"Mikhail Bulgakov. The Fateful Eggs ("Роковые яйца")" - читать интересную книгу автора

Prechistenka, putting the incident out of his head straightaway.


CHAPTER VII. Feight

Whether or not the Lefortovo veterinary vaccinations were effective,
the Samara quarantine teams efficient, the strict measures taken with regard
to buyers-up of eggs in Kaluga and Voronezh adequate and the work of the
Special Moscow Commission successful, is not known, but what is known is
that a fortnight after Persikov's last meeting with Alfred there was not a
single chicken left in the Republic. Here and there in provincial back-yards
lay plaintive tufts of feathers, bringing tears to the eyes of the owners,
and in hospital the last gluttons recovered from diarrhea and vomiting
blood. The loss in human life for the whole country was not more than a
thousand, fortunately. There were also no large-scale disturbances. True, in
Volokolamsk someone calling himself a prophet announced that the commissars,
no less, were to blame for the chicken plague, but no one took much notice
of him. A few policemen who were confiscating chickens from peasant women at
Volokolamsk market got beaten up, and some windows in the local post and
telegraph office were smashed. Fortunately, the efficient Volokolamsk
authorities took measures as a result of which, firstly, the prophet ceased
his activities and, secondly, the telegraph windows were replaced.
After travelling north as far as Archangel and Syumkin Vyselok, the
plague stopped of its own accord for the simple reason that it could go no
further-there are no chickens in the White Sea, as we all know. It also
stopped in Vladivostok, because after that came the ocean. In the far south
it died down and disappeared somewhere in the scorched expanses of Ordubat,
Djilfa and Karabulak, and in the west it stopped miraculously right at the
Polish and Rumanian frontiers. Perhaps the climate there was different or
the quarantine cordon measures taken by these neighbouring states helped.
But the fact remains that the plague went no further. The foreign press
discussed the unprecedented plague loudly and avidly, and the Soviet
government, without kicking up a racket, worked tirelessly round the clock.
The Extraordinary Commission to combat the chicken plague was renamed the
Extraordinary Commission to encourage and revive poultry-keeping in the
Republic and supplemented by a new extraordinary troika consisting of
sixteen comrades. "Volunteer-Fowl" was founded, of which Persikov and
Portugalov became honorary deputy chairmen. The newspapers carried pictures
of them with the captions "Mass purchase of eggs from abroad" and "Mr Hughes
tries to sabotage egg campaign". A venomous article by the journalist
Kolechkin, ending with the words: "Keep your hands off our eggs, Mr
Hughes-you've got eggs of your own!", resounded all over Moscow.
Professor Persikov had worked himself to a state of complete exhaustion
over the last three weeks. The fowl events had disturbed his usual routine
and placed an extra burden on him. He had to spend whole evenings attending
fowl committee meetings and from time to time endure long talks either with
Alfred Bronsky or the fat man with the artificial leg. And together with
Professor Portugalov and docents Ivanov and Borngart he anatomised and
microscopised fowls in search of the plague bacillus and even wrote a
brochure in the space of only three evenings, entitled "On Changes in the