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№ 101567

Top secret

SECRETARY OF THE Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)

Comrade STALIN

I am sending a summary of intelligence reports - responses among the scientific intelligentsia, press workers, artists and student youth in Moscow to the process of the “right-Trotskyist bloc.”

PEOPLE'S COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF THE USSR

COMMISSIONER GENERAL OF STATE SECURITY

EZHOV

Top secret

On the response to the process of the “right-Trotskyist bloc”

FELDMAN (Professor of Medicine). “For a doctor, a patient, especially after a long treatment or operation, becomes family and friends. What these doctors did is all the more terrible and incomprehensible. These are typical saboteurs, enemies. True, PLETNEV is a Black Hundred member, but for a doctor to commit such crimes is unheard of throughout the world and in all centuries. LEVIN has two sons. One of them is also a doctor, did he really teach his son such methods of sabotage, fascist work! We should be proud of our NKVD. Here's the job. No country has such an apparatus as our NKVD. This process will cause a lot of noise abroad. After all, the fascist press will write everything in a way that suits its interests and will shed dirt on our country.”

BLAGOVOLIN (professor of medicine). “This incredible story has disgraced us, doctors, the patients believe us so little, and now they will never believe us.

If it really turns out to be true in court that TROTSKY has been a spy since 1921, then this is a terrible thing. After all, he was the People's Commissar then. How he sold LENIN, STALIN and the Red Army. Yezhov is a genius. It was he who discovered all the activities of YAGODA and other enemies.”

DOCTORS. Source "Ants". In connection with the upcoming process of the “right-Trotskyist bloc”, different conversations are taking place everywhere. Doctors are very interested in this process for obvious reasons. Sanitary doctor GOROBOV, who works in the All-Union State Sanitary Inspectorate of the People's Commissariat of Health of the USSR, in the sanitary and hygienic department, says: “One can hardly believe that Professor PLETNEV could become a political fighter and risk murder for political purposes. Everyone knows that he is an incredible egoist and a completely unprincipled person who can only act for fierce selfish purposes and in such a way as not to endanger his own person in any way.”

GOROBOV comes from a family of wealthy merchants.

Doctor KULYANIN, who works in the epidemiological department of the All-Union State Sanitary Inspectorate, expresses surprise that the enemies of the people - the former People's Commissar of Health KAMINSKY and METALLIKOV - were not included in this process, while RAKOVSKY, who worked together with KAMINSKY, was included.

RUTSHTEIN (doctor). Source "Medvedev". March 1st In the evening, the source was at a party at Grigory Moiseevich RUTSHTEIN's, lives on Petrovsky Boulevard at 17.

Touching upon the conversation about the upcoming trial on March 2, this year. g., doctor RUTSHTEIN said: “All this is fiction, of course, the general public does not know everything, but doctors, when they read the message, are perplexed.” At the same time, he told a fictitious slanderous version that he supposedly knew well that MENZHINSKY was impotent and had progressive paralysis due to syphilis.

“KAZAKOV treated MENZHINSKY with lysates, which at the beginning of treatment give a rapid rise in energy, but subsequently progressive paralysis. This is a disease that ends in death, so there can be no talk of any villainous killing - also about KUIBYSHEV and GORKY. KUIBYSHEV came home after a heart attack and died immediately. The arriving doctor only had to confirm death, and it is not clear where the killing could be.

Well, there’s no need to talk about BITTER at all. Due to lung disease, GORKY lived in Italy for a long time. GORKY did not have one lung, and given his age, it is quite natural that he died from his first lung disease.”

KUPALOV P. S. (professor). “Wouldn’t it have been better to wait with such a process? And why should it be held open? Given the current acuteness of the international situation, when England has directly turned to Germany, when right-wing radicals in France are vigorously attacking the popular front, will such a process not play a negative role, as an additional element pushing the democratic West away from us?

ANOKHIN (professor). “After the Pyatakov trial there was a lot of information from abroad that the trial made a negative impression there. Even many sincere friends of the USSR then hesitated and were somewhat disoriented. In my opinion, the moment chosen now is very difficult.

Of course, whoever decides to conduct the trial has a clearer view of the international horizon than I do, but it seems that it would be more useful to wait or not to conduct the trial openly.

Now the right in France will attack the socialists. You want to merge with the communists, a united front and so on, but look, they - the communists - cannot come to an agreement with each other, there is a continuous fight and split. Indeed, indeed, the accused, if we discard the old tsarist agents, were once communists, were part of the leadership, and the motives, the roots of their betrayal are sometimes difficult for us to understand, and even more so for a Westerner.”

KARPOV M. S. (Professor of the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy). “Now a real revolution is taking place, the depths of the party are agitated. The best people bear their heads on the chopping block, not wanting to submit to the ruling tyrants. They captured LENIN's associates, those who were supposed to succeed him. The bottom line, of course, is to eliminate political competitors. The accusation of espionage was brought, firstly, in order to denigrate people, and secondly, this was done in the same way as the accusation of doctors of killing famous people, according to the well-known rule that the more absurd the accusation, the easier it is to believe it. The leadership of the CPSU (b) was seized with animal fear, so they mowed down people left and right, leaving only nonentities. But all this will end badly, because the state cannot rely on executions and arrests alone. The communists, that is, many of them, do not understand that they have tormented the country, that they are mortally tired of it.

The accusation is formulated very stupidly: it says that this group wanted to kill LENIN, STALIN, SVERDLOV, but did not kill them, although the accused had hundreds of opportunities to do this. Take BERRY - this one could go anywhere. And LEVIN is a Kremlin doctor, he walked around the Kremlin the way we walk at home, and, finally, he could apply more “subtle methods” of treatment to any of his patients. However, none of this happened.”

KHVOSTOV V. M. (Professor, Faculty of Pedagogics, Moscow State University). “The process of the right-Trotskyist bloc has internal political significance. We must somehow account to the people for the large number of arrests; we must somehow explain to the party what the members of its Central Committee are accused of.”

RUBCHINSKY Z. M. (senior engineer of the Kirov plant). “Now, more than ever, the rear of the Soviet Union is weak, and it is weakening all the time. People such as RYKOV, BUKHARIN and others were arrested. Now there is probably an incredible howl abroad.

It is very interesting to go to the trial and see how the defendants will behave. Well, RYKOV, BUKHARIN are ideological people, but this is how PLETNEV and KAZAKOV, who until now have been far from politics, will behave.”

VOROBYEV (architect). “I don’t particularly believe the accusations cited in the Prosecutor’s Office report. Many of these accusations are exaggerated. I admit that MENZHINSKY was poisoned by YAGODA for careeristic purposes, but no one will believe in the violent death of GORKY - the old man had been ill for decades.”

EFIMOVICH (architect). “At the top of the party there is a fierce struggle for power, and not for the general line of the party - hence all these stunning, high-profile trials of the victorious Stalinist group over the defeated Bukharin group.”

MODEL (engineer). “The last group of “old men” from Lenin’s guard went to trial. I wish all these abominations would end soon so that we could breathe freely.”

ALEXANDROV M. V. (teacher at MAI). “These are people of the right opposition, the latest composition of the Council of People’s Commissars is made up of only people’s commissars and the most prominent scientists. This process should be reflected in the international situation, but within the country it excites the masses. Now process after process will follow - RUKHIMOVICH - defense industry, MEZHLAUK brothers.”

EPPELBAUM (laboratory assistant at the Mendeleev Institute, member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). “Thinking people are distinguished by their ability to doubt the proposed material, and therefore I also doubt the message of the Prosecutor’s Office about the upcoming trial. I know RYKOV well, he is a highly cultured person. RYKOV, after all, was part of LENIN. BUKHARIN and YAGODA are also great people, they are disciples and comrades-in-arms of LENIN. It is a pity that such people are dying."

I. N. MASLOV (Director of the Bakery Laboratory, member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)). “I thought that after the resolution of the plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, all these matters would end, but it turns out quite the opposite. Arrests continue. The impression is that all this before the war wants to clear the ranks, all those that could be dangerous in one form or another are removed. Just think - BUKHARIN, RYKOV, CHERNOV, GRINKO - is this really true? I can’t believe it and a lot of things are simply incomprehensible. We live like on a volcano. On the one hand, they stroke us communists, and on the other, they erase us as soon as possible. Hard to work. The report from the Prosecutor's Office is poorly substantiated. After all, BUKHARIN and RYKOV have been in prison for more than a year. Why did their business take so long? Unclear".

STEINBERG (People's Artist of the Republic). “When I read in the newspaper about PLETNEV and others, I was stunned and I think that such a bastard would be spared bullets, but just take them to the old scaffold to the Kremlin walls and cut off their heads.”

BLOK D. S. (composer). “Of course, they must be mercilessly shot, even more so - burned at the stake. After all, Dr. LEVIN and Professor PLETNEV were surrounded by great attention from the government. What were they missing? As for KAZAKOV, he is a criminal of the 96th standard, I never believed him - a dirty person. KRYUCHKOV is also a disgusting figure - a careerist, a traitor - that was clear to everyone.”

ZHAROV (Honored Artist of the Republic, Chamber Theatre). “I am happy that I staged the play “Confrontation” for the trial. She is very on time. When I play, I feel the role of an investigator and, frankly speaking, I would change my profession as an actor to an investigator of the Prosecutor's Office or the NKVD. So deep is my hatred for BUKHARIN, RYKOV, ROSENGOLTZ and other bastards. I believe that this process will show Europe how strong we are, how we can identify our enemies and, despite all this rubbish, we still prosper.”

NEBOLSIN V.V. (Honored Artist of the Republic, Bolshoi Theater), “It is impossible to talk calmly about what these criminals did. KAZAKOV always made a dirty impression on me. This man apparently had nothing sacred.”

GAUK (Honored Artist of the Republic, conductor). “It is a pity that the scoundrel TROTSKY was once allowed to go abroad and was given the opportunity to engage in dirty deeds against the Soviet people. As you can see, Trotsky’s departure abroad was facilitated by BUKHARIN and RYKOV. What a blessing that Comrade STALIN was not ill, otherwise these scoundrels LEVIN and PLETNEV could have treated him as they did with MENZHINSKY, KUIBYSHEV and GORKY.”

MELIK-PASHAYEV (Honored Artist, Conductor). “What I read in the newspapers is terrible, and these doctors, they should be burned on fire, because they resurrected the Spanish Inquisition. They must be answered in the same way. They could make all sorts of poisons with their knowledge of medicine and slowly poison many valuable lives.”

STEPANOVA (Honored Artist of the Republic). “The message about the trial made a grave impression on me. This is a document of extreme political cynicism, a document of exceptional perversion of a factor, for example, everything that in the notice relates to LENIN and the beginning of the revolution.

If the “confession” of the accused is human insanity (however, it is unknown how it was extracted, because we know about the methods of investigation), then the accusation itself is even more insanity. We know RYKOV as a wonderful, great man, as a man of great honesty and love for the people. If it were not for the tragedy of the modern day, it would be ridiculous to believe in the guilt of a person like RYKOV. It’s such a horror to live in these days of slander and meanness, when they try to justify their attack with lies.

Of course, now you can pull the dead out of their coffins and declare them killed. But who will believe that GORKY, who was sick with tuberculosis and lived to be 70 years old, barely maintaining his life, fell a victim of terrorists - old party members or people of science, like PLETNEV.”

TAIROV A.Ya. (People's Artist of the Republic, Chamber Theatre). “This is monstrous, and so much so that the human mind cannot comprehend or accept it. I cannot understand the motives of the doctors involved in the conspiracy, except for PLETNEV, who has long been known to be a bastard.

I don’t know LEVIN very well, but KACHALOV literally prayed for him. Moreover, GORKY preferred to be treated only by LEVIN, who often visited him in Italy. Therefore, I cannot understand the psychological reasons for the participation of doctors in this crime. Then I cannot understand the roots that motivated the rest of the conspiracy. Thirst for power? But many of them are people's commissars, members of the Central Committee. What did they want?

GEDIKE I. I. (artist of the Moscow Art Theater). “Now just sit somewhere downstairs and don’t show your nose. The happiest person is the smallest one. When they finally fight upstairs and at least some approximate order is established, then go for a walk. In the meantime, if you have a sweet head, sit and don’t breathe.”

MINEEV A.K. (soloist of the Bolshoi Theater). “And all this is nonsense! JULES VERNE! 1001 nights! All this about the murders of GORKY, MENZHINSKY and KUIBYSHEV is made up! And why it was invented, of course, we don’t know. Well, why kill GORKY, he was already an old man. Or MENZHINSKY - after all, MENZHINSKY went crazy, and KUIBYSHEV was also an elderly man. Well, at the trial they will confess, but it’s under “influence”!

SHILLING (artist of the Moscow Art Theater). “I don’t understand one thing. After all, GORKY and MENZHINSKY and KUIBYSHEV were opened after death. The autopsy was attended not only by the now arrested doctors, but also by many others. Why then were the murders not established? I am always jarred by these surprises of ours, which are revealed as a system a long time later.”

VERBITSKY (Honored Artist of the Republic, Moscow Art Theater). “Whoever is now declared a spy and enemy of the people, I will not be surprised at anything. Such high pillars are falling that if even higher ones shake, nothing will surprise us. These are already cruel times.”

NOVIKOV (artist of the Moscow Art Theater). “Terrible things are happening here. Some kind of continuous war. It's scary if they really did everything that is attributed to them. It’s no less scary if now they are shot for this; somehow it doesn’t fit in my head that people like YAGODA and KRESTINSKY would be shot. Yes, this is a genuine internal war.”

KNIPPER-CHEKHOVA (People's Artist of the USSR, Moscow Art Theater). “Why would they need GORKY? Some kind of fantasy. Theater of horrors. As they say, “the legend is fresh, but hard to believe.” Now is the time when people can believe anything. The time is such that it is better to die.”

LEVIN (Honored Artist of the Republic). March 1st At a meeting of the symphony orchestra regarding the message of the USSR Prosecutor's Office about the upcoming trial of the “right-Trotskyist bloc,” P. A. LEVIN spoke and said: “I am against their execution.” When asked by rally participants GATSKO, MULLER and others how he motivated this, LEVIN replied: “I am a straightforward person, what I think is what I declare, I am generally against execution.”

PLAYWRIGHTS. Source "Dunaev". February 28th In the premises of the section of playwrights of the Union of Soviet Writers, during the compilation of a wall newspaper between playwrights GORODETSKY Sergei Mitrofanovich, ARGO (GOLDENBERG) Abram Markovich, GALITSKY (GOLBENBERG) Yakov Markovich and “D” there was a conversation about reinstating playwright AFINOGENOV in the party.

“D” said that this restoration of AFINOGENOV was completely incomprehensible to him. A man has been accused of many sins that he actually committed, and suddenly he is restored and becomes completely clean.

ARGO said the following to this: “The question about AFINOGENOV is too small and uninteresting to be discussed much. AFINOGENOV is just a petty scoundrel and a careerist who will get away with all the troubles in the future. I'm worried about something else. I didn’t know RYKOV, TOMSKY and others, but I knew BUKHARIN. We are our own people here and can speak frankly: BUKHARIN was the most interesting, charming, smartest person, he was the favorite of the party, the favorite of LENIN. History speaks about this, and history is always impartial and based on facts, and now I hear that BUKHARIN is against the party, against LENIN, that he is a bandit and so on; It doesn’t fit in my skull.”

GORODETSKY objected to ARGO, he said the following: “I also knew BUKHARIN and believe me, ARGO, he really was a vile and low person. I don’t know, of course, the entire scope of his party affairs and relationships, but in the small affairs of life, in the affairs of the Izvestia newspaper, I can firmly say that he is a dishonest person. But you and I will soon hear interesting news. It turns out that our former General Commissioner of State Security, a member of the Central Committee and so on and so forth, was a major agent, a provocateur of the tsarist secret police and, together with our respected writer KASATKIN, he failed underground printing houses and betrayed revolutionaries.”

Here the work on layout of the newspaper and distribution of material interrupted this conversation.

March 1st Mr. “D” met ARGO at a billiards tournament in the House of Soviet Writers and asked him: “Well, what do you say about the message from the Prosecutor’s Office?” ARGO responded to this: “Sasha, I’ll tell you frankly, I don’t believe it and I won’t believe it. And, to be honest, every morning now waking up, I say “why the hell did I wake up, it was so nice to sleep and not see, hear, or experience the bad things (it was said much more strongly and obscenely) that are happening here.” Generally lousy and disgusting."

“D” hears such sentiments from ARGO for the first time in six years of acquaintance.

MATSKIN A. P. (theater critic). “The whole point of the trial is to show that all the defendants were connected by a single chain from BUKHARIN to LEVIN. Declaring a number of defendants as secret police agents is a method of “mobilizing the rage of the masses.” It is impossible that they would not have been exposed for such a long time.”

WRITERS. Source "Sorrento". Among writers, the news of GORKY's death is the main topic of conversation. GORKY's age and his long illness indicate that his death was not unexpected. At the same time, they say that the doctors treating him could almost imperceptibly cause a severe deterioration in his condition and death. For example, why was he, sick with the flu, taken to Moscow, this was said by Vs. IVANOV.

PAUSTOVSKY told me that the death of GORKY was similar in circumstances to the death of PUSHKIN, who was also healed by the doctor ARENDT.

In conversations with E. PETROV and SLAVIN, the main topic was how the process would respond abroad. Will it not worsen the situation of our friends, or cause new embittered attacks from our enemies? The philistine environment abroad does not understand that everything that is happening in our country now is a consequence of a long struggle within the party, the struggle of Leninists with Trotskyists and the right. Abroad, everything that happens here seems to be a struggle of individuals, and not a struggle of ideological people with people who, in their embitterment, have sunk to crimes. They also said that abroad this would once again provide an opportunity to talk about our weakness, that in the current situation we do not represent a force capable of resisting.

During the break of the meeting in the Writers' Union, all kinds of reinsurers, like FINK, TEARS ON, were especially excited, who were indignant at the crimes of the accused too loudly, so that they were listened to around, thus testifying to their trustworthiness. Cunning people like PAVLENKO very carefully tried to extinguish the struggle that was going on within the union, the struggle against STAVSKY. Pointing out the enormous importance of the process, PAVLENKO said that our writing is unimportant, minor affairs, in comparison with those events of enormous importance that we are witnessing. In other words, in the huge echo that the process received, all our minor, from PAVLENKO’s point of view, differences should drown. GERASIMOVA drew my attention to this speech by PAVLENKO, she said that such a speech was very beneficial to STAVSKY.

FEDIN K. (writer). “Now we have adopted a resolution regarding the trial of BUKHARIN, RYKOV and others. This is already the third process, not counting many closed ones. Each time it turns out that the “glorious People’s Commissar for Internal Affairs” uncovered a counter-revolutionary conspiracy. And now, by the way, the people who were at the head of the NKVD are sitting in the dock. Those that have now been opened have nothing in common with the previous apparatus. When the conspiracy of ZINOVIEV and KAMENEV was discovered, they also wrote “about the glorious People’s Commissars for Internal Affairs.” A new cohort arrived in the NKVD and they began to shoot the old ones. The thought comes to mind that people from the NKVD are doomed to extermination. The NKVD is like the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where ministers are always killed. Each subsequent one removes his predecessor.”

KARIKASH (writer, member of the Communist Party of Hungary). “Crazy fantastic accusation. Even a dog cannot swallow such an accusation that GORKY and others were poisoned. The message from the Prosecutor's Office is weak. As a result, the entire economic apparatus was replaced by these mass arrests with new ones, the training of which will cost the Soviet government dearly.”

SHKLOVSKY (writer and critic). V. KATAEV (writer). On March 1, the source was at the apartment of SHKLOVSKY (a writer and critic) and found him talking with Valentin KATAEV. The conversation was about the upcoming process.

SHKLOVSKY said: “The secrets of the Madrid court are literally being revealed. In the most advanced country in the world, it suddenly turned out that there was some kind of camarilla in power.”

V. KATAEV. “When GORKY was dying, Alexei TOLSTOY, when he met me, told me that something that was happening in that small house on Nikitskaya was so disgusting, so suspicious. The bed of the sick great man was surrounded by mysterious whispers and combinations. Sometimes I couldn’t believe that a great writer and artist was dying here. No writer in the world has ever been in such a strange situation.

And I also think that in this small house everything was possible, even murder.

When I was in Paris, I met an emigrant journalist, SAVICH. And so, when I was one day walking with SAVICH in Paris, I met POSNER (also an emigrant writer). POSNER wanted to approach us, but SAVICH signaled to him not to do this. I asked SAVICH what was the matter, and he described POSNER to me in very unflattering terms.

Later I met POSNER on the street, he began to tell me what he was doing and where he was publishing, he said that he was connected with GORKY and BUDBERG. Then he asked me: “How are Lyapa (AVERBAKH) doing?” He told me that he studied with AVERBAKH at school and knows him very well. Then I already realized that there were some connections between these emigrant circles and Leopold AVERBAKH. And all this is intertwined around GORKY. In light of current reports, everything becomes clear.

I ask myself why BERRY could kill BITTER. Well, he removed MENZHINSKY as an opponent. MENZHINSKY shielded him with himself. He was a man of high culture. AND BERRY is FUSHE. Why did he have to remove GORKY? And I believe that since relations between YAGODA and GORKY have deteriorated recently, YAGODA could be afraid that GORKY, to put it in Odessa, would “drop STALIN on him.” This is what I see as the reason.”

“The rally was bad and most of the speeches were colorless and unsuccessful. People spoke reluctantly, such as PAVLENKO and SOBOLEV, and KIRSANOV simply grimaced. The appeal, drawn up on behalf of the writers, is very scholastically written in newspaper, standard, stencil language. This is not how an appeal on behalf of writers and artists should be written. In the end, you don’t want to sign up for it. Why put signatures on a document about a colossal event, the meaning of which we do not understand. While there was a struggle within the party, where we saw one camp and another, we were not involved in this. We stood aside and through the eyes of an artist tried to determine and understand the meaning of what was happening. Now we don’t see this open struggle. Everything happens behind some kind of thick curtain. And now, when the terrible ending unfolds, for some reason we are attracted, we must give our signatures. And we don't know what's going on. And do those in charge know what process is happening in the revolution, why so many people have to be put in the dock and shot. A terrible thing has happened - the death of a great, undaunted party is taking place.”

The source continued the conversation with SHKLOVSKY on the way to the dacha at the station. Gangway. SHKLOVSKY said:

“GORKY was undoubtedly killed, because no government could ever announce that a great writer was killed if it were not true. But who killed GORKY - that’s the question. I admit that KRYUCHKOV did this, because KRYUCHKOV is a real bandit. Soviet writers knew that a bandit stood between them and GORKY. A lot of dark nests have started in the surroundings of GORKY. But whether KRYUCHKOV did this at Yagodin’s direction is unknown. The time has come to remove BERRY for the crime he committed, and I can simply attribute BITTER to him.

We live in such a time that no one can envy us. We feel very bad and very difficult. You can’t live like that and not understand anything of what’s happening. We are people who are several heads below events. Events rush over our heads, but falling fragments sometimes hit our heads. And the reason for the falling of fragments on one or another head is unknown. Everything seems to be random. It is unlikely that even those at the top know what is happening and why there is such a need to resort to such drastic measures. It seems to me that they too are a blind instrument of history, like all the great people of history. Neither Robespierre nor Napoleon knew why they acted the way they did, and they did not take into account what would come of all their actions. History, no matter how much you study it, will teach you nothing...

Everything will end in death. In such a fight everyone will die. Both those who rule and those who obey will perish. The right and the wrong will die. There will never be a day when glorious Troy will perish.

How should we react when we see that a whole new society that has developed around the tsarist regime is perishing? This society was created around the party. And now we see that the entire leadership of the party is dying in some kind of mutual struggle. It is unlikely that the matter is a duel between STALIN and TROTSKY - this is only a form of expression of the struggle. We love our country. It would be difficult for us to even wish for anything else, and therefore we are in great pain. Let everything remain as it is, but let there not be such political twitching, when everyone is screwed onto the screw of political events and everything is resolved by such a terrible process. I love this system, I like our party, we have good government, a good army, a good society. I want to see our system not discredited by anything.”

SHKLOVSKY said that he met with KOLTSOV:

“KOLTSOV has become smarter, stopped playing small, doesn’t cling to trinkets. We talked with him about various things and, among other things, about why he was not nominated as a deputy to the Supreme Council. Koltsov told me: “I’m not in charge, I’m just KOLTSOV—that’s how you look at me.” In my opinion, nothing happened around KOLTSOV, but in Spain things are going badly, and therefore KOLTSOV is not being placed at higher levels. But they still trust him. He writes articles on topics about resolutions of the Central Committee that do not yet exist.

KOLTZOV told me how he once brought Andre MALREAU to GORKY, and how they immediately liked each other. At first, BABEL, who was a translator, was present, as well as KOZHANNY and KRYUCHKOV. These are two agents who were watching GORKY, said KOLTSOV. GORKY sent KRYUCHKOV and KOZHANNY out of the room, and they were very angry that they could not continue their observations. It is possible that they observed GORKY as agents of different powers.”

ILENKOV V. P. (writer). “You feel a feeling of great joy that these bastards have been neutralized. Now, when the war is almost really felt, the unity of the people is more important than ever. They tried to demobilize the country, to betray us all. We must respond to the subversive work of our enemies with good books and rally the people around the party. We are all partly to blame for the fact that YAGODA’s ally, AVERBAKH, operated in literature for so long and caused harm. We were sometimes blind, soft-hearted and indifferent. Now the atmosphere is clearing. It will be easier to live and work.”

BERMONT (journalist). “Azefshchina pales in comparison to Trotskyism. Think how thin and long-lasting the disguise is. If it weren’t for YAGODA, everything would probably have been discovered a long time ago. It was he who probably recruited the doctors in order to quickly bring MENZHINSKY to the grave and remain chairman of the GPU. It’s so vile and scary that sometimes you get lost and don’t know who to believe. “Many interesting things will be revealed at the trial.”

LEVIN Boris (Pravda). When the defendants came out at the morning hearing on March 2, he told the source: “For some reason I feel sorry for BUKHARIN. He's kind of pathetic, sitting and looking down. He is apparently ashamed and hurt for himself, having found himself in the company of such notorious scoundrels.”

Evgeniy KRIGER (Izvestia), leaving the courtroom, said: “The devil knows, maybe there is some truth in KRESTINSKY’s words. What will happen then? After all, foreign correspondents base their reports on his speech. I personally don’t believe KRESTINSKY, but some doubt has stuck in my mind.”

ITSKHOKIN (Head of Union Information TASS). When the source arrived at TASS from the courtroom, he asked the source: “How does the testimony of the first defendants agree with the indictment?”

In reply that KRESTINSKY was playing the fool and wouldn’t confess, ITSKHOKIN said: “Well, here it begins. I wonder how this will end?

POKROVSKY (literary employee of the publishing house of the Moscow Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)). “The process will have a negative impact on the authority of the party, especially abroad - after all, KRESTINSKY, for example, is widely known abroad. The same must be said about the other defendants. The trial will show that an atmosphere of conspiracies and palace coups reigns in the USSR.”

CHUDNOVSKY (editor of the newspaper “On Guard”, member of the CPSU (b)). “The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (Bolsheviks) prohibited all newspapers, except Pravda, Izvestia and Krasnaya Zvezda, from reporting on the Prosecutor’s Office about the upcoming trial. The Central Committee is afraid that in the newspaper editorials there may be attacks against the party leadership, the “wrong” lines may be written by friends of BUKHARIN and RYKOV who still remain in the press.”

KERZHENTSEV (source “Mogilevsky”), February 28 p. In a conversation with a source, KERZHENTSEV expressed the idea that the report from the Prosecutor's Office about the trial does not provide anything new compared to what was assumed and known to him from private sources. Then, however, he pointed out that three things were new:

1. that the process includes the right along with the Trotskyists. Historically, KERZHENTSEV points out, this is correct and the connection between the right and the Trotskyists has been proven; but until now it seemed that in practice this would be a process only of the right center. However, K. believes that the picture with the accession of the Trotskyists will be more clear;

2. Another new point is the revelation of BUKHARIN’s conspiracy together with the Trotskyists during the Brest-Litovsk Treaty. In addition, until now it was known that BUKHARIN was plotting the arrest of LENIN, but now we are talking about the arrest and murder of LENIN, STALIN and SVERDLOV.

KERZHENTSEV did not comment on this “new circumstance,” but spoke about it in a tone of acknowledgment of it being quite possible;

3. the question of TROTSKY’s espionage activities in 1921 and 1926 - KERZHENTSEV again considered this quite probable, especially since TROTSKY’s connection with such elements as PARVUS could have created the preconditions for TROTSKY’s betrayal even before the revolution.

KERZHENTSEV particularly focused on the role of provocateurs in the pre-revolutionary period. He noted that even before October there were many rumors about the presence of a large number of provocateurs among the Bolsheviks, and Trotsky himself also exaggerated these things. KERZHENTSEV considers YAGODA to be “in type” very similar to the pre-revolutionary provocateur. Regarding the others, he said it was “difficult” to say which of them could be classified in this category.

Regarding individual figures in the trial, KERZHENTSEV noted that he was unclear about the role of KRESTINSKY, who seemed to have left for real, then CHERNOV. “Perhaps he appears as a link with the Social Revolutionaries?”

Regarding BUKHARIN and RYKOV, KERZHENTSEV limited himself to expressing his indignation and indignation, but declined to talk about these candidates in substance.

Regarding the doctors involved in the trial, KERZHENTSEV noted that “in general it was felt that the medical environment was very unfavorable” and that the Kremlin generally showed itself as an institution from which it was difficult to escape. ABOUT PLETNEV, KERZHENTSEV said that it was already clear from his trial that “this is not a matter of rape” and that PLETNEV, apparently, is a convinced monarchist and, possibly, a spy.

Speaking about the international consequences of the process, KERZHENTSEV said that he does not share the fear that the process will cause cooling among the friends of the USSR; on the contrary, it will show that we are not joking and are seriously preparing for the most acute surprises.

Returning again to individual characters, KERZHENTSEV said that, according to all data, GRINKO is a Petlyura officer. KERZHENTSEV further said that the figure of YAKOVLEV was expected in the trial, who turned out to be an old provocateur of the Yekaterinoslav secret police, but for some reason he did not turn up. They were also waiting for RUDZUTAK, but his absence was natural, since he was the head of the Central Control Commission and a member of the PB.

Dwelling on the figure of GORKY, KERZHENTSEV expressed the idea that his removal could be dictated by considerations of weakening the ideological influence of the USSR among the Western intelligentsia, especially since GORKY at one time was very hesitant in his assessment of STALIN, but in recent years he stood firm. However, KERZHENTSEV noted, it is difficult to guess here, since the only source is the testimony of doctors who will be at the trial.

Regarding the consequences of the process for internal party life, KERZHENTSEV expressed himself in the sense that, of course, there will be shaking again in party organizations here and there, but that in general this will not violate the lines of the February plenum. Moreover, according to KERZHENTSEV, the process will be carried out faster and without such extensive newspaper information as the previous ones.

At the end, KERZHENTSEV was interested in what they were saying about the trial, whether there were any new facts of arrests, etc. The general tone of the judgments was restrained and the formulations, apparently, were weighed; there was no particular “frankness” in the conversation.

PESHKOVA N. A. On February 28, the source visited GORKY’s house. Nadezhda Alekseevna PESHKOVA went with the children to the dacha, as RAKITSKY reported, in order to save the children from any questions at school from their classmates.

Maria Pavlovna PESHKOVA was in a very dejected state and cried a lot. She said that she “was experiencing the death of Alexei Maksimovich for the second time.”

The source asked if Maria Pavlovna was going to react in any way to these events. Maria Pavlovna replied that she could not come to her senses and that she would definitely call N.I. EZHOV to consult with him on what to do.

PESHKOVS. Source "Sorrento". February 28th At half past five I was on Nikitinskaya. Timosha was in Gorki. RAKITSKY explained: she was so shocked by the messages about Alexei Maksimovich that they considered it best to send her and the children to Gorki. She herself told Marfa and Daria, Gorky’s granddaughters, about what was published in the newspapers, otherwise they would suddenly find out about it themselves at school. On Nikitinskaya I found LADIZHNIKOV, RAKITSKY, TIKHONOV, then Ekaterina Pavlovna PESHKOVA. LADIZHNIKOV was mainly interested in the question of which of the accused was the royal guard. RAKITSKY remembered my conversation with him about the doctors who treated GORKY. With great excitement, he, like TIKHONOV, commented on the report in the newspapers in the following sense: who could have expected such atrocity from Dr. LEVIN. Could this be expected from Russian doctors with their social traditions? He expressed surprise that Dr. VINOGRADOV, mentioned in the case, does not appear in the process.

Then he confirmed once again what he told me before: in the last year of his life, the relationship between YAGODA and BITTER deteriorated. YAGODA was especially offended by the fact that GORKY published in some article “KIROV was not saved.” In other words, GORKY said that YAGODA did not save KIROV. In addition, GORKY was irritated by YAGODA’s lies about work on the canal. YAGODA named the numbers taken from the ceiling, meanwhile, GORKY knew the correct numbers. Despite GORKY's love for precision, YAGODA's Khlestakovism outraged him. The conclusion was this: GORKY changed his mind about BERRY. GORKY cast doubt on KRYUCHKOV’s previous stories about YAGODA’s ability to work, his genius, his foresight, and his nightly walks around Moscow in the manner of Harun al Rashid. Given GORKY's closeness to his leading comrades, he already posed a clear danger to YAGODA.

In the house on Nikitinskaya there is an impression of depression and confusion. It's like a second funeral takes place. At the same time, a certain fear is felt. Ekaterina Pavlovna, who arrived towards the end of my visit, looked very bad, literally aged and haggard. From TIKHONOV’s words, I understood that everyone was afraid that Timosha’s name would be “thrown around” during the trial. It was somewhat reassuring that VINOGRADOV, who treated Maxim PESHKOV, is not among the accused. This means that they will not talk about Maxim at the trial, this is the conclusion they draw at Nikitinskaya. According to Lipa CHERTKOVA, TIKHONOV spoke about Maxim’s treatment methods. Vinogradov ordered that he be given a laxative, although this is contraindicated for pneumonia, and he himself observed that Maxim was given a laxative. CHERTKOVA tried not to do this, although she is not a doctor, she understands somewhat about medicine. RAKITSKY confirmed that YAGODA and KRYUCHKOV were afraid of Maxim, they knew his influence on GORKY, they knew that GORKY believed him. Last time, it seems to me, RAKITSKY spoke less confidently about the relationship between Max and KRYUCHKOV. He recalled how GORKY believed KRYUCHKOV until the last minute and gave him life advice: “don’t drink.”

At about seven o'clock RAKITSKY, LADIZHNIKOV, Ekaterina Pavlovna, Timosha's relative Kolya, Ilya VOLNOV (he showed up just before leaving) left for Gorki.

ZAITSEV (artist). “I don’t believe one iota of what they write in the newspapers about the right and Trotsky.

I only believe that we have been suffering for 20 years and have achieved nothing except queuing for milk and sausage.”

KOZLOV (4th year student, Faculty of Geography, Moscow State University). “I am surprised by the accusations against doctors, especially regarding the death of GORKY. Who needs him, GORKY as a political figure, well, okay, KUIBYSHEV and MENZHINSKY. And most importantly, I can’t believe that the very fact of killing is possible. After all, these doctors were not the only ones who signed the ballots; besides them, there were others like BURDENKO, a deputy of the Supreme Council, and others too. It’s interesting what the doctors will say during the trial and how all this will be proven.”

IGNATOV S.I. (4th year student at the Faculty of Geography of Moscow State University, developing as a member of a counter-revolutionary group of students). “I won’t believe about RYKOV that he is a spy or a traitor, he’s not that kind of person. STALIN is trying to remove all the big people and put in their place every little thing that bows to him and cannot compete with him in the struggle for power.”

RACHKOVSKY (MSU student, expelled from the Komsomol, developed as a member of an anti-Soviet group). “I am sure that if LENIN had existed now, these processes would not have happened. BUKHARIN and RYKOV are very smart people, but they were removed from high positions and deprived of their former authority. Only after this did they oppose the leadership. They were not traitors to the 1917 revolution, as the newspapers write about it. I am sure that the prestige of the Soviet Union abroad will suffer greatly as a result of this trial, that there will not be a single person in the West who would believe the incriminating materials of the trial.”

LEONHARDT V. A. (graduate student at GITIS). “RYKOV could not have been a murderer. If RYKOV, the former chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, is called a murderer and a crook, then the Soviet government consists of crooks. “I don’t believe that KUIBYSHEV, MENZHINSKY and GORKY were killed by enemies of the people.”

DEPUTY START 4 DEPARTMENTS OF GUGB NKVD USSR

COMMISSIONER OF STATE SECURITY 3rd RANK

In 1897, French playwright and chien de commissaire Oscar Metenier purchased a theater at the end of the rue Chaptal, a cul-de-sac in the Parisian arrondissement of Pigalle, to stage his controversial naturalistic plays. The smallest in Paris, this theater was also the most unusual. Two large angels loomed over the orchestra pit and neo-Gothic wood paneling, and the boxes with their iron railings looked like confessionals (in fact, the building was at one time a chapel).

The Theater du Grand-Guignol - literally meaning "grand puppet show" - was named after the popular figure of the French puppet theater Guignol, who initially acted as a bold social critic - the mouthpiece of the silk weavers of Lyon. Early puppet shows featuring Guignol were often censored by Napoleon III's police.

Oscar Metenier was himself a frequent target of censorship, as he had the audacity to describe a social environment that had never before been depicted on stage: the lives of vagabonds, street children, prostitutes, criminals and “Apaches,” as loiterers and swindlers were called at the time. Moreover, he allowed these characters to speak in a language that was natural to them. In one of the first Grand Guignol plays, Métenier's Mademoiselle Fifi (based on a short story by Guy de Maupassant), which was temporarily banned by police censors, a prostitute appeared on stage for the first time; in his next play, “Louis,” a prostitute and a criminal ended up together in the same hotel room. Métenier grew up watching Guignol performances... The "Grand Guignol Theater" quickly gained popularity. Without realizing it, Methenier laid the first stone in the foundation of the Grand Guignol repertoire, which was to exist for more than half a century. Little by little, and almost by accident, a new genre was born.

In 1898, Methenier was replaced as director by Max Moray, who was unknown in theatrical circles, but had practical experience in the theater. It was Moray who, from 1898 to 1914, turned the Grand Guignol Theater into a house of horrors. He measured the success of a play by the number of people who fainted during the performance, and to make matters worse, he hired a theater doctor to provide first aid to the most faint-hearted spectators. And it was Moray who discovered the novelist and playwright Andre de Lorde - “The Prince of Terror.” Under the influence of de Lorde (who wrote several plays in collaboration with his doctor, the experimental psychologist Alfred Binet), madness became the main theme of the Grand Guignol. At a time when madness was just becoming a subject of scientific research, and individual cases had barely begun to be described, the Grand Guignol repertoire was replete with plays featuring maniacs and people with “special tastes.” The hero of André de Lorde and Leo Marchese's play The Man of the Night, for example, was a necrophiliac who bore an uncanny resemblance to Sergeant Bertrand, a man convicted in 1849 of desecrating graves and mutilating corpses. “A Terrible Passion” by Andre de Lorde and Henri Boucher depicted a young nurse who strangled the children entrusted to her. (Like Metenier, de Lorde was a frequent target of censorship, especially in England, where the planned production of two of his plays on the road was canceled by the Lord Chamberlain's censors.** The theater of the time, reveling in vaudeville and bourgeois scenery, could not tolerate the sight of blood or corpses on stage.)

The fear of the “other” was represented in the Grand Guignol in countless variations: fear of the proletariat, fear of the unknown, fear of the foreign, fear of contamination (given the amount of blood spilled, the Grand Guignol must have felt some longing for purity). The characters of Paul Cloquemin and Paul Authier in The Lighthouse Keepers and Robert Franceville in The Fair Regiment became infected with rabies. Leprosy decimated the passengers of Max Moray's The Lost Ship, and the servants in Roland Dreyfus's The Red Hotel fell victim to a mysterious disease. In several plays, including Moray's The Maiden's Room, a brothel-goer contracts syphilis.

However, what brought Grand Guignol to the top were the boundaries and boundaries beyond which it went: states of consciousness under the influence of drugs or hypnosis. Loss of consciousness, loss of control, panic: these themes were close to the hearts of theatergoers. When the playwrights of the Grand Guignol became interested in the guillotine, they were most attracted to the final convulsions reflected in the severed face. What if the head, separated from the body, continued to think? The transition from one state to another was the basis of the genre.

Camille Choisy, who directed the theater from 1914 to 1930, brought with him many special effects, both light and sound. Under his leadership, the production began to prevail over the text. Once he even purchased a fully equipped operating room under the pretext of staging a new play. In 1917, he hired the actress Paula Maxa, who soon became known as "Sarah Bernhard of the Rue Chaptal." Throughout her Grand Guignol career, Maxa, "the most assassinated woman in the world", was subjected to a series of tortures unique in theatrical history: she was shot with a shotgun and a revolver, scalped, strangled, disemboweled, raped, guillotined , hanged, quartered, burned, dismembered with surgical instruments and lancets, cut into eighty-three pieces by an invisible Spanish dagger, bitten by a scorpion, poisoned with arsenic, eaten by a cougar, strangled with a pearl necklace and whipped. She was also put to sleep with a bouquet of roses, kissed by a leper and subjected to a very unusual metamorphosis, which one theater critic described: “For two hundred nights she simply decayed on the stage in front of audiences who would not trade their seats for all the gold in America. This continued for a good two minutes, during which the young woman gradually turned into a disgusting corpse.”

To give the audience a break from the tension caused by fear and madness, in the evening the dramas at the Grand Guignol were replaced by comedies, creating a kind of contrast shower effect. Thus, having “experienced horror,” the public could console itself with plays like “Ernestine is Furious,” “Fat Adele,” and “Hey, Cocotte!” Although the Grand Guignol was a popular theater in both senses of the word - it was often visited by both nearby locals and the more highbrow audience from the Comédie Française - it was not a public institution. Attending the Grand Guignol was a private affair rather than a public one, and some spectators preferred to remain anonymous. According to eyewitnesses, the iron-railed boxes at the back of the theater provoked a certain "extremism", especially during Monday matinees, when women often prepared for adultery, rushing half-dead from fear into the arms of their companions: flirting in the style of Grand Guignol. Cleaners often found stains on the chairs.

With the arrival of Jacques Jouvin, who directed the theater from 1930 to 1937, bloody performances were replaced in the repertoire by psychological drama. Seeking complete control over the theater, Jouvin forced Max to leave, who, in his opinion, attracted too much audience attention. Jouvin's mediocrity and personal ambitions accelerated the final fall of the Grand Guignol. Birth, development, death: the genre sowed the seeds of its own decline when it turned into self-parody. The excess of terrifying motives in later plays became so great that it was already difficult to believe in them. By the beginning of World War II, the theater began to decline, carried away by its own excess. The war dealt him the final mortal blow. Reality prevailed over imagination, and attendance at post-war plays began to decline. In the spring of 1958, Anaïs Nin commented on its demise in her diary: “I was devoted to the Grand Guignol, its revered abominations that once caused a shuddering horror, a blood-curdling nightmare. All our fears of sadism and perversions spilled out on this stage... The theater was empty.” In an interview conducted immediately after the closure of Grand Guignol in 1962, Carl Nonon, its last director, explained: “We will never be able to compete with Buchenwald. Before the war, everyone believed that what happened on stage was only a figment of the imagination; Now we know that all this - and worse - is possible."

Notes:

*Chien de commissaire (French) - a policeman who spends the last minutes of their lives with prisoners sentenced to death.

**Lord Chamberlain is the highest court position in Great Britain; until 1968 it issued permission to stage plays.

***Sarah Bernhardt (1844–1923) - famous French actress.

Grand Guignol Theater ( Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol) in Paris was a place where playwrights staged horrific plays of violence and revenge within the walls of a former chapel. During its 65 years of operation, Grand Guignol produced more than a thousand productions that shocked and delighted audiences. This theater has gone down in history as one of the popularizers of the horror genre for entertainment.

During his time at the Grand Guignol, de Lorde wrote 150 plays that marked the most iconic era in the life of the theater. A quiet librarian by day, de Lorde earned the nickname "Prince of Violence" for his scripts by night.

The theater's popularity continued to grow, reaching its peak during the period between the two world wars. The theater became a tourist attraction and a real hit. As in many horror stories, in Grand Guignol productions the victims were most often women. At this time, his main actress was actress Paula Maxa. She has earned the dubious title of "the most murdered woman in the world." During her career from 1917 to the 1930s. she was “deprived of her life” more than 10,000 times. She has been stabbed, shot, strangled, poisoned, and even eaten by a mountain lion. Alarmingly, she was sexually assaulted on stage 3,000 times.

But everything accompanied by nausea and sadistic entertainment could not continue indefinitely. When World War II began, the theater lost its former popularity. But even after the war, he was visited by famous guests, including Ho Chi Minh and the King of Romania, who even had a room in the backstage of the theater where he slept with his mistress. In 1962, the famous theater was closed. Its director stated that “we will never be able to compare with Buchenwald. Before the war, everyone believed that what was happening on stage was impossible in real life. But now we know that these things, and even worse, are possible."

The Grand Guignol Theater has seen many terrible scenes, but these were all productions, unlike.

History of the Horror Theater on Liteiny, St. Petersburg

“Death and the Lady”, 1906

In 1906, the Journal of the English Folk Song Society published an old English ballad, Death and the Lady, by Lesley Nelson-Burns, written between 1683 and 1700. in the form of a dialogue:
DEATH
"Fair Lady, throw those costly robes aside,
No longer may you glory in your pride;
Take leave of all your carnal vain delight,
I "m come to summon you away this night."
LADY
"What bold attempt is this? Pray let me know
From whence you come, and whither I must go.
Shall I, who am a lady, stoop or bow
To such a pale-faced visage? Who art thou?"
D. "Do you not know me? I will tell you then:
I am he that conquers all the sons of men,
No pitch of honor from my dart is free,
My name is Death! Have you not heard of me?"
L. "Yes; I have heard of them, time after time;
But, being in the glory of my prime,
I did not think you would have come so soon;
Why must my morning sun go down at noon?"
D. "Talk not of noon! you may as well be mute;
There is no time at all for vain dispute,
Your riches, gold, and garments, jewels bright,
Your house, and land, must on new owners light."
L. "My heart is cold; it trembles at such news!
Here's bags of gold, if you will me excuse
And seize on those; and finish thou their strife,
Who are wretched, and weary of their life.
Are there not many bounds in prison strong
In bitter grief? and souls that languish long,
Who could but find the grave a place of rest
From all their grief; by which they are oppres.
Besides there"s many with a hoary head
And palsied joints; from whom all joy is fled
Release thou them whose sorrows are so great,
And spare my life until a later date!"
D. "Though thy vain heart to riches is inclined
Yet thou must die and leave them all behind.
I come to none before their warrant"s sealed,
And, when it is, they must submit, and yield.
Though some by age be full of grief and pain,
Till their appointed time they must remain;
I take no bribe, believe me, this is true.
Prepare yourself to go; I"m coming for you."
L. "But if, oh! if you could for me obtain
A freedom, and a longer life to reign,
Fain would I stay, if thou my life wouldst spare.
I have a daughter, beautiful and fair,
I wish to see her wed, whom I adore;
Grant me but this, and I will ask no more?"

to fit the extra line)
D. "This is a slender frivolous excuse!
I have you fast! I will not let you loose!
Leave her to Providence, for you must go
Along with me, whether you will or no!
If Death commands the King to leave his crown
He at my feet must lay his sceptre down;
Then, if to Kings I do not favor give
But cut them off, can you expect to live
Beyond the limits of your time and space?
No! I must send you to another place."
(The last part of the music must be repeated
to fit the extra line)
L. "Ye learned doctors, now exert your skill,
And let not Death on me obtain his will!
Prepare your cordials, let me comfort find,
My gold shall fly like chaff before the wind!"
D. "Forbear to call! that skill will never do;
They are but mortals here as well as you.
I give the fatal wound, my dart is sure,
And far beyond the doctors" skill to cure.
Flow freely you can let your riches fly
To purchase life, rather than yield and die!
But, while you flourished here with all your store,
You would not give one penny to the poor.
Though in God's name they sue to you did make
You would not spare one penny for His sake.
My Lord beheld wherein you did miss,
And calls you hence, to give account of this!"
L. "Oh! heavy news! must I no longer stay?
How shall I stand at the great Judgment Day?"
Down from her eyes the crystal tears did flow,
She says, "None knows what I now undergo!
Upon my bed of sorrow here I lie!
My selfish life makes me afraid to die!
My sins are great, and manifold, and foul;
Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on my soul!
Alas! I do deserve a righteous frown!
Yet pardon, Lord, and pour a blessing down!"
Then with a dying sigh her heart did break,
And did the pleasures of this world forsake.
Thus may we see the mighty rise and fall,
For cruel Death shews no respect at all
To those of either high or low degree.
The great submit to Death as well as we.
Though they are gay, their life is but a span,
A lump of clay, so vile a creature"s Man!
Then happy they whom God hath made his care,
And die in God, and are ever happy!
The grave"s the market place where all must meet
Both rich and poor, as well as small and great;
If life were merchandise, that gold could buy,
The rich would live - only the poor would die.

One enterprising artist read this poem and came up with the idea of ​​staging it as a vaudeville show about the dangers of card games and alcohol.
Joseph Hall, a photographer from Brooklyn, helped her capture it.