrost of Kolyma, Norilsk, Vorkuta and other northern and north-east regions of the USSR about 20 millions of bodies are buried. These remains, as well as mammoths’ skeletons, will be preserved in permafrost. Descendants may suppose, that some kind of natural catastrophe, geologic or climatic, happened. It will be difficult for them to find the reason of the mass death of people on one country’s territory during short period of time. In this case the memoirs of those, who lived in the XX-Th century will be useful. Though many things won’t be explained even by memoirs.

The summary was composed by Vissarion Grigorov.