"Part One.
It's situated in Russia, 1911. Main character Yakov Bok is looking outside the window. He knows something had happened, soldiers everywhere. He goes outside, asks around, nobody talks. The next day he reads it in the paper: a twelve year old boy named Zhenia (Zheniuska) Golov was murdered. He was found by two boys (15): Zazimir Selivanov, Ivan Shestinsky.
He was stabbed. After the funeral Jews were accused of this. Pamphlets about this accusation were spread by the BLACK HUNDREDS ORGANIZATION. Yakov also reads in the paper that the boy was killed for religious purposes, and because he is jewish, Yakov is afraid. He had been living in a non-Jewish area for months under a false name. And his father was killed because he was Jewish.
Yakov is writing his father-in-law (it's five months back). Two months ago Yakov's wife Raisl fled. The name of the father-in-law is Shmuel. He asks Yakov if he blames him for Raisl. No, says Yakov, you blame yourself for raising a whore. They argue a little Yakov is angry, he got nothing, wife couldn't give him kids, no she ran off with a stranger, the only he's got is sixteen Roubles. When the argument gets to bad, Yakov fled from the house. after a while Shmuel comes out and asks him not to go because maybe Raisl comes back. But Yakov is going to Kiev anyway. He wants to live decently, earn money, get company and education. they ride through the village together and after a while they have to part. Shmuel tells Yakov not to forget his God & the fact he's a Jew.
He has a difficult time leaving because he left his friends, habits, memories. but on the other hand he wants to leave. Because he's ashamed, he's a childless father and then (in his religion) he is said to be "alive but dead". So he rides on and after a while he takes a break, feeds the horse and goes on. Then he sees an old lady and gives her a ride, but when they go round the corner they hit a rock and the wheel breaks. The woman gets off and walks on. Yakov stares at the wheel and waits a while for somebody to come by but nobody does. Then he tries to ride with only three wheels and that works, but when he caught up with the old lady, the other wheel breaks too. So then he mounts his orse and leaves the car behind. He has a little trouble with the horse because he hasn't had one before. The night has fallen and it's very dark on the steppe. Yakov just rides on, though.
Yakov has come to the water, but the ferry was closed down, said the boatman. But he was willing to row him across for a rouble. At first Yakov thinks it's too much but the boatman says that the horse won't last walking to the bridge. It's very old. So the boatman will get the horse instead of the rouble. the boatman will get the horse instead of the rouble. The boatman says, while they are in the boat, that he's glad Yakov isn't a Jew. Because he hates them, they should burn them all.
Part two.
Yakov is in Kiev. He doesn't know where to go so he goes into a church and prays. When he comes outside he sees some beggars.
Yakov is now for over a month in Kiev. He's living in the Jewish quarter in a small house with Aaron Latke. He is still looking for a job as a fixer but when he fixes something in the apartment, he gets food. When he's walking down the street, he sees a man lying with his face down on the street, when Yakov turns him over, he sees he's red&blue in his face. Yakov also sees that he has a white/black pin on his coat. It's the sign of the Black Hundreds movement. At first he wants to run away but he helps him, then his daughter uns up to the man and she asks Yakov to help her father, together they carry him into the house. And the father thanks Yakov not knowing that he's a Jew. His daughter, Zinaida Nikolaevna makes Yakov promise that he'll return in the morning so that her father, Nikolai Maximovitch Lebedev can thank him. He thinks about it because he's a Jew hater but decides to go. When he arrives there, he says he's Yakov Ivanovitch Dologushev (a false name). He lies about his name because maybe Nikolai could notice he's Jewish. Nikolai starts to talk a while about Yakov's work, education, place of birth, psalms and his own emotional nature. Yakov can only think about reward, then his daughter brings in the tea. After tea follows the reward: Yakov can redecorate one of Nikolais apartments for 40 roubles. But Yakov has to show passport. He lies and says the police has got it. So he works, he gets lunch&supper. One night he has supper with Zina, when he goes back to work, she follows him and watches him all the time. She talks to him very confident about her loneliness and everything. He thinks how is will be if they were in bed together. And when the rooms are finished, Mikolai is very impressed and asks Yakov to come and work for him. As a bookkeeper. He has to pay wages, collect orders etc. Gets 40 roubles a month and a place to live. He agrees. That night again Ziha asks him for dinner and he agrees. They eat&drink a lot. And she asks him if he loves her, he says no (she's russian). And then they kiss and she wants to show him her room. He goes with her. They both undress but when Yakov comes out of the lavatory he sees her leg is bleeding (she's cripple) and he leaves (she is having her period).
Yakov is working for Nikolai and still haven't told him that he's a Jew. Nikolai told him that there was something wrong because number of bricks that are loaded do not agree with number on paper. So Yakov has to stay with loading so nothing is stolen. And when Yakov tends it to the foreman, Proshko, he doesn't agree. Proshko knows that Zina is going on with Yakov. He says he talks like a Turk. Every morning at about 4 o'clock, Yakov counts the bricks. The men who work there, ignore him, but Nikolai is very glad with his word and says to keep up this work. After work he's always alone and the he reads a lot, does Russian exercises, writes essays. He receives a letter from Zina, to come over, but he doesn't reply because he's got nothing to say. Yakov is doing very well but after some time he sees that he's got little money left so he goes back to a more sober life. One day when he's walking down the street, he sees an old man (Jew) being beaten up. After the men are gone, he helps him, takes him with him to office and cleans his wounds. They have to be very careful because the men are coming into work. So when the snowing steped, the old Jew sneeked away. The next day he reads the paper about the bou who was killed. And he recognizes the boy. H chased him of the property once with a friend. The mother name = Marfa Golov. A few days later the boy was buried. The next morning when he was leaving with his tools he was arrested by Colonel I.P. Bodyanski and a lot ol soldiers.
Part three.
Yakov is brought to a cell after an embarrassing march down the street. Two guards watch him all the time. Then a man comes in B.A. Bibikov, an investigating magistrate, when he asks Yakov if he killed the child, he flies into a rage. Then they have a long talk about Spinoza and other philosophers. After that he fives Yakov a questionnaire which he has to fill out. The man will return tomorrow.
The next morning he's brought to a room where Bibikov is sitting. He's not feeling comfortable by a portrait of Tsar Nich second. Bibikov will ready the statement of Nikolai, his former employer. Nikolai said Yakov was a deceiver from the beginning, Nikolai saw a few things that weren't right from the start. Yakov wants a lawyer but that's impossible. And then they talk about Yakov being a Jew. Yakov says he is one but also a freethinker because he doesn't always agree with the Jewish way of thinking. Bibikov says when his passport says "Jew" the jewish laws should be followed by him. They talk a while about other stuff like Yakov being member of a political party. Then two men come into the office. Bodyanski&Grubeshov, prosecuting attorney. Then they read him the statement of Zina. She says he tried to assault her. Yakov gets angry because it's not true. He tells them it's not true, okay they undressed but when he saw she had her period (blood on cripple leg) he left immediately.
They also have got the letters from Nikolai and Zina. And they say that Yakov will not be convicted for sexual assault. But he will be convicted for living in a forbidden for Jews-area. And he has to go to jail for a month. They again start to ask questions about his religion. They don't believe him when he says that he's not religious because they found a matzos in his office (the old Jew) which are only eaten by very religious Jews. So he tells them about the man who was hit by rocks. They ask on, they found the bloodstained shirt. They also ask him about him chasing boys, b.e. twelve year old boy (who was killed).
When he gets back to his cell, weo new prisoners have joined him in his cell, Akimytch, a former tailor&Potseikin, who was deceived. A man said to him he had to go to the bathroom and Potseikin had to hold his pamphlets. The man didn't come back. And he was arrested by the police. Yakov also has to tell them why he's there. When he tells them why he's there they start to hurt him because he's a Jew.
Part four.
Now Proshko is being heard, he also accuses Yakov of setting the barns with four horses on fire with jewish magic. Potseikin says he knew it immediately that Yakov was a Jew. He also says that Yakov stole roubles. Only three or four at a time so that Nikolai wouldn't notice. But that's not true, because Potseikin used to steal and Yakov knew it. He salso accuses Yakov from other things and two of his workers also verify it.
Yakov is taken to the house of the killed boy. They (the police) are going to see if they can find anything and ask the mother for a statement. She tells them Zhenia wanted to be a priest. One day when she left early and came home late that night from work, Zhenia wasn't home. That night his mother Marfa gets the flu and stays in bed for a week. After that week she reports him as missing. She tells the police that her boy was very much afraid of the Jew in the brick yard and he almost hurted him. And the boys once saw a bottle of blood in Yakov's cabin. He gets mad and cries that it was a bottle of strawberry jam. Then another man is asking Marfa questions about her receiving stolen goods, and she says it's not true. And on another question if she blinded her lover with acid she answers she did it out of defence. He used to beat her up and also her child. Then they leave and leave Marfa behind in a terrible condition.
Now they are all going to the cave where the boy was found. There they tell him he could better confess. Everybody really thinks he did it. But he can't confess anything he didn't do.
Part five.
Everybody still thinks he did it. The prosecuting attorney gives him the chance to sign a form which gives him the chance to sigh a form which gives him the chance to confess so the sentence will be less, but he refuses to sign because he didn't do it. The prosecuting attorney gets really angry and hits Yakov just like the guards.
Yakov is transferred to another jail the wardens instantly hate him. He gets other clothes. And he's put in damp little cell. He has to stay there for a month. Then he will be transferred or tried.
In this cell everybody thinks he is a spy because he hasn't been shaved. So a man named Fetyokov, who murdered a stranger in an inn, hits him in the head to see if he tells the guard. Yakov doesn't, so the trust him. They don't mind him being a Jew.
Yakov feels really helpless, then a new prisoner comes in: Gregor Gronfein. He is also a Jew and they get along very well. Gregor is rich, gets often food packages. When he is set free, Yakov can write letters and Gregor will post them. But half an hour later Yakov is called at the warden's. They have forbidden him to write and now Gregor has betrayed Yakov by showing them the letters.
Yakov has a really long talk with Bibikov who has faith in him. Bibikov thinks Zheia's mother&her lover did it because Zhenia threatened to tell everything about their illegal business to the police.
It's really boring. Sometimes he has a conversation with a fellow prisoner by banging their shoes against the walls. When they've had the soup Yakov finds out his door is open (guard=drunk). At the end of the hall the door is also open. First Yakov thinks about escaping but maybe they did it on purpose so they could shoot hom. When he walks out the second time he looks through a ceit-hole and sees a man hanging on his belt: dead. It's Bibikov.
Part six.
Yakov has all sorts of wounds on his feet and goes to the ifirmary. There he is operated on and gets a bed. He's so tirde he sleeps for a day and a half. The guard tells him that his friend Fetyokov was killed for resisting a guard.
Yakov gets a new cell, he is treated a little better. He gets wood to warm his cell. Then all sorts of tests are done with him, they cut a bit of his hair, took fingerprints, handwriting samples and searched his body for weapons.
Yakov gets better food. Because the police don't want him to die. After a while he's sick and the doctor says he has a stomachache. He thinks he's being poisoned by the guards and fast it becomes so bad, that they allow him to take his food out of the common pot in the kitchen.
Yakov has nothing to do but his request for wood and tools is denied. He may not write, read or anything. But he gets a broom to sweep his floor. So how he can get a little busy. Nobody still knows when he's being indicted.
Yakov is bored. So he thinks about the things he learned. Spinoza, biology. And thinks about the psalms he used to sing and loudly translates them into Russian.
Yakov thinks of meeting Raisl. Her family moved around, but in there town, her mother died, so they stayed, they liked each other and got married. But Raisl wanted to leave and Yakov didn't, so one day she was gone.
Yakov has been in prison now for nine months. And all he can do is wait. It makes him mad. He knows when he's living because he has cut off little splinters for days and big splinters fo months. He gets so mad he tears off his clothes but gets new ones.
His indictment is ready. He gets to go outside to the Court House and enjoys the freedom. There he is accused of all sorts of things he really didn't do. Officer says he'd better confess that he did it unwillingly by order of his religious organization and then he gets a passport. But he doesn't believe tit so he says he has nothing to confess. He says he wants to see Bibikov's assistant. But he's arrested for not saluting when playing the national anthem.
Yakov is mad. He now knows his fate. He can't believe that the Tsar believes he's guilty and want to punish him.
Part seven.
Yakov has got a little book with Jewish verses but it's taken from him. The guard Zhitnyak gives him a copy of the New Testament but he can't tell anyone. He reads them. Later another guard, Kogin, finds out. He won't tell anyone if he reads him sometimes, Yakov does that, Yakov also asks for pencil&paper to write something but Kogin doesn't fall for that.
One day a priest comes in who had a sign from God to go and help him. But Yakov doesn't want to be helped by a Christian priest. And when he's gone, again his body is searched and his cell too. Officer finds New Testament and takes it with him.
Yakov's daily routine falls apart because dis broom&lomb have worn dowm. Now he has nothing else to do but read (he has a few pages left). He may not walk to the kitchen anymore. They bring him his food.
Yakov receives a letter from Marfa where she asks him to confess everything and she accuses him of several other things that Zhenia told her, but they are not true the guard says he can only answer her if he's willing to admit those mistakes.
Yakov has all sorts of dreams where for example Zhenia, Marfa, the Tsar and the Officer are in. When he's awake he asks Zhenia what's wrong with him. He says Yakov is said to have a fever. And he has broken some furniture.
One day, suddenly there is Shmuel. They can talk for 10 minutes. Zhitnyak's brother arranged it. Yakov asks Shmuel to get him some help.
Part eight.
It has come to light that Shmuel was in jail. Zhitnyak is arrested and there is a new guard: Berezhinsky. Yakov is chained to the wall all day and to his bed all night. His body is searched six times a day. He wants to die and he thinks about provoking the guards so they'd shoot him.
Kogin tells Yakov he has problems of his own. His son has killed an old man where he broke into. He has got the maximum sentence of 20 years of labour in Siberia. But some days later they hear that he has drowned himself on the way to Siberia.
Yakov is given his indictment but there are a lot of lies in them. Then the guard comes and takes it back because he's not allowed to see it.
One day Yakov gets out of his cell, gets a haircut and can wash himself. He has got a visitor: Raisl. They sit and just look at each other. Then they talk. At first Yakov is mad at raisl. But Raisl has come back to the shietl. She has given birth to a son: Chaim. She has to give Yakov a confession to sign, but he won't sign. All he does is writes a paper which says that he's the father of Chaim.
Part nine.
He's chained again. Then a jurist comes in and tells him that he's being pardoned for his crime. But he doesn't agree because he's innocent. Then there is the second indictment. There are still things he didn't do in it.
Grubeshov is visiting Yakov. He says that he's better confessing because if he's going to wait for the trial, he will be doomed.
A lawyer comes: Julias Ostrovsky. Well, he used to be his lawyer but how he's a witness. He is accused of trying to bribe Marfa. His new lawyer=Suslov Smirnov. He is really good. Ostrovsky says they still have got a chance. His lawyer tells him Shmuel died.
He thinks it all over. He talked to his real lawyer four times. Some days later the guard tells the trial is about to start.
In the night before the trial, he has a dream where he sees all dead people: Bibikov, Zhenia, Shmuel, all other prisoners that were in that cell.
When he wakes up he gets to wash him and put on his own clothes. Then when they go, the master guard wants to search him again and he has to take off all his clothes. Yakov gets angry and the guard threatens to shoot him. Kogin says Yakov has been through enough. So the head warden kills Kogin.
Yakov is driven to Courthouse, in a carriage of the Cassacks. It's crowded on the street. A bomb is thrown at the carriage, which severely wounds one cossock. Yakov imagines him, killing Tsar Nich the second in the carriage. He is now a hero.
"(http://home.iae.nl/users/jacobsg/fixere.htm)
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