Doctor Zhivago by Boris Leonidovich Pasternak Read Free Book Online Page A

one of the organizers of the strike, went to live with the Tiverzins. He was a clean, tidy boy with regular features and red hair parted in the middle: he was always slicking it down with a brush " and straightening his tunic or the school buckle on his belt. He had a great sense of humor and an unusual gift of observation and kept everyone in fits with his clever imitations of everything he heard and saw.
    Soon after the manifesto of October 17th several revolutionary organizations called for a big demonstration. The route was from the Tver Gate to the Kaluga Gate at the other end of the town. But this was a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth. The planners quarrelled and one after the other withdrew from participation. Then, learning that crowds had nevertheless gathered on the appointed morning, they hastily sent representatives to lead the demonstrators.
    In spite of Tiverzin ' s efforts to dissuade her, his mother joined the demonstrators, and the gay and sociable Pasha went with her.
    It was a dry frosty November day with a still, leaden sky and a few snowflakes coming down one by one. They spun slowly and hesitantly before settling on the pavement like fluffy gray dust.
    Down the street people came pouring in a torrent—faces, faces, faces, quilted winter coats and sheepskin hats, men and women students, old men, children, railwaymen in uniform, workers from the trolley depot and the telephone exchange in knee boots and leather jackets, girls and schoolboys.
    For some time they sang the " Marseillaise, " the " Varshavianka, " and " Victims You Fell. " Then a man who had been walking backwards at the head of the procession, singing and conducting with his cap, which he used as a baton, turned around, put his cap on his head, and listened to what the other leaders around him were saying. The singing broke off in disorder. Now you could hear the crunch of innumerable footsteps on the frozen pavement.
    The leaders had received a message from sympathizers that Cossacks were waiting to ambush the procession farther down the street. The warning had been given by telephone to a near-by pharmacy.
    " What of it? " said the organizers. " We must keep calm and not lose our heads, that ' s the main thing. We must occupy the first public building we come to, warn the people, and scatter. "
    An argument began about the best building to go to. Some suggested the Society of Commercial Employees, others the Technical School, and still others the School of Foreign Correspondence.
    While they were still arguing they reached the corner of a school building, which offered shelter every bit as good as those that had been mentioned.
    When they drew level with the entrance the leaders turned aside, climbed the steps of the semicircular porch, and motioned the head of the procession to halt. The doors opened and the procession—coat to coat and cap to cap—moved into the entrance hall and up the stairs.
    " The auditorium, the auditorium, " shouted a few voices in the rear, but the crowd continued to press forward, scattering down corridors and straying into the classrooms. When the leaders at last succeeded in shepherding it into the auditorium, they tried several times to warn it of the ambush, but no one listened to them. Stopping and going inside a building were taken as an invitation to an impromptu meeting, which in fact began at once.
    After all the walking and singing people were glad to sit quietly for a while and let others do their work for them, shouting themselves hoarse. The crowd, welcoming the rest, overlooked the minor differences between the speakers, who agreed on all essential points. In the end it was the worst orator of the lot who received the most applause. People made no effort to follow him and merely roared approval at his every word, no one minding the interruptions and everyone agreeing out of impatience to everything he said. There were shouts of " Shame, " a telegram of protest was drafted, and suddenly the