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Day of the Oprichnik

by Vladimir Sorokin · 2006

One of The Telegraph's Best Fiction Books 2011. Moscow, 2028. A cold, snowy morning. Andrei Danilovich Komiaga is fast asleep. A scream, a moan, and a death rattle slowly pull him out of his drunken stupor—but wait… more

11 quotes ★ 3.74 (9,959) Fiction

Quotes from the Book

Executioners and army elders in Russia are allowed to curse. His Majesty exempted them in recognition of their difficult professions. Danilkov
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Gran idea la del padre del Monarca, el difunto Nikolay Platónovich, cuando decretó liquidar todos los supermercados foráneos y sustituidos por los quioscos rusos. Y que cada uno tuviera dos variedades de cada artículo para que el pueblo pudiera elegir. Sabia y profunda medida. Es mejor para la paz de espíritu de este pueblo de Dios elegir entre dos y no entre tres o treinta y tres. Eligiendo entre dos, nuestras santas gentes no sólo evitan las cuitas del alma, los innecesarios ajetreos de la duda y el deseo, sino que se reafirman en los valores permanentes, en las costumbres asentadas, disipando la inquietud de un mañana mudable y caprichoso, y acompasado de esta suerte lo que necesitan con lo que tienen a su alcance, quedan conformes. ¿Qué mejor garantía para afrontar cualquier reto que un pueblo satisfecho?
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Hoy atravesaremos el éter, las transparentes rutas celestes, volando en derechura al occidente, al lejano país, al lejano y ubérrimo país que se extiende allende la Mar Océana, que se extiende y florece y rebosa de oro y plata y metales preciosos, el lejano país donde se alzan altas torres, las más altas de la tierra, altas y puntiagudas, desafiando al cielo, horadándolo soberbias. Torres habitadas por gentes libertinas, desvergonzadas, impías, corrompidas gentes, sin temor alguno del Supremo Hacedor, hordas impúdicas, ruines, que chapotean en su iniquidad, y en placeres pecaminosos se revuelcan, y se burlan de lo santo. Se burlan y ríen al amparo de Satán, escupiendo sus miasmas a la Santa Rusia, a la Santa y Ortodoxa Rusia, pasando entre burlas los Días de la Verdad ofendiendo a la Verdad, ensuciando el nombre divino. (...) Adivinábamos, veíamos en medio de la Mar Océana el enorme buque de seis puentes que navegaba implacable hacia el Este procedente del país infame y felón, cargado de mercancías envilecedoras, cargado de propaganda subversiva, cargado de gente impía, podridas meretrices, palomas sucias. Rezumante de jolgorios demoníacos, rezumante de placeres satánicos, rezumante de perfumes de lupanar.
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Fuck your own mother, it will be less expensive.
I’ve never had a problem with Jews. My departed father wasn’t a kike eater either. He told me that people used to say that anyone who played the violin more than ten years automatically became a Jew. Mama, may she rest in peace for eternity, didn’t have any problems with Jews; she said it wasn’t the Yids that were dangerous for Russia, but the pseudo-Jews, people whose blood was Russian but pretended to be kikes. [...] But not all were such Jew lovers as my relatives.
They’re envious because they’re slaves. They know how to pretend. But they don’t really love us, the powerful. And they never will. If they had the chance—they’d cut us to pieces.
And the main square of the country became genuinely krasny - red as in krasivo, beautiful.
Batya was the first link in the iron chain of the oprichniks. After him other links were attached, welded, fused into the Great Ring of the oprichnina, its sharp barbs pointed outward. With this ring His Majesty drew a sick, rotting, collapsing country together, he lassoed it like a wounded bear, dripping ichor blood. And the bear grew strong of bone and muscle, its wounds healed, it put on fat, its claws grew out. And we let its blood, blood that was rotten, poisoned by enemies. Now the roar of the Russian bear is heard by the entire world.
When you've lost your head, you don't fret about your hair.
The fist is its own Lord and master.
Snow covers the Earth's shame. And the soul is purer for it.

About Vladimir Sorokin

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About the book

One of The Telegraph's Best Fiction Books 2011.

Moscow, 2028. A cold, snowy morning.

Andrei Danilovich Komiaga is fast asleep. A scream, a moan, and a death rattle slowly pull him out of his drunken stupor—but wait, that's just his ring tone. And so begins another day in the life of an oprichnik, one of the czar's most trusted courtiers—and one of the country's most feared men.

Welcome to the new New Russia, where futuristic technology and the draconian codes of Ivan the Terrible are in perfect synergy. Corporal punishment is back, as is a divine monarch, but these days everyone gets information from high-tech news bubbles, and the elite get high on hallucinogenic, genetically modified fish.

Over the course of one day, Andrei Komiaga will bear witness to—and participate in—brutal executions; extravagant parties; meetings with ballerinas, soothsayers, and even the czarina.

Book details

First published
2006
Genre
Fiction
Goodreads rating
3.74 (10k ratings)

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