Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - In the First Circle

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Aleksander Solzhenitsyn

The

First Circle

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The

First Circleasks to be compared to Dostoievsky. Solzhenitsyn is in the great story-telling tradition. When he introduces a character, he fills in the complete background. His portrait of a Soviet prosecutor and his family circle is unforgettable. So are chapters devoted to the brooding Stalin. A future generation of Russians will be able to come to terms with their history through books like Dr. Zhivago and The First Circle.'

DAVID PRYCE-JONES, FINANCIAL TIMES.

'Very impressive. Twenty years ago Koestler gave us his theatrically conceptualized account of Stalinism and the purges in Darkness at Noon; Solzhenitsyn makes the subject more spacious, and, as a real novelist must, places it in the lives of men and women. He shows the lives out of which opinion has grown. In his latest novel, The First Circle, he is quietly in command of powers that were scattered and now, like the great novelists, can control a beautifully orchestrated theme.'

F. S. PRITCHETT, NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS

'A book of great sadness with deep veins of humour... It is at once classic and contemporary. Reading it, we know that it has been with us for years just as we know that future generations will read it with wonder and with awe.'

THOMAS LASK, NEW YORK TIMES

Fontana Modern Novels

DOCTOR ZHIVAGO Boris Pasternak

THE

FIRST CIRCLEAlexander Solzhenitsyn

THE LEOPARD Giuseppe di Lampedusa

THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING T. H. White

AT LADY MOLLY'S Anthony Powell

CASANOVA'S CHINESE RESTAURANT Anthony Powell

WHAT'S BECOME OF WARING Anthony Powell

THE MANDARINS Simone de Beauvoir

LES BELLES IMAGES Simone de Beauvoir

THE TIN MEN Michael Frayn

THE TOWERS OF TREBIZOND Rose MaCaulay

THE AFRICAN CHILD Camara Laye

A DREAM OF AFRICA Camara Laye

THE GAB BOYS Cameron Duodu

ALEXANDER SOLZHENITSYN

The

First Circle

Translated from the Russian by Michael Guybon

COLLINS

Fontana Books

First published by William Collins and Harvill Press 1968

First issued in Fontana Books 1970

Twelfth Impression July 1972

The publishers would like to express their gratitude to Penguin Books Ltd. for permission to quote from Canto IV, The Comedy of Dante Alighieri translated by Dorothy Sayers, and to The Estate of Sir Bernard Pares for permission to quote from The Sabre Blade from 'Krylov's Fables' translated by Bernard Pares and published by Jonathan Cape Ltd.

CONDITIONS OF SALE: This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

The

First Circle(c) 1968 by Harper & Row Publishers, Incorporated

English translation (c) 1968 by Harper & Row Publishers Incorporated, New York

This English Translation (c) 1969 by William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. and Harvill Press Ltd. London

Printed in Great Britain

Calling Clear-Type Press

London and Glasgow

Although the central action of The First Circle takes place within a time-span of only three days, the book is rich in characters, most of whom are essential to the structure of the closely interlocking narrative and many of whose Russian names may seem unfamiliar. A dramatis personae is therefore appended on the following pages in the belief that it will help the reader to enjoy the book. As is the Russian practice, most of the characters are given surnames, first names and patronymics, although to minimize confusion the name-and-patronymic form of address is used sparingly in the text.

The main locale of the novel is a 'special prison' (a technological research establishment employing highly qualified political prisoners), situated in a converted country house in the outer suburbs of Moscow called MAVRINO (the stress-accent is on the first syllable).

The characters are listed in alphabetical order and described by their status or function. Real personages are marked by an asterisk; those not directly involved in the action, but referred to, are shown within square brackets.

CHARACTERS IN 'THE

FIRST CIRCLE'

*ABAKUMOV, Viktor Semyonovich = Minister of State Security (d. 1954)

ADAMSON = prisoner at Mavrino

[BOBR = prisoner at another special prison; engineer]

BOBYNIN = prisoner at Mavrino; engineer

BULATOV, Amantai = prisoner at Mavrino; engineer

BULBANYUK = General; senior official of Ministry of State Security

CHELNOV, Vladimir Yerastovich = prisoner at Mavrino; professor

*[CHIKOBAVA = Professor of Linguistics, TiflisUniversity]

'Dasha' = graduate student, MoscowUniversity

DOBROUMOV = Doctor

DOF-DNEPROVSKY = prisoner at Mavrino

DORONIN, Rostislav ('Ruska') = prisoner at Mavrino

DVOYETYOSOV = prisoner at Mavrino; engineer

DYRSIN, 'Vanya' = prisoner at Mavrino; engineer

Erica = Hungarian graduate student at MoscowUniversity

GALAKHOV, Nikolai Arkadyevich = writer

GERASIMOVICH, Illarion = prisoner at Mavrino; physicist

KAGAN, Isaac = prisoner at Mavrino

*[KALININ, Mikhail Ivanovich = 1875-1946. Chairman of Presidium of Supreme Soviet, titular head of state]

KAMYSHAN = Lieutenant; prison officer at Mavrino

KHOROBROV, Ilya = prisoner at Mavrino; engineer

KLIMENTYEV = Lieutenant-Colonel; governor of Mavrino special prison

KLYKACHOV = Lieutenant; prison officer at Mavrino

KNYAZHITSKY = prisoner at Mavrino; professor

KONDRASHOV-IVANOV = prisoner at Mavrino; artist

*[KOSTOV, Traicho = Bulgarian Communist leader]

LANSKY, 'Alyosha' = literary critic

Ludmila = graduate student at MoscowUniversity

LYUBIMICHEV, Viktor = prisoner at Mavrino

MAKARYGIN, Pyotr = Major-General; State Prosecutor

MAKARYGIN, Alevtina = his wife

MAKARYGIN, Danera = his daughter; married to Galakhov

MAKARYGIN, Datoma ('Dottie') = his daughter; married to Volodin

MAKARYGIN, Clara = his daughter; 'free' worker at Mavrino

MAMURIN ('The Man in the Iron Mask') = prisoner at Mavrino; ex-colonel

MARKUSHEV = prisoner at Mavrino; engineer

*[MARR, Nikolai = professor of Linguistics]

MISHIN = Major; Security Officer at Mavrino

Musa = graduate student at MoscowUniversity

NADELASHIN = Junior Lieutenant; prison officer at Mavrino

NERZHIN, Gleb Vikentich = prisoner at Mavrino; mathematician

NERZHIN, 'Nadya' = his wife

Olga = graduate student of MoscowUniversity

OROBINTSEV = prisoner at Mavrino

OSKOLUPOV = Major-General; senior official of Ministry of State Security

[PETROV = official of Foreign Ministry]

*POSKRYOBYSHEV, Alexander = Stalin's private secretary

POTAPOV, Andrey Andreyevich = prisoner at Mavrino; engineer

PRYANCHIKOV, Valentin = prisoner at Mavrino; engineer

RADOVIC, Dushan = Serbian Communist

RICHTMAN, Max = prisoner at Mavrino; Austrian

ROITMAN, Adam = Major; officer in charge of acoustics research at Mavrino

RUBIN, Lev Grigoryevich = prisoner at Mavrino; philologist

RYUMIN, Mikhail Dmitriyevich = senior official of Ministry of State Security

Serafima Vitalyevna ('Simochka') = 'free' worker at Mavrino

SEVASTYANOV = Deputy Minister of State Security

SHCHAGOV = graduate student of MoscowUniversity

SHCHEVRONOK = official of Foreign Ministry

SHUSTERMAN = Senior Lieutenant; prison officer at Mavrino

SIMMEL, Reinhold = prisoner at Mavrino; former SS Obersturmbann-fuhrer

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