The First Circle [antikvár]

TRANSLATOR'S NOTEThe word "sharashka" as it occurs in this story derives from a Soviet slang expression meaning "a sinister enterprise based on bluff or deceit." By 1949, the time of the novel, it meant, particularly, a special scientific or technical institute staffed with prisonersor, in Soviet slang, "zeks." The sharashka in which much of the action of this novel takes place is located on the outskirts of Moscow. It is called the Mavrino Institute, and the 281 zeks who are employed there are inmates of the Mavrino Special Prison, which is housed in the same complex of buildings.The Soviet State Security organ charged with the functions of security and counterintelligencein other words, the Soviet secret police^has had various names since it was established in 1917, and has been known in different periods by the Russian initials of its contemporary official title.From December 1917 until 1922 it was the Cheka (with the accent on the last syllable), from two of the initials of "All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for the Struggle Against Counterrevolution and Sabotage."The Cheka contributed the name "Chekist" to Soviet secret police officers and employees, a label which has lasted right up to the present time. In 1922 the Cheka was renamed and reorganized as the GPU (pronounced Gay-Pay-Oo), from the initial letters of the Russian words for "State Political Administration." That same year the GPU became the OGPU (Oh-Gay-Pay-Oo), when the Russian word for "consolidated" or "unified" was added to its name, but both names were used almost interchangeably until 1934.In that year the OGPU was merged into the NKVDIX