For the Good of the Cause by Alexander Solzhenitsyn Read Free Book Online Page B

restore his stipend on September first.” Lidia looked at him pleadingly.
    “You’re always sticking up for them, aren’t you?” The principal shook his head and looked at her with his pale-blue eyes. “And what if he does it again?”
    “No, no, he won’t,” she assured him. They had reached the top of the stairs and could see the other teachers and the school secretary.
    “I hope you’re right.”

    He went into his cramped office and sent for his assistant and the department heads. He just wanted their assurance that they were ready to start the new school year, come what may, and that they had already prepared everything without having to be told.
    In all his years at the school, Fyodor had tried to run things to keep everything going with a minimum of intervention on his part. He had finished his studies before the war and couldn’t possibly keep up with all the latest developments in his rapidly changing field or with the specialists working under him. He was a modest man without personal ambition, and he had his own ideas about leadership. His idea of a leader was a man who, instead of following his own whims, settled things fairly by bringing together people who trusted one another and could work together harmoniously.
    Fayina, the school secretary, came into the office. Very independent, and no longer young, she was wearing a colored kerchief tied under her chin. Its loose ends trailed behind her like a pennant as she walked. She handed the principal a diploma that needed his signature and opened a bottle of India ink.
    “What’s this?” Fyodor asked blankly.
    “Gomiozina’s diploma. You remember … she couldn’t take the exam because she was ill …”
    “Yes, of course.”
    He tried the pen and dipped it in the ink. Then he clasped his right wrist firmly in his left hand. And then he signed.
    When he was wounded for the second time—that was in Transylvania—not only did his broken collarbone fail to heal properly, he also suffered severe shock. It had affected his hearing and his hands shook, so he always signed important papers in this manner.

Chapter 3
    An hour and a half later the crowd had gone. Those teachers who had to prepare experiments remained behind with their lab assistants. Students were thronging the school office to register their addresses. Lidia and the Committee members drew up their moving plan and got it approved by the principal and the department heads.
    The principal was still sitting with the dean of students when Fayina, her kerchief flying, burst into the office and announced dramatically that two limousines were coming from the town, apparently heading for the school. The principal looked out of the window and saw that two cars—one blue-green, the other gray—were indeed approaching.
    There could be no doubt about it. Some bigwigs coming to visit the school. He should really go down to meet them. But he wasn’t expecting anybody important, so he stayed where he was—at the open window on the second floor.
    Big, white clouds were swirling across the sky.
    The cars drew up to the entrance and out stepped five men in fedoras—two of them in the kind of green ones worn by the higher-ups in this town, the three others in light-colored ones. Fyodor immediately recognized the first man. It was Vsevolod Khabalygin, manager of the relay factory and hence nominally the “proprietor” of the new school building. He was a real big shot. By comparison Fyodor was a nobody, but Khabalygin had always been friendly toward him. Twice that morning Fyodor had tried to reach Khabalygin on the phone. He wanted to ask him to relent and let his building office sign for the new school and draw up a list of the work still to be done, but on both occasions he had been told that Khabalygin was out.
    Fyodor had a sudden thought. Turning to the dean, who was standing there as tall and thin as a rail, he said:
    “Grisha, maybe it’s a commission to speed things up. Wouldn’t that be