‘ “They’re thrashing a Tatar for trying to desert,” said the blacksmith angrily, his eyes fixed on a point at the far end of the ranks of men. I too looked in that direction and saw between the rows a fearful sight coming towards me. What was approaching was a man stripped to the waist and lashed to the rifles of two soldiers, who were leading him along. Alongside them walked a tall officer in a greatcoat and peaked cap, whose figure looked to me familiar. His whole body twitching, his feet slapping on the thawing snow, the man who was being punished moved towards me under a hail of blows which poured down on him from both sides, now throwing himself backwards – whereupon the NCOs leading him along on their rifles would thrust him forward, now plunging forward – whereupon the NCOs pulled him back, preventing him from falling. And keeping pace with them, walking with a firm, slightly quivering step, came the tall officer. It was her father, with his rubicund face and his white moustaches and side-whiskers.
‘At each stroke the man being punished, as if in astonishment, turned his face contorted with suffering to the side from which the blow came, and baring his white teeth, kept repeating the same few words. Only when he had got quite close to me could I make out what these words were. He was repeating, in more of a sob than a voice: “Have mercy on me, lads. Have mercy, lads.” But the lads did not have mercy on him, and as the procession drew level with me I saw the soldier standing opposite me step decisively forward, brandish his stick vigorously in the air and bring it whistling down on to the Tatar’s back. The Tatar jerked forward but the NCOs restrained him, and another similar blow fell on him from the other side, followed by another from this side, another from that … The tall Colonel kept alongside: looking now down at his feet, now at the man being punished, he was drawing the air deeply into his lungs, blowing out his cheeks, then slowly letting it out through his protruding lips. When the procession had passed the place where I was standing, I caught between the ranks of soldiers a glimpse of the man’s back. It was such a lurid, wet, red and unnatural-looking sight that I could not believe I was looking at a human body.
‘ “Jesus Christ” – said the blacksmith standing beside me.
‘The procession was now moving away from us. The blows kept on falling from both sides on the stumbling, contorted man, the drums kept on beating and the fife shrilling, and the tall, stately figure of the Colonel kept on walking with the same firm step beside the man who was being punished. All at once the Colonel stopped and quickly approached one of the soldiers.
‘ “I’ll teach you to miss the mark,” I heard his wrathful voice saying. “Going to miss it, are you? Are you?”
‘And I saw his powerful suede-gloved hand strike a puny, terrified soldier full in the face for having failed to bring down his stick hard enough on the Tatar’s bleeding back.
‘ “Give them some fresh sticks!” he shouted, looking round, and as he did so catching sight of me. He pretended not to recognize me, and frowning angrily and menacingly he turned hastily away.
‘I was filled with such a pitch of shame that not knowing where to look, as though I had been apprehended in some shameful act, I lowered my eyes and hurried off home as fast as I could. All the way I had in my ears the beating of the drums and the shrilling of the fife, and I could still hear the words “Have mercy on me, lads”, followed by the self-confident, angry voice of the Colonel shouting “Going to miss it, are you? Are you?” And meanwhile I felt in my heart an almost physical anguish, rising to the point of nausea, so that several times I had to stop and I thought I was going to vomit up all the horror with which this spectacle had filled me. I do not remember how I reached home and got into bed. But as soon as I began to fall asleep I heard and saw it all again, and I leapt out of bed.
‘ “It’s obvious that he knows something which I don’t,” I thought with reference to the Colonel. “If only I knew what he knows, then I should understand what I have just seen, and it would not upset me like this.” But however much I thought, I could not imagine what it was the Colonel knew, and it was not until that evening that I managed to fall asleep, and then only after I had been to visit a friend of mine and we had got completely drunk.
