经济学人136:前苏联的末途 行尸走肉

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　　前苏联的末途

　　Walking dead

　　行尸走肉

　　The cruelty of the last years of the Soviet Union

　　前苏联—充满折磨的晚年

　　The Last Man in Russia: The Struggle to Save a Dying Nation.By Oliver Bullough.

　　《俄罗斯最后一人：拯救行将灭亡之国》

　　STAGNATION², writes Oliver Bullough in his haunting account of the late Soviet Union, is not sexy. Biographies of Stalin and Mikhail Gorbachev abound³, but nobody has written seriously about Leonid Brezhnev, on whose watch the Soviet Union sank into drunken decay. The author of a definitive⁴ book about the tortured history of the north Caucasus, Mr Bullough has a good sense of how the traumas⁵ of Russia's past affect its present. His new book is a mixture of travelogue⁶ and biography, as he traces the life of Father Dmitry Dudko, an Orthodox priest who exemplified both resistance to Soviet rule and defeat at its hands.

　　奥利弗布洛写过一本描述前苏联晚年的著作，阅读之后令人过目难忘，不过其中“停滞部分”却让人不愿直视。关于斯大林和戈尔巴乔夫的传记汗牛充栋，勃列日涅夫却鲜有人问津，即便他眼睁睁地看着前苏联陷入混沌恍惚的泥潭。关于叙述北高加索伤痕累累历史的著作，布洛的《让我们名声大噪》无疑是最好的一本，也就是说，对于俄罗斯过去的创伤如何影响当今时代—布洛的嗅觉像狗一样灵敏。布洛的这本新书集游记和传记于一体，主线以东正教传教士德米特里杜德科神父的一生为轴。德米特里杜德科神父代表了一类人，首先反对苏联制度，之后却臣服于它。

　　前苏联.jpg

　　The Orthodox hierarchy⁷ in the post-war Soviet Union was tainted⁸ by collaboration⁹ with the KGB. For those repelled¹⁰ by the sterility¹¹ and corruption¹² of the official ideology¹³, religion was part of the axis¹⁴ of resistance. So the authorities kept the lid on, and religious practice beyond the liturgy¹⁵ was risky¹⁶.

　　由于同克格勃合作，二战后的前苏联东正教教义算是蒙上了一层不堪的色彩。所有厌恶政府思想体系下不作为和腐败的角色中，宗教处在抗争的洪流中心。所以，政府当局一直在雪藏宗教，而宗教习俗也不再局限于礼拜仪式，开始走向危险的边缘。

　　Father Dmitry, whose post-war theological studies had been interrupted by eight years in the gulag, was a striking exception. He preached passionately¹⁷ and lucidly¹⁸. He fostered discussion and roused his flock against the degradation¹⁹, despair, abortions²⁰, alcoholism and promiscuity²¹ of Soviet life. He resolutely²² opposed anti-Semitism. Jews were “sacred friends”, he said. In the early 1970s his sermons became a sensation, published in the West and in samizdat in the Soviet Union. The Communist authorities objected. He defied them. They exiled him to a distant village. His flock followed him there. The authorities moved him again. And on it went.

　　德米特里杜德科神父战后研究宗教学，期间由于羁押在古拉格而中断八年。他可以说是人尽皆知的异数。德米特里杜德科神父传教富有激情、条理清晰，并且鼓励集思广益，号召教徒反对国家的倒退，抗击前苏联令人绝望生活中的病症，比如堕胎、酗酒和滥交。毋庸置疑，他是坚决反对反犹太主义的。用他的话说，犹太人是“神圣的朋友”。上世纪70年代，他所著的长篇训诫引起不小的轰动，西方国家和前苏联地下都有出版，当然共产党当局是明令禁止的。德米特里杜德科神父同他们抗争，政府将他流放到了边远农村。教徒们继而一路追随。政府又转移他的流放地，教徒继续跟随。最后就是“政府藏，教徒追”。

　　He began to see the Soviet system as the source of his country's ills. In 1977 he told the New York Times of the “diabolic storm” that had broken on his country. “Our nation has become corrupted²³, the family has fallen apart, the nation has got drunk, traitors²⁴ have betrayed each other.” That was true. But by the late 1970s detente was ending. Fame in the West was no protection. Even a lone²⁵ independent-minded priest was an existential—and intolerable—threat for the brittle²⁶ Soviet leadership. The fledgling dissident movement was systematically²⁷ crushed—by imprisonment²⁸, exile, coercive psychiatry²⁹ or ferocious³⁰ pressure on family members.

　　德米特里杜德科神父开始认识到前苏联大的系统正是国家症结所在。1977年，他向“纽约时报”讲道，说“罪恶的风暴”搅得这个国家天翻地覆。“我们的国家腐败透顶，家庭支离破碎，我们的国家此时就像一个醉汉，卖国贼之间互相叛变。”他没说错。不过，70年代后期国际紧张关系不再处在缓和状态，西方国家不再顾及名声。在脆弱不堪的前苏联领导层面看来，甚至一个单独具有独立思想的神父也成了实实在在并且不能再坐视不管的威胁。异见运动还没孵化就遭到有计划的打击——监禁、流放、强加精神病罪名亦或异见者家人承受着不堪重负的压力。

　　In January 1980 Father Dmitry was arrested. His friends prayed; the West protested. But he emerged six months later, a changed man: a zealous³¹, repentant³² patriot³³ who, in a sensational³⁴ television broadcast, admitted to working with foreign powers against the Soviet state. Worse, he denounced his friends and helpers.

　　1980年1月，德米特里杜德科神父遭逮捕。他的朋友开始祈祷，西方国家表示抗议。不过在六个月之后，德米特里杜德科神父不再是之前德米特里杜德科神父：“洗心革面”之后的他成了一位热忱的爱国志士。他在电视广播中的表态令人震惊：承认与外国势力里勾外连，以反对前苏联政府。更不堪的是，他还揭发了自己的朋友和战友。

　　It was a huge propaganda coup³⁵ for the regime. He showed no signs of torture, drugs or exhaustion³⁶. One of his followers³⁷ wrote an open letter accusing the KGB of the “murder of my spiritual father”.

　　对于政权而言，大篇幅的宣传获得了意想不到的成功。在他身上，人们看不出一丝拷打或者下了迷魂药的迹象，而他也不显一丝疲态。德米特里杜德科神父的一位追随者发表了一封公开信，谴责克格勃“谋杀了自己的灵魂长者”。

　　Mr Bullough explains the mystifying conversion³⁸. The KGB played on his fears of renewed imprisonment and separation from his family. A skilful³⁹ interrogator⁴⁰, Vladimir Sorokin found and enlarged the “chink” in his victim's soul: patriotism⁴¹. Surely no true, law-abiding Russian could side with the enemies of his country?

　　布洛在书中解释了这一令人匪夷所思的转变。克格勃利用了德米特里杜德科神父恐惧二进宫的心理以及害怕同家人再度分开的心情。弗拉基米尔索罗金深谙审讯之道，他在手中这位受害者的灵魂之中察觉到了一个致命的软肋，并且将其放大：爱国主义。但是，真就没有一个真正并且守法的俄国人会站在国家敌人这一边了吗？

　　Later Father Dmitry was filled with remorse⁴². But it was too late. Dogged by loneliness and guilt⁴³, and unable to resurrect his crusade for trust, hope and faith, he descended⁴⁴ into the fetid swamps of Russian nationalism, wallowing in the paranoid anti-Semitism he had once eschewed⁴⁵. The brave, happy and confident man of the 1960s and 1970s became a miserable⁴⁶ racist⁴⁷, a campaigner for hatred⁴⁸ and nihilism.

　　之后，虽然德米特里杜德科神父心理满是悔恨，但是为时已晚。孤独和罪恶感陪着他走完余生，其间他一直苦于不能重塑自己当年“为信任、希望和信念而战斗的形象”。他深陷散发着“俄罗斯式爱国主义”恶臭的泥潭之中，沉浸在多疑好猜忌的反犹太主义之中，即使这是他曾经一度反对的。60年代勇敢、自信、快乐的德米特里杜德科神父死了，70年代的德米特里杜德科神父变成一个卑鄙无耻的种族主义分子，一个满脑子仇恨、虚无缥缈的沿街叫骂的人。

　　Mr Bullough largely succeeds in using this sad tale as a metaphor⁴⁹ for the fate of the Soviet Union. He weaves the woes⁵⁰ of past decades into his journeys to wretched villages, along with the lies and greed in the metropolis⁵¹. Father Dmitry may be all but forgotten in modern Russia, but his old self would have plenty to say about it.

　　布洛以这则悲情故事来充当前苏联命运的影子，新书也因此获得了巨大的成功。在过去的几十年里，他游历了一些贫穷困苦村庄，他把其中所体验的悲伤编入书中，当然还有大都市的谎言和欲望。德米特里杜德科神父或许已经消逝在现代俄罗斯人民的生活里，但是60年代的神父依然对现代俄罗斯影响深刻。

　　1.collaborate⁵² with 合作，与敌人合作

　　Stimulate⁵³ interaction between segments of the company that traditionally don't connect or collaborate with each other.

　　促进公司中那些传统上来说没有联系与合作的部门的交流。

　　And to collaborate with others on the web.

　　并且与网络上的其他人合作。

　　2.publish in 发表于

　　Click save as web page on the file menu, and then click publish in the save as dialog box.

　　单击“文件”菜单上的“另存为网页”，然后单击“另存为”对话框中的“发布”。

　　The second main kind of blogs are, in effect, niche⁵⁴ magazines that choose to publish in a blog format⁵⁵.

　　另一类博客，实际上是以博客形式发布的非主流杂志。

　　3.fall apart 散开，崩溃，破碎

　　They gave me some pills so I wouldn't fall apart.

　　他们给了我几片药以免我会崩溃掉。

　　Markets did not completely fall apart after lehman's bankruptcy⁵⁶, as some had feared, but they were highly agitated⁵⁷.

　　在雷曼破产后，市场并没有像一些人担心的那样完全崩溃，但也却是相当不安。

　　4.admit to 承认

　　And some men admit to occasional pangs⁵⁸ of insecurity.

　　许多男士也承认会偶尔会有不安全感。

　　Sandy could do nothing but admit to his teacher that he was wrong.

　　除了向他的老师承认他错了，桑迪不能做什么。

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