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MP3 8.6 MB • 80 kbps • 15:01
Story behind the song
7. Synopsis
Oleg Kostoglotov has been summoned by Dr. Ludmila Dontsova. At Kostoglotov’s appearance, Dontsova tells him to be seated, and she finishes her examination of X-rays – quite possible, those of Kostoglotov. She tells Kostoglotov that there is too large a gap in his patient history, and that they must be sure of the diagnosis, now that they have begun radiotherapy. Dontsova asks, “Are you sure there was a biopsy?” “Yes, I’m sure,” replies Kostoglotov. Dontsova is unable to understand why the biopsy, and the biopsy results, cannot be produced, and, Kostoglotov struggles to explain the obstacles and difficulties he faced, while living as a prisoner in the “Gulag” – the Soviet prison work camps. Part of Kostoglotov’s story is presented as a flashback, with a prison transport seen upstage of Oleg and Dontsova. After agreeing to provide an unofficial letter for his medical file when he returns home, Oleg asks Dontsova when he will be released from the hospital, and says that he wants to go home. Dontsova tells him, that, his cancer is one of the most dangerous kinds of cancer – quick to reappear, quick to spread further in the body. “You think you are cured. But the truth is, you are no different than when you first came here….all that’s been shown is that your tumor can be beaten…and this is the exact time you choose to go home!….”. Dontsova tells Kostoglotov that she will release him today, if he wishes. Kostoglotov is silent, as the scene ends.
Lyrics
Curtain up at :56
(The short-focus apparatus room. Two windows are open. )
Dontsova
(Is examining some X-rays against the light.)
(To Kostoglotov)
Sit down.
(Goes on comparing X-rays. Lays the X-rays aside, takes off her glasses.)
1:23
Kostoglotov, there is too big a gap in your case history. We must be absolutely certain of the nature of your primary tumor.
Dontsova
I still don’t understand why we can’t get hold of the slides with the sections of your primary. Are you absolutely sure there was a histological analysis?
Kostoglotov
Yes, I’m sure
Dontsova
In that case why were you not told the result?
Kostoglotov slow, relaxed with pleasure 2:48
The result? There were such stormy goings-on where we were, Ludmila Afanasyevna, such an extraordinary situation that I give you my word of honor….I’d have been ashamed to ask about a little thing like a biopsy. Heads were rolling. And I didn’t even understand what a biopsy was for.
Dontsova
Of course you didn’t understand. But those doctors must have understood. These things can’t be played with.
Kostoglotov
Doc-tors? Ludmila Afanasyevna, those doctors couldn’t do a thing. The first surgeon was a Ukrainian. He decided I was to have an operation and got me ready for it, and then he was taken on a prisoner’s transport the night before the operation.
Dontsova
So?
Kostoglotov
So nothing. They took him away.
Dontsova
I’m sorry but…he must have had warning. He could have…
Kostoglotov
Nobody ever warns you about a transport, Ludmila Afanasyevna. That’s the whole point. They like to pull you out unexpectedly.
Dontsova
But if he had a patient due for operation….?
Kostoglotov
Huh! Listen to me: they brought in a Lithuanian who’d done an even better job it it than me. He’d swallowed an aluminum spoon, a tablespoon.
Dontsova
However could he have managed that?
Kostoglotov
He did it on purpose. He wanted to get out of solitary. How was he to know they were taking the surgeon away?
Dontsova
So what happened next? Wasn’t your tumor growing very fast?
Kostoglotov
That’s right, from morning to evening – it was really getting down to it. Then about five days later they brought another surgeon from another compound. He was a German, Karl Fyodorovich. So he got settled into his new job and after a day or so he operated on me.
Dontsova
But he sent away a biopsy?
Kostoglotov
I didn’t know then. I didn’t know about biopsies or anything. I just lay there after the operation. There were little sacks of sand on top of me. By the end of the week I’d begun learning to move my feet from the bed to the floor, to stand up. Suddenly they went round the camp to collect another transport, about seven hundred men – troublemakers, they said – and Karl Fyodorovich, the gentlest man alive, happened to be in the transport They took him straight from the hut. They wouldn’t even let him do a last round of his patients.
Dontsova
Absurd!
Kostoglotov
Wait till you hear some real absurdity. A friend of mine came running in and whispered that I was on the list for the transport too. Well, I made a firm decision. To travel in a cattle truck with unremoved stitches would mean infection and certain death, so I thought, When they come for me I’ll tell them, ‘Shoot me here on the bed, I’m not going anywhere.’ I’ll tell them straight out! But they didn’t come for me, because they’d checked up in the registration section and found I had less than a year left to serve. I went over to the window and looked out. Behind the hospital woodpile there was a parade ground, twenty meters away, where they were herding everyone with their things ready for the transport. Karl Fyodorovich saw me in the window…
Guards
(Blows whistle to signal prisoners to board the trucks)
Board!
Fyodorovich
Kostoglotov, open the window!
Guards
Quiet! You there! Shut up you bastard!
Fyodorovich, (desperately)
Kostoglotov, remember this, it’s very impor
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