BY THIS time, that is, by November, 1916, the position of affairs in Russia had begun to assume a very gloomy aspect. Up to this time we, at any rate most of us, had by some miracle kept clear of "events." Now "events" were drawing nearer to us, that is to say, they were drawing nearer to each one of us personally, and we could no longer fail to notice them.
It in no way enters into my task either to describe or to analyze what was taking place. At the same time it was such an exceptional period that I cannot altogether avoid all mention of what was going on around us, otherwise I should have to admit that I had been both blind and deaf. Besides, nothing could have given such material for the study of the "mechanicalness" of events, that is, of the entire and complete absence of any element of will, as the observation of events at this period. Some things appeared or might have appeared to be dependent on somebody's will, but even this was illusion and in reality it had never been so clear that everything happens, that no one does anything.
In the first place it was clear to everyone who was able and who wanted to see it that the war was coming to an end and that it was coming to an end by itself through some deep inner weariness and from the realization, though dull and obscure yet firmly rooted, of the senselessness of all this horror. No one believed now in words of any kind. No attempts of any kind to galvanize the war were able to lead to anything. At the same time it was impossible to stop anything and all talk about the necessity of continuing the war or of the necessity of stopping the war merely showed the helplessness of the human mind which was even incapable of realizing its own helplessness. In the second place it was clear that the crash was approaching. And it was clear that nobody could stop anything nor could they avert events or direct them into some safe channel. Everything was going in the only way it could go and it could go in no other way. I was particularly struck at this time by the position of professional politicians of the left who, up to this time, had played a passive role but were now preparing to pass into an active one. To be precise they showed themselves to be the blindest, the most unprepared, and the most incapable of understanding what they were really doing, where they were going to, what they were preparing, even for themselves.
I remember Petersburg so well during the last winter of its life. Who could have known then, even assuming the very worst, that this was its last winter? But too many people hated this city and too many feared it and its last days were numbered.
1916 年11 月这个时候，俄国的事务已经越来越走下坡。到现在为止，至少我们大部份的人都奇迹似地置身于「事件」之外。现在，「事件」愈来愈靠近我们，也就是越来越逼近我们每个人，使得我们无法不再不注意。
无论如何我都不会想要描述或分析当时发生的事情。然而那是个很不寻常的时期，以至于我无法不提到我们周遭发生的事，否则我就得承认我是既聋又瞎。此外，再也没有别的事更能研究事件的「机械性」，亦即对这时期诸多事件的观察可以看出意志这个因素完全不存在。有些事情看起来像是依据某个人的意志而发生，但这也只是幻象，而且事实上，从来就没有这么清楚地看出来：一切都只是发生；没有人能做什么。
首先，那些能看见且愿意去看的人，能够看出这场战争已经快要自行结束，因为人们对于这一切恐怖的毫无意义已经有了一种模糊不清但又牢牢深植心中的觉知与了悟。此时没有人相信任何话，任何企图激发战斗意志的尝试都得不到结果。同时，要阻止任何事也是不可能的；「有必要继续战争」、「有必要停止战争」这类的话语仅仅显示人类的无助，他们甚至不了解自己的无助。其次，社会的大崩溃已经清楚迫近，大家都明白没有人能阻止，也没有人能避开那些事件或将其导入安全的渠道。每件事都朝着它唯一可能的路径走去，而不会朝别的方向走。特别令我心惊的是：在这之前一直扮演消极角色的左翼职业政客们，这时开始准备成为积极角色了。精确地说，显示出他们自己是最盲目、最没有准备、最没有能力了解他们自己真正在做什么、正往那里去、正在打下什么基础，甚至连为自己打下什么基础都不明白。
彼得堡的最后一个冬天，我记得多么清楚啊。谁能料想情况会坏到那是它最后一个冬天？ 但太多人憎恨这个城市，太多人怕它，它的余日已经屈指可数。
用户评论