Self-Made Man

Memory of Peter Patrushev - translator, writer, swimmer

Ivan Tolstoy: translator, writer, journalist, host of Radio Liberty programs. There were a great many such employees in the history of our radio station. But not all of them got to freedom (with a large and with a small letter) in such a heroic way.

Pyotr Patrushev was born in 1942 in Siberia, in the village of Kolpashevo. Father Yegor Grigoryevich died at the front a month before the birth of his son. Mother Marina Vasilievna Leschina raised three children. When studying at a technical school in Tomsk, Peter became a noticeable athlete-pier, his candidacy was considered for inclusion in the Olympic team for the 1964 Tokyo Olympiad. He did not get to the university - he was drafted into the army and identified in the army sports club in Novosibirsk, which was called a factory of future champions. But suddenly a career collapsed: a transfer to an ordinary military unit, without any explanation. Patrushev found out the reason only 50 years later: his and his coach, Heinrich Bulakin, hated the director of the Tomsk basin, a certain schoolboy, a former Beria associate sent to Siberia after Berievsky execution. One call from the schoolboy to the Novosibirsk KGB - and Patrusheva from the sports club is unexpectedly transferred to a regular military unit.

After some time, Peter Patrushev, under cover of night, secretly sailed to Turkey.

Record: the first spotlight turned on. He whipped the sea like the tentacle of a giant octopus. I dived deeply, feeling the pressure in my ears growing. All my training, trials on the beach seemed to evaporate. Now I was left alone in private, without any securement. He emerged to the surface, clutching. If you respond to each spotlight, far from going far. He reminded himself: just lying a little under the surface of the water, spreading like a jellyfish to save strength and not be discovered.

Almost immediately, the ray of the spotlight again passed over me. I dived, this time not so deep. “Medusa,” he repeated, “Medusa.” In the intervals between dives, it quickly sailed, alternating free style and movement on the back.

The joy that I experienced at first evaporated.

Ahead and behind the spotlight was stripped by the sea. From time to time, the ray suddenly moved towards me, forcing me to stay in anxious expectation. On the platforms of the spotlights stood young soldiers with a tireless instinct of hunters and fishermen. Proud, they would catch me, wriggling like a caught fish, and delivered to the outpost. There I would be demonstrated as a military trophy, and young soldiers were awarded, they gave medals for the courage in the capture of a dangerous fugitive, most likely, a spy.

Why did he decide to escape from the country? How did you end up in the sea?

Ivan Tolstoy: Why did he decide to escape from the country? How did you end up in the sea? Here's what his father -in -law writes in a biographical essay about Peter Patrushev, journalist Azariy Messerer:

Announcer: This legendary swim could be carried out only by a athlete, well prepared both physically and psychologically for an incredible test. And the point is not so much in strong currents or lifts of ice water from the bottom. The main thing was to swim unnoticed through the invisible barrier of the border, it was necessary to bypass networks, search searchlights, surveillance cameras, radars and patrol boats, helicopters and border guards, and even military bases of submarines, which lengthened the already incredible route several times.

Swiming in the night, he tried not to think about danger, but painted in his mind the images of his mother, relatives, paintings of native nature. Yes, he really had a very difficult childhood. He grew up in a hungry and cold Siberian village, without a father who died at the front, with a mother, who was trucking from heavy tests and sacredly believed the popular saying: "You will regret a stick - spoil the child." He was saved from brutal reality, plunging into the world of books.

Announcer: My peers called me a starship, because for some time I was so involved in science fiction that I sincerely believed that I was reading in books, in reality-somewhere in a better, mysterious and really interesting world ...

Ivan Tolstoy: The army part where Peter got after the unexpected completion of his sports career was far from a resort. Azarius Messerer writes:

The foreman threatens him with the reprisal for protecting a friend from him, whom he tried to hit

Announcer: He is threatened by the foreman for the lady for protecting a friend from him, whom he tried to hit.

In order to escape from the injuries or even death, Peter decides to resort to cunning and impersoning the mentally ill. He manages to deceive the doctors, and he gets into the Tomsk Psychiatric Hospital. But it is not possible to hide there for a long time: friends, medical students, report that doctors are going to "treat" his strongest drugs. And then in one hospital dressing gown, Peter runs from a psychiatric hospital to a single safe place - to the house of his swimming coach. Subsequently, Peter was very worried about the fact that he brought to his savior the persecution of the authorities, and for many years he sought to help him materially and his loved ones.

The description of the daring escape occupies only two chapters of the book, followed by retelling and other misadventures, unforeseen, heavy - and amazing. Let's say a year and a half in a Turkish prison. After all, Peter was the only swimmer in the whole famous story that he was able to make an unthinkable difficult path of flee from the USSR by the sea, and he was not believed in Turkey! He was demanded to recognize himself as a spy, abandoned on a submarine in order to collect information about coastal objects. Turkish investigators trained on it, issuing all investigative tricks to him in full: from endless "conveyor" interrogations without sleep and food to a fictitious execution by idle cartridges.

Once after all the ordeals are free, Peter all the time sought to prove to himself that his choice was correct, that in the free world he would be able to find a job in his soul, to find a calling. Hence his constant searches and throwing, a change of places and professions. First, working on the BBC, Peter then becomes the host of his own programs "Tomorrow of the Planet" and "The Inner World of a Human" at the Radio Station "Freedom". In them, he gained complete independence - he wrote and broadcast only that he was deeply worried. And these were, in particular, environmental protection, psychology, oriental philosophical teachings and, of course, sport, which he has seriously engaged all his life.

Service pass of Peter Patrushev

Ivan Tolstoy: We will make a small amendment to the words of Azaria Messerer: Peter Patrushev was, of course, not the only one who swim reached the Turkish coast, but he undoubtedly one of the first. Now let's listen to the archival record. Radio Liberty program "Olympics-72". At the microphone in the Munich studio - Peter Patrushev.

Presenter: This week, Peter Egorov made the program. Andrei Gorbov, who usually conducts these conversations, decided in the course of preparation for the upcoming Winter Olympiad to go skiing in the mountains. So, Peter Grigoryevich, the word is you. Where do we start?

Peter Patrushev: There is nothing easier to start from the beginning, namely, from how the opening ceremony will look like. But I want, in fact, to tell you not so much about how it will look, but about how it will be perceived by ear.

Presenter: What do you actually mean?

Peter Patrushev: After all, about a billion people will follow this ceremony both on television and on the radio, and for these correspondence spectators the musical design of the first solemn 89 minutes of games will be especially important. The previous Olympiad on German land - in Berlin in 1936 - began to sound marching music. Yes, this was understandable - in the atmosphere of those years it could not be otherwise. But in 1972, and the guarantee here is the word Kurt Edelhagen, the orchestra of which is entrusted with the musical design of the opening ceremony-everything will be different. Kurt intends to convey to the listeners the idea that the English expression of Swinging Germany, that is best conveyed to the German language, is best, that is, very approximately the idea of dancing, having fun Germany. Moreover, Kurt assumes the task of welcoming each of the hundred teams passing through the gates of the stadium, music that would correspond to the national spirit of the teams and the solemnity of the event. For him and his forty, the musicians will have to fly from the sultry Arabian deserts in the snow of Canada for 80 minutes, from tropical Philippines to the expanses of the Russian steppes. Well, I already see that Galina Mikhailovna wants to quote me Turgenev’s "Oh, my friend, Arkady Nikolaevich, do not say so beautifully!" Okay, I will not.

Presenter: Pyotr Egorovich, but it would be interesting to find out what kind of music Kurt Edelhagen chose for two German teams, that is, the teams of Eastern and West Germany?

Peter Patrushev: It is still unknown, Kurt answers, but this will not be any of the traditional melodies, usually performed in such cases.

Presenter: The Munich Olympiad will be not only a large sporting event, both arts and exhibition festivals will be dedicated to it. What news can you please us in this regard?

I myself am a big fan of paintings by the Spanish artist Salvador Dali

Peter Patrushev: I myself am a big fan of paintings by the Spanish artist Salvador Dali. And at the exhibition "Man and the Sea", which will be held in the keel, the work of Dali will be exhibited, in particular. The place of this exhibition was chosen for a reason. In the keel, as you know, sailboats will take place. And the purpose of the exhibition is to show the meaning and meaning of the sea element in the life of mankind and in the imagination of the artist. At the exhibition, copies of Salvador posters will be sold at regular prices, as well as copies signed by him personally at an increased price. Revenue - to cover expenses associated with the Olympic Games.

Presenter: We must assume that you will undoubtedly acquire one such poster?

Peter Patrushev: I will try. And now I would like to translate the conversation on the topic very far from aesthetics and art, but is directly related to the Olympics. Although the topic itself is unattractive, we will talk about dirty linen and resources necessary for its washing. But on this example, the scale of preparatory work will be very noticeable, and the fact that when they are carried out, no trifles should not be missed. Only in one Olympic village there will be 12 thousand guests who will need to be washed twice a week. Two fresh towels per day for each guest is already 24 thousand pieces. In addition, according to the organizers, about 30 thousand pieces of linen are recruited. Total, and this already becomes completely visibly - 450 tons of linen daily!

Presenter: Yes, one Munich alone, of course, cannot be handled!

Peter Patrushev: Not only Munich, but all of Bavaria, it simply does not have enough laundry and maintenance personnel to skip so many linen. This means that it is necessary to establish its transportation in some other nearby centers, for example, in Cologne.

Presenter: Well, well, and now, it seems to me that you have something from another opera?

Peter Patrushev: Yes, now the time has come to make a short excursion to the Olympic past. The time of the 3rd Olympiad in Saint-Louis, USA, 1904. My task is to describe those events and those participants who personally seem to me the most remarkable. And then my choice was easy. My attention, as well as the attention of many eyewitnesses of such games, was immediately attracted by a little-known marathon runner from Cuba Felix Carwajal. This postman from Havana, who never systematically trained, managed to convince the inhabitants of the Cuban capital that he absolutely needs to get to the upcoming Olympics and win a gold medal for Cuba. The necessary money was collected and Felix with grief in half reaches Saint-Louis. Its miniature growth, inexhaustible fun and complete ignorance of elementary training rules (which caused constant jokes of comrades-sportsmen) gained universal fame. He had no idea about a layout at a distance, he never had a coach, his diet consisted of the fact that American athletes who had sheltered him were sacrificed. He went to the start in ordinary boots and a shirt with long sleeves and trousers. Someone from the American athletes got scissors and, shortening the sleeves and trousers, gave Felix a more or less sports look.

Presenter: I just can't believe it! It just sounds like a joke!

Petr Patrushev: Keep in mind that experienced runners, guarded by coaches, receiving the latest instructions on the pace of running, leading and the like, started with him. Road dust, heat and tension of the race soon began to affect the rest of the runners. But not on Felix. He joked along the road with the audience, chewed the fruit pulled by him somewhere along the way from the wagon of the wagon, clumsy, thereby causing a considerable pleasure to onlookers. It was an extremely tiring race. In addition to all along the way, antediluvian cars, transporting judges, medical personnel who selected runners from exhaustion incredibly along the way. One of the runners-Bill Garcia from San Francisco-fell unconscious nine kilometers from the finish and almost died of hemorrhage in the stomach.

Presenter: And I wonder how many people managed to finish the distance?

Peter Patrushev: Of the 32 starting to the finish, less than half reached the finish - 14 people. The time of the winner itself - 3 hours 28 minutes and 53 seconds - says that the conditions of the race, even according to the then standards, were extremely difficult. However, the most amazing was that the little Kuban, the hero of our story, not only came to the finish line, but came to him immediately beyond the three winners, in fourth place. According to the unanimous recognition of the coaches and runners who knew him, he could, perhaps, won the marathon distance with appropriate preparation. That's all this week. The next time is a visit to the Olympic Television Tower, my impressions and thoughts on it.

Ivan Tolstoy: Peter Patrushev. "Olympics-72", a performance at the microphone of freedom. Air January 5, 72. An excerpt from the book "Sentenced to shoot." Sukhumi, the summer of 1962, the eve of the escape.

Speaker:

- Grind the pen, handsome! -The gypsy unceremoniously grabbed my hand and began to say something about my “heartfelt affairs”. I replied that I was not interested, and tried to break free. It wasn't there! Tanned fingers stuck tightly into the sleeve. She looked at me with her drilling brown eyes and said something that why goosebumps ran down her back:

- You are in mortal danger. You can finish in a breech house if you are not stuck. Grind the pen, and I will tell you your fate.

Almost against my will, I took out a five -ruble from the wallet and gave it to it. The gypsy instantly hid her.

- One of your roads leads to the state house, the other - beyond the cordon. You will become rich and famous if you choose the second.

Memories of Peter Patrushev, 2005. Book cover

The oddity of this prediction is difficult to understand to the one who did not live in a communist country, where the very idea to go for a cordon for most people was an equivalent trip to the moon. There was only one thing left so “non -traveling” - an illegal crossing of the border. But it had the rank of higher betrayal and punished, if you are still lucky, for many years of prison. Or execution. I was panicked. Who is this woman - a provocateur, KGB agent? Or in fact, a gypsy who read my secret thoughts? From the moment I stepped on the land of Georgia, I could not get rid of the feeling that someone was watching me-random passers-by, a cashier from a newspaper kiosk, ubiquitous pioneers ... Surprisingly, at the beginning of the summer, Mary, my friend, whose friend in Batumi, also called for a coffee grounds and said that I had two ways and was losing back and was lost in the way darkness, and the second means "path to unfamiliar lands"! Did she try to hint in this way that she was guessing about the true goal of my arrival in this border city? Or did fate have given me a sign through it?

***

I just turned twenty years old. I was a daring, stubborn, independent and rather well -read young man, I wanted to travel, study languages, read literature closed from us, was fond of history, philosophy, psychology, medicine, was engaged in yoga, hypnosis and psychotechnists, tried to write. I was not satisfied with the hopelessness in which we all lived then; The prospect of being crippled in the army did not seduce ... It was mentioned that I grew up in Siberia and was used to choosing my own way.

I don't want to fall asleep like a fish

In a deep fainting of water.

And dear to me is a free choice

My suffering and worries.

The predictions about the path beyond Cordon did not seem completely random to me then, they simultaneously supported my confidence in the correctness of the choice made, but also alarming me even more. It did not arise the question of belief to fortune-tellers or not to believe-Russia is mystical; Here, more often than in other parts, prophets and healers are born (as my great -grandfather Miron was), and prophetic dreams fly into the heads of sleeping. Such dreams saw, for example, my mother and brother. When my father went to war, my mother did not know that she was pregnant with me. And shortly before she found out, she had a bright prophetic dream: as if she had caught in the field of a small bunny with a black glossy skin and, taking it in her hands, realized that this was a boy. The bunny then ran away, and the mother often remembered this dream, already learning about my escape. Many years later, when I already lived in the West, she once told me that I was not surprised by my shoot: "When you studied in Tomsk, a gypsy came to our house and predicted that you would be abroad, write a book and become a rich man." Some of these predictions have already come true, and although I did not make special wealth, I at least survived and could continue to study, live and think at freedom. Of course, now, soberly pondering everything that happened, I am sure that the main reason for my escape was not any destiny of fate, but the regime in which the normal bends of human life were refracted through a system that brutally curable of any disobedience or dissent. The fact that in a normal country would be perceived in general as a norm, or at least as a normal growth disease, in the USSR was punishable by a prison, a psychiatric hospital, or even worse, as in my case, a "tower". They say: the house is where your heart is. Do I remember Russia? There are my taiga roots, in this earth there are my grandfathers-great-grandfathers, father, mother and brother; My sister, nephews, friends live there. And although my shot sentence was canceled in 1990, it sometimes appears, most often in dreams, subconscious and now completely unreasonable anxiety:

There are nights: only lie down,

A bed will swim to Russia,

And now they lead me to the ravine,

Lead to the ravine - kill.

What is this - "complex post -traumatic disorder", from which many who went through Soviet realities suffer? Since I left my homeland, I lived at least two lives - first of the Russian emigrant, then a citizen of the world, who left as much as possible from the Russian roots. And so, in the usual Australia, in a small village on the ocean is already a third life. She gave me freedom to remember the past and share it with those who were not given to survive what I had to endure ...

Ivan Tolstoy: The father -in -law of Peter Patrushev journalist Azariy Messerer writes:

Announcer: In the book of Patrushev "Sentenced to shoot" a lot of exotic. Together with the author, we transfer from Russia to Turkey, then to Australia, then to various countries of Western Europe and Asia, as well as in the USA. For example, the author tells how on the island of Fiji he was an honorary guest of the leader of the tribe, who was engaged in cannibalism several more generations ago, how he visited the California commune among the followers of the cult of the Indian guru Rajnish, how he introduced the Australian Aborigenes with computers. He studied transcendental meditation directly with Makharishi Mahesh Yoga, and the philosopher Jidd Krishnamyrty had a great influence on his search for meaning.

Nowhere in the book we do not find a shadow of self -love. On the contrary, he is not shy about writing about his shortcomings, spiritual crises, depression

Peter has seen a lot, learned a lot, freely mastered several languages, including Turkish. However, nowhere in the book we do not find a shadow of self -love. On the contrary, he does not hesitate to write about his shortcomings, spiritual crises, depression.

In Australia, having received a university education, Patrushev seeks to get acquainted with the latest research in various sciences, primarily in biology, psychology and alternative medicine. In addition to books, he was helped by numerous meetings with the scientists that he talks about in his book. For example, a bright portrait of the famous scientist from Arizona Professor Andrew Wale, the advice of which to live longer and more fully, realizing his potential, was dedicated to the whole issue of the Time magazine. In parallel, Peter earned a wide reputation as a synchronous translator and, in this capacity, worked on the famous ABC and SBS television channels, on many international congresses and symposia. It was he who was instructed to translate Australia Prime Ministers Kevin Raddu and John Howard at meetings, respectively, with Mikhail Gorbachev and Vladimir Putin. I myself was a synchronous translator, and I could only admire and professionally envy his skill. I think that, in addition to the innate talent and alarmed skills of quick switching from the topic on the topic, from language to language, the highest class in synchronous translation was also achieved by erudition - extensive and diverse knowledge.

After the rehabilitation, that is, the abolition of the shooting sentence, Peter visited Russia nine times and in the nineties worked as a senior consultant to the Association of Conflict Situations in the USSR Stella and Helen Cornelius (Conflict Resolution Network, CRN), which stood at the origins of the peacekeeping and conflictological center of the Sidneysky University. Peter was the founder of the CRN center in Moscow and published his own translation of the book published by CRN, EVERYONE CAN WIN ("Everyone can win").

Peter Patrushev and Academician Andrei Sakharov. California, 1988

And, of course, the fact that Peter wrote several books in English is amazing, including the futuristic novel by Project Nirvana: How the War on Drugs Was Won ("Nirvana Project": how the victory in the war with drugs came "). This is a satire, a dystopia about a social practical experiment to achieve the universal world and the end of a meaningless war with drug addiction.

His book The Transcentent Ape (“Transcendental Monkey”) was the last, he said about it: “I describe the conditions of a person’s existence in terms of the history of global evolution - the history of the primacy from the class of mammals, which has undergone incredible selection, which caused its survival in which it has survived to this day, from all its craving for genocide and ecocid Along with its greatest achievements of science and art. "

One of Patrushev’s visits to Moscow coincided with the failed coup of 1991, and he gladly joined the jubilant crowd at the White House. But his impressions of today's everyday life are full of sadness. It seems that freedom of choice turned into a tragedy for many in his homeland. He writes: "Our fixed people, not accustomed to independent decision -making, did not find the strength to cope with this freedom ... One hope: Russia has always been famous for talents ...".

After long trials, Peter Patrushev also found personal happiness: he married Alice Messerer, my daughter, and together with his son Andrei, they settled on the shore of Jervis Bay, one of the most beautiful bays of the Pacific Ocean, in Australia. There, he could well evaluate the wisdom of the Chinese philosopher Zhuang Tzu, which leads in the final chapter of the book: "When shoes on the leg, you forget about the leg, when the belt along the waist, you forget about your stomach, when your heart is in place, doubts are leaving."

Peter Patrushev - Translator Pussy Riot, 2014

I regularly (once every two years) flew to them, to Australia, and constantly talked with Peter on Skype. We traveled around the country - Peter driving a car, and I learned a lot of interesting information from him about his second homeland (you will find descriptions of some attractions in my essay on Australia). It was always easy with him - he instantly celebrated any difficulties with his favorite expression: No Problem - and actually quickly found a way out of an unforeseen situation. Peter loved to perform Russian romances and songs with his sonorous and beautiful baritone. In addition, he was an excellent teacher: I was very grateful to him for teaching me and my grandson to swim with the right rabbit at distant distances. “The main thing,” he said, “to master the glide on the water, without unnecessary efforts.”

Ivan Tolstoy: Another archival record. Pyotr Patrushev, under the radio -related Peter Egorov, tells the microphone about the life and ideas of the writer Arthur Kestler. Munich studio, record of the 72nd year.

Petr Patrushev: The first part of the 4-volume autobiography of Kestler covers the 26-year period-from the day of his birth in 1905 until he entered the ranks of the Communist Party of Germany in 1931. At one time, Kestler wrote that he gave both these dates an almost equivalent meaning. A native of the family of a ruined entrepreneur, Kestler entered the Vienna Polytechnic Institute in 1922. However, after three years, he understands that technical education will not bring him an answer to questions that began to more and more interested him and which he called in one interview "existential." Kestler recalls how, returning home late at night after a long dispute about free will and determinism with Russian student Socialist Orookhov, he makes the final decision to leave the institute. Further, we are flashing events that are difficult to put in the framework of nature wide, gifted and, most importantly, looking for. For some time, he is fond of the Zionist movement and in 1926 lives and works in the Palestinian kibbutz. But he finds that this is not for him. Half -starving, he sells lemonade on the streets of Haifa and begins to send his first articles to newspapers. His journalistic abilities are recognized, and he becomes the Middle Eastern correspondent of the influential Austrian newspaper Neue Free Presse. And in 1929, this newspaper makes Kestler his Parisian correspondent. And it is in Paris that Kestler, in the words of the French writer Andre Malro, who "finds out that fascists and communists exist in the world." Before Kestler, as well as in front of other representatives of the European intelligentsia of those years, there is a difficult choice. On the one hand, in Germany, a party of national socialists raised their heads. On the other hand, as Kestler himself said, there was a capitalist world in which, for example, in America, they burned coffee and wheat, fed oranges pigs, while the economic crisis widened in Europe. And finally, it was that in the circles of the left intelligentsia it was customary to call the "great Russian hope" - the belief that Soviet Russia personifies the third path, in addition to Nazism and capitalism of the American type. Kestler indicates two main elements that led him to appeal to communism. This is the rejection of the existing order and the fantastic attractiveness of the utopia, about which Kestler and his friends learned from the novels of Leonov, Sholokhov, Serafimovich, the stories of Babel from the Civil War. With the feverishness of the new -resident, Ketler studies the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin. In his worldview there is a turning point, he feels that he joins the system of views, which contains answers to all questions that explains any criticism of the incorrectness of class positions, and which can represent any objective fact in the light necessary.

The German Communists, who lived for some time in the USSR, secretly encouraged a friend, saying: "We will not make such mistakes"

Even before the Kestler formally enters the party, his newfound loyalty is criticized. In March 1931, German communists unite with the Nazis and call for a referendum aimed at obtaining a socialist government in Prussia. Kestler with honor passes this baptism and, through dialectical acrobatics, justifies this absurd and suicidal step of the party leadership. However, a genuine test of loyalty was a year later, when he visited the Soviet Union as a representative of the League of the Revolutionary Writers of Germany and a correspondent of several European newspapers. It was 1932, the year when the crop in Ukraine was less than usual by twelve percent, while the norms of grain supply for peasants were increased by forty -four percent incredible under such conditions. This led to perhaps the only hunger in the history of mankind, which claimed more than five million people. In the second volume of his autobiography, Kestler describes his impressions of the country's trip, known to him before only by novels written in the spirit of socialist realism. He sees ragged peasants offering travelers icons and linen in exchange for a piece of bread, sees how women extend to the windows of his carriage on the hands of thoracic large -headed babies with swollen bellies and thin, as a scent. The Russian comrades accompanying Kestler immediately explain to him that the crowds of starving are fists and their families, who refused to join the collective farms and driven out from their land. Kestler sees not only hunger, he sees grayness and poverty, his journalistic nature opens up the solemn-vigorous tone of newspapers and the performances of party speakers, he is crushed by ideological monotony, pursue portraits of the “leader of the peoples”, hung everywhere. And yet he remains a convinced communist. He proves to himself that reality should be understood not easy, but in its dynamic development. Yes, people live badly, but the king was even worse. Yes, in the West, workers live better, but the living standards of Soviet works rise incomparably at a faster pace, and after fulfilling the second five -year plan, this unpleasant anomaly will be eliminated. Kestler was first amazed at the questions asked by his Soviet friends regarding life in the West. "Did you take your bread card when the authorities learned that you did not want to work for the bourgeois press?" "How many families of French workers die every day from hunger?" However, this isolation from the rest of the world, this ignorant idea of life in the West was able to justify the fact that the revolutionary consciousness of the masses is not yet high enough to tell them the truth. In fact, Kestler writes, most of the Western Communists justified all these unhealthy phenomena also by the fact that Russia de is a backward country. The German Communists, who lived for some time in the USSR, secretly encouraged a friend, saying: "We will not make such mistakes." This is the only positive influence of the trip to the USSR on Kestler. As he later wrote, "we all left there, becoming in the depths of our hearts by revisionists." But in the case of Kestler, even revisionism was unable to reconcile him with the events that followed this. After all, there were a year of purge and demonstration processes that take away many people who are closely familiar to Kestler.

Ivan Tolstoy: In 2010, Peter Patrushev gave an interview with the Russian -speaking Australian newspaper "Unity". He talks about his literary and journalistic work outside Russia.

Peter Patrushev: Everyone can conquer the book "how to resolve conflicts." When he translated the book, he knew that it was very needed for Russia. But I never thought that it would be so successful. Вышло несколько пиратских изданий, а на интернете она пошла буквально как вирус, с выдержками на сотнях разный сайтов и электронных библиотек. Используется в школах, университетах и на деловых семинарах.

Одобрена Министерством образования как учебное пособие. Ни автор, ни я на этом ни копейки не заработали.

Делал титры и озвучивал фильмы. Стихи писал сам на русском и английском, не переводил.

Создал, просто из любви к этому произведению, на основе только подстрочников и изучения литературы (я не знаю китайского) русскую версию древнекитайского классического трактата "Дао дэ цзин". Там, кстати, есть такая фраза: "Столяр, знающий свое дело, подгоняет дверь так, что к ней не нужно замка. Тайна его ремесла — внимание к мелочам". Неплохое наставление переводчикам.

Correspondent: working as a radio journalist on the BBC and Radio Liberty, what meetings did you hold in the studio? Have you had programs on culture, history, art, or only in politics? Which of the interlocutors interested most?

Peter Patrushev: Almost everything, from theatrical reviews to sports. They wrote and rode with laughter on the BBC, creating a humorous magazine, something like the English “Gun show”, with all kinds of effects. Учил медитировать на Радио Свобода, раздавая слушателям мантры прямо в эфире. Тренировал Ванессу Редгрэйв на Би-би-си читать в эфир письмо протеста по-русски, стараясь не смотреть на ее кофточку из модного в то время прозрачного материала.

Но больше всего горжусь многолетними сериями передач на Свободе: по экологии, "Завтрашний день планеты" и психологии, "Внутренний мир человека". Это было совсем новым для Свободы: "острые" материалы, основанные на живых интервью со специалистами и авторами в областях, которые обычно обходили стороной на Свободе. Мои передачи много раз пытались "зарезать" за отсутствие прямой пропагандистской направленности в пользу Запада, хотя я пытался доказать, что люди в СССР не так глупы, чтобы верить, что на Западе все хорошо и что правда, в частности, об экологических проблемах в Америке – лучшая пропаганда.

Корреспондент: Что вам нравилось в работе журналиста?

Петр Патрушев: Доносить до слушателя/читателя необычные точки зрения. Когда несколько лет публиковал на английском статьи в The Sydney Morning Herald или выступал по национальному радио Эй-би-си, были встречи с читателями и слушателями на семинарах и лекциях в Австралии. Меня всегда радовал интерес грамотных австралийцев к России и к русской культуре.

Корреспондент: Вы работали в горячих точках нашей планеты...

Петр Патрушев: На Кавказе, в Ливане, Израиле. Вел семинары/тренинги по разрешению конфликтов.

В Пятигорске меня и моих иностранцев/тренеров чуть не переехал автомобиль на горной дороге. Не знаю, пьяные были или по замыслу. Иностранцы сильно испугались. Они такого не видели.

В Ливан приехал с группой тренеров под эгидой ЮНЕСКО сразу после окончания гражданской войны. Страшно было за ливанцев. Нас хорошо охраняли.

Корреспондент: Кроме работы переводчика, Вы занимаетесь и литературной деятельностью. В 2005 году вышла в свет ваша книга с громким названием "Приговорен к расстрелу".

Как пришла идея написания этой книги и долго ли вы над ней трудились?

Петр Патрушев: Сначала я диктовал книгу на магнитофон по-английски как своего рода исповедь после тайной встречи с сестрой в Индии 1986 году, после 25 лет разлуки. Потом я много раз правил ее на английском, но никак не мог закончить: жизнь шла слишком быстрыми темпами.

Русского читателя и аудиторию я не чувствовал. Только когда мои друзья в Москве перевели книгу на русский, я начал над ней работать и, наконец, в 2005 году она вышла в издательстве "Нева".

Так что "работал" я над ней 20 лет.

Корреспондент: Что вы отвечаете скептикам, которые не верят, что вы самостоятельно переплыли довольно длительную дистанцию по воде?

Петр Патрушев: Пусть они расскажут, как же я выбрался в Турцию. И почитают все документальные материалы в моей книге.

Но, и я впервые говорю это, и только по случаю дня переводчика, и только для читателей г-ты "Единение" – на самом деле я прилетел в Турцию на попутном НЛО. Ждите подробностей в романе "Как НЛО вырвал меня из лап КГБ".

Иван Толстой: Журналист Азарий Мессерер рассказывает:

Диктор: Петр скоропостижно скончался 28 марта 2016 года от инсульта, случившегося на пляже Murrays Beach в обожаемом им заливе Jervis Bay.

Петр Патрушев

О его жизни можно посмотреть документальный фильм на YouTube: The Man who Swam from Russia ("Человек, который уплыл из России") режиссера Майка Руббо, можно послушать интервью с ним на русском языке на сайте www.pyotr-patrushev.com, а также на английском – по каналу ABC с прославленным журналистом Ричардом Фидлером. "Жизнь русского переводчика Петра Патрушева похожа на приключенческий роман… Петр удивительный, незаурядный человек, прославивший Австралию", – отметил Фидлер.

Иван Толстой: Петр Патрушев, из книги "Приговорен к расстрелу".

Диктор: Свежесть утра наполнила воздух ожиданием. Все было готово. Я, как обычно, пошел на тренировку, но много не плавал. Пожаловался на плохое самочувствие и сказал, что после обеда не приду. Тейя посмотрела на меня вопросительно, но ничего не сказала. Интересно, как много она знала.

Море для моей цели выглядело превосходно: волны около трети метра высотой, спокойно катящиеся, стабильные, насколько хватал глаз. Такой же прогноз погоды дали на ближайшую пару дней.

Направляясь после обеда в общежитие, следил, нет ли хвоста КГБ. Кажется, горизонт ясный. Соседа по комнате тоже нет. На всякий случай еще раз убедился, что все готово: снаряжение уложено в сумку, похожую на ту, с которой обычно ходил на тренировки. Купальные принадлежности, пояс с документами, игла и компас, прикрепленные к поясу, небольшой нож. Взял самое необходимое, понимая, что каждый лишний грамм будет мешать достичь цели. Наконец, я был готов. И, лежа на кровати, коротал последние часы. Надо быть на полигоне прямо перед заходом солнца. Как знать, может быть, в это самое время сюда уже нагрянут с арестом? Около пяти часов, минут за двадцать до предполагаемого возвращения моего соседа с завода, я прошел по длинному коридору общежития и выпрыгнул из окна второго этажа на пустынный задний двор. Затем перелез через невысокий штакетник и быстро пошел по тропинке в сторону пляжа. Все шло согласно плану. Достигнув полигона, через дыру в заборе пролез внутрь. Снял с руки часы и закопал их в жесткую, сухую от зноя землю. Они мне были больше не нужны. Это был мой последний вечер на советской земле. Нужно было залечь в траве и переждать час-полтора до наступления сумерек. Заброшенный полигон с ветхим забором вокруг него стал моей стартовой площадкой. Высокие тополя, росшие по краям размытых оросительных каналов, покачивались под легким ветерком, подобно вытянутым антеннам, отбрасывая последние вечерние тени на забор.

Пролежав, как мне показалось, бесконечно долгое время в траве, осторожно огляделся вокруг, просматривая каждый кустик. Оставалось примерно еще около получаса до того момента, как начнет темнеть и включатся прожектора. Ощупал мое снаряжение. Все было в порядке: ласты в сумке, герметично упакованные документы, нож, игла, компас, даже плитка шоколада для подпитки, которую прихватил в последнюю минуту. Я начал продвигаться ближе к берегу, медленно переползая по высокой траве. Услышал голоса впереди себя. Пограничный наряд? Или просто жители пришли за травой?

У меня не оставалось времени выяснять. Надо было предполагать худшее. Нельзя было двигаться ни вперед, ни назад. В любой момент вспыхнут прожектора. В общежитии мой сосед мог уже заметить мое исчезновение и сообщить в КГБ.

Я сделал единственно возможную в моем положении вещь. Надел снаряжение и сполз в пахнущую тиной воду оросительного канала. Вода была солоноватой – канал соединялся с морем.

Следующая задача – миновать предполагаемый наряд пограничников без малейшего всплеска или шума. Я нырнул и тихо поплыл, гребя руками брассом, ногами в свободном стиле. Проплыл таким способом метров сто, едва показываясь из воды, затем осторожно высунул голову наружу. Огоньки сигарет и голоса были позади. Я продолжал плыть и нырять. Берег начал растворяться в наступающих сумерках. Через несколько сотен метров я перевернулся и поплыл на спине. Первые бледные огоньки стали появляться в городе. Семьи собирались на ужин, шла обычная, мирная беседа, мужчины пропускали стаканчик красного вина, женщины подавали острые грузинские блюда, которые я успел полюбить.

I felt the fire of another wine in the blood. Оно обострило чувства и влило тонус в мышцы. Море ритмически покачивало тело, когда я продвигался вперед. Сердце вызванивало единственное слово: "Турция… Турция… Турция…"

Радость, столь внезапная и столь непривычная за последнее время охватила меня. I did it! I ran away! Ладони врезались в воду, тело, движимое ластами, скользило сквозь воду почти без усилий.

Я мысленно видел майора Эмниешвили, распекаемого начальниками, уже без его высокомерной усмешки. Ha ha! Вы думали, я буду ждать, пока вы меня возьмете? Я видел гэбэшников, яростно перерывающих оставленные мною вещи. Happily!