Memoir of a Gulag Actress

Glossary

G L O S S A R Y Anders Army—a Polish regiment, headed by General Wladislaw Anders, formed in 1941, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union and Stalin’s invalidation of the Soviet-German partition of Poland. Many Polish POWs were released from prisons and camps in order to join in the war effort, Anders among them. Article 107—one of the bytovye (“everyday life”) criminal offenses, for example , theft of state property during the war (“state property” included ears of corn on collective farms’ lands). Aurora—the Aurora Cruiser became a symbol of the Bolshevik Revolution when, on October 25, 1917, its crew fired a blank shot to signal the assault on the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. balanda—prison soup. banya—a Russian bathhouse. barynya (fem. of barin, “landowner”)—a traditional Russian dance. Bolshoy Dom (literally, “big house”)—the unofficial name of the Secret Service headquarters in Leningrad, situated on Liteyny Prospect, which also included the investigation prison on neighboring Shpalernaya Street. Bronze Horseman—the statue, by E. M. Falconet, of the Russian emperor Peter the Great in St. Petersburg, erected in 1782 on the Neva embankment ; also the name of Aleksandr Pushkin’s famous poem (1833), which solidified the symbolic meaning of the statue in Russian society, literature and culture. burzhuyka—a portable metal stove, popular in Russia around the time of World War II, with the pipe reaching outside through the window; often placed in the middle of a room (or a train car, etc.). Glossary 473 bytoviki (from byt, “everyday life”)—a category of prisoners convicted of nonpolitical crimes; unlike political prisoners, the Enemies of the People , they were considered by the authorities to be “socially close” (sotsialno blizkie), which earned them shorter terms and a privileged position in the camps. chastushka—a traditional Russian poetic form (trochaic quatrain), usually humorous or satirical, often put to music; bears a resemblance to limericks. collectivization—the policy of the Soviet government during the late 1920s and early 1930s to deprive peasants of their land and property for the benefit of collective farms (kolkhoz); it caused a wave of famine in the countryside, especially in 1932–1934. dacha—a country house, usually of wood, used primarily in the summer. Day of Ivan Kupala—the day of St. John the Baptist, July 7 (June 24, Old Style), celebrated in Russian Orthodoxy, especially by the youth; it involves many rites connected with water as an element of fertility and purification. Decembrist—on December 14 (December 26, New Style), 1825, in Senate Square in St. Petersburg, an uprising took place to protest Nicolas I’s assumption of the throne. The uprising was suppressed, and many rebels were sent into exile in Siberia, followed by their wives (hence, “Decembrist ’s wife”). dekulakization—a campaign launched by the Soviet authorities in 1929– 1932 against well-off peasants (kulaks), who were regarded as class enemies ; it was accompanied by collectivization. densification—a literal translation of the Russian uplotnenie, which in the 1920 and 1930s was used to refer to the state-authorized process of forcing the owners of large apartments in the cities to “share” their living quarters with people arriving in the capitals from the countryside , whereby many private residencies were turned into communal apartments. Glossary 474 desyatina—a Russian unit of area used until 1918, equal to 2.75 acres (1.1 hectares, or 11 square meters). Doctors’ Plot—an alleged conspiracy of several prominent Kremlin doctors who were accused of poisoning and killing leaders of the state. The campaign, launched in 1952, ended with Stalin’s death in 1953; since the majority of the accused doctors were Jewish, it triggered a strong wave of anti-Semitism. 58-ers—political prisoners prosecuted under one of the numerous paragraphs of notorious Article 58 of the Soviet Criminal Code. Frunze—the name of the capital of Kirghizia in 1926–1991 (in honor of the Bolshevik leader Mikhail Frunze), now renamed Bishkek. Gulag—an acronym for Glavnoe Upravlenie Lagerey (Chief Administration of Camps), a body of government that administered the system of hardlabor camps and prisons throughout the Soviet Union. kazakin—a traditional dress, usually trimmed with silver or gold lace; a shorter version of the caftan. kishlak—a rural settlement in Central Asia. kokoshnik—a traditional headdress, often embroidered with jewelry, for women and girls. kolkhoz (from kollektivnoe khozyaystvo, “a collective farm”)—this form of state-owned agricultural economic...