The House of the Dead

the blacksmith’s to have our fetters knocked off. But no guard followed us with a gun; we went only accompanied by a sergeant. Our fetters were removed by our convicts in the engineer’s workshop. While they were doing my comrade, I waited and then I, too, went up to the anvil. The blacksmiths turned me round so that my back was towards them, lifted my leg up and laid it on the anvil. They bestirred themselves, tried to do their best, their most skilful.

“The rivet, the rivet, turn that first of all!” the senior commanded, “hold it, that’s it, that’s right. Hit it with the hammer now.”

The fetters fell off. I picked them up. I wanted to hold them in my hand, to look at them for the last time. I seemed already to be wondering that they could have been on my legs a minute before.

“Well, with God’s blessing, with God’s blessing!” said the convicts in coarse, abrupt voices, in which, however, there was a note of pleasure.

Yes, with God’s blessing! Freedom, new life, resurrection from the dead.⁠ ⁠… What a glorious moment!

Endnotes

1. The torture of palki or the “sticks,” described in Part II, Chapter II is meant. It was a favourite form of punishment under Nicholas I, who was nicknamed Nicholas Palka or the “stick.” Why it was called the “Green Street” I have not been able to discover.

   —⁠Translator’s Note

   ↩

2. Kantonists were soldiers’ sons brought up in a military settlement and bound to serve in the army⁠—a special class no longer existing.

   —⁠Translator’s Note

   ↩

3. Orphan⁠—in Russian sirota.

   —⁠Translator’s Note

   ↩

4. I.e. political.

   —⁠Translator’s Note

   ↩

5. A character in Gogol’s Dead Souls.

   —⁠Translator’s Note

   ↩

6. All that I am writing here about corporal punishment was true in my time. Now I am told that all this is changed and still changing. ↩

7. The year of the Polish rising.

   —⁠Translator’s Note

   ↩

8. Passports are meant.

   —⁠Author’s Note

   ↩

9. That is, living in the woods. He means that they too were tramps.

   —⁠Author’s Note

   ↩

10. This expression was literally used in my time, not only by the major, but by many petty officers, especially those who had risen from the lower ranks. ↩

11. That is, killed a man or woman, suspecting that he or she had put a spell on the cattle, causing their death. We had one such murderer amongst us. ↩

12. Tatar word. ↩

Colophon

The House of the Dead
was published in 1862 by
Fyodor Dostoevsky.
It was translated from Russian in 1915 by
Constance Garnett.

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