for the good of the cause, would he go and warn the police? (To THE SEMINARIAN) allow me to ask you first.
THE SEMINARIAN: Why me first? PETER: I don’t know you so well.
THE SEMINARIAN: Such a question is an insult. PETER: Be more precise.
THE SEMINARIAN (furious): I would not denounce the group, of course not.
PETER: And you, Virginsky? VIRGINSKY: No, a hundred times no!
LIPUTIN: But why is Shatov getting up?
(SHATOV has in fact stood up. Tale with wrath, he stares at PETER VERKHOVENSKY and then strides toward the door.)
PETER: Your attitude may harm you greatly, Shatov.
SHATOV: At least it may be useful to the spy and scoundrel that you are. So be satisfied. I shall not stoop to answering your vicious question.
(He goes out. Tumult. Everyone has got up except STAVROGIN. KIRILOV goes slowly back into hit room, PETER VERKHOVENSKY drinks another glass of cognac.)
LIPUTIN: Well! The test has done some good. Now we know.
(STAVROGIN gets up.)
LYAMSHIN: Stavrogin didn’t answer either. VIRGINSKY: Stavrogin, can you answer the question?
STAVROGIN: I don’t see the need of it.
VIRGINSKY: But we all compromised ourselves and you didn’t!
STAVROGIN: Well, then, you will be compromised and I won’t be.
(Tumult.)
THE SEMINARIAN: But Verkhovensky didn’t answer the question either.
STAVROGIN: TO be sure. (He goes out.)
(PETER VERKHOVENSKY rushes after him and then returns suddenly.)
PETER: Listen. Stavrogin is the delegate. You must all obey him, and also me, his second, unto death. Unto death, you understand. And remember that Shatov has just clearly taken his stand as a traitor and that traitors must be punished. Take an oath. . . . Come now, take an oath. . . .
THE SEMINARIAN: To what?
PETER: Are you men or aren’t you? And will you hesitate before an oath of honor?
VIRGINSKY (somewhat bewildered): But what must we swear?
PETER: TO punish traitors. Quickly, take an oath. Hurry, now. I must catch up with Stavrogin.’ Take an oath. . . .
(They all raise their hands very slowly, PETER VERKHOVENSKY rushes outside.)
BLACKOUT
SCENE 13
First in the street and then at Varvara Stavrogin’s. STAVROGIN and PETER VERKHOVENSKY.
PETER (running after STAVROGIN) : Why did you leave?
STAVROGIN: I had had enough. And your comedy with Shatov nauseated me. But I’ll not let you get away with it.
PETER: He put the finger on himself. STAVROGIN (stopping): You are a liar. I have already told you why you needed Shatov’s blood. He is to serve you to cement your group together. You just succeeded very cleverly in getting him to leave. You knew that he would refuse to say “I shall not denounce the group.” [And that he would consider it cowardly to answer you.]
PETER: All right, all right! But you shouldn’t have left. I need you.
STAVROGIN: I suspect as much, since you want to push me into having my wife slaughtered. But why? How can I be useful to you?
PETER: How? Why, in every way. . . . Besides, you spoke the truth. Be on my side and I shall get rid of your wife for you. (PETER VERKHOVENSKY grasps STAVROGIN by the arm. STAVROGIN tears himself away, seizes him by the hair, and flings him to the ground.) Oh, you are strong! Stavrogin, do what I ask of you and tomorrow I shall bring you Lisa Drozdov. Will you? Answer! Listen, I’ll let you keep Shatov too if you ask me to. STAVROGIN: So it’s true that you have made up your mind to kill him?
PETER (getting up): How can that matter to you? Wasn’t he mean to you?
STAVROGIN: Shatov is good. You are mean. PETER: I am. But / didn’t slap you.
STAVROGIN: If you raised a hand against me, I’d kill you on the spot. You know very well that I can kill.
PETER: I know it. But you won’t kill me because you despise me.
STAVROGIN: You are perspicacious. (He walks away.)
PETER: Listen! Listen . . .
(PETER gives a signal, FEDKA appears, and together they follow STAVROGIN. The curtain representing the street rises to show Varvara Stavrogiw’s drawing room.
DASHA is on the stage. Hearing PETER VERKHOVENSKY’S voice, she goes out on the right, STAVROGIN and PETER VERKHOVENSKY enter.)
PETER: Listen . . .
STAVROGIN: You are obstinate. . . . Tell me once and for all what you expect of me and leave. PETER: Yes, yes. All right. (He looks at the door on the side.) just a minute. (He goes toward the door and opens it carefully.)
STAVROGIN: My mother never listens at doors. PETER: I’m sure she doesn’t. You nobles are far above that. I, on the contrary, listen at doors. Besides, I thought I heard a sound. But that’s not the question. You want to know what I expect of you? (STAVROGIN is silent.) Well, this is it. . . . Together we’ll rouse Russia and lift her from the mire.
STAVROGIN: She is heavy.
PETER: Ten more groups like this one and we’ll be powerful.
STAVROGIN: Ten groups of idiots like these! [PETER: It’s idiots who make history. For instance, just look at the governor’s wife, Julia Mikhailovna. She is with us. How incredibly stupid!
STAVROGIN: YOU are not going to tell me that she is plotting?
PETER: NO. But her idea is that Russian youth must be kept from heading toward the abyss— and by that she means toward revolution. Her system is simple. The thing to do is to praise revolution, to be on the side of youth, and to show them that it is quite possible to be a revolutionary and the governor’s wife. Then youth will realize that this is the best regime, since you can insult it without danger and even be rewarded for planning its destruction.
STAVROGIN: YOU must be exaggerating. It isn’t possible to be that stupid.]
PETER: Oh, they are not so stupid; they’re just idealists. Fortunately, / am not an idealist. But I am not intelligent either. What?
STAVROGIN: I didn’t say anything. Ms
PETER: TOO bad. I hoped you would say: “Why, yes, you are intelligent.”
STAVROGIN: I never thought of saying anything of the sort.
PETER (with hatred in his voice). You are right; I am stupid. That’s why I need you. My organization does not have a head.
STAVROGIN: You have Shigalov. (He yawns.) PETER (with the same hatred in his voice): Don’t make fun of him. Absolute leveling is an excellent idea—not at all ridiculous. Its one of the elements of my plan. We shall have to organize it carefully. People will be forced to spy on one another and to denounce one another. That way there’ll be no more selfishness! From time to time a few convulsions, carefully controlled, just enough to overcome boredom. [We leaders will take care of that. For there will be leaders, since there must be slaves.] Hence total obedience, absolute depersonalization, and every thirty years we shall authorize convulsions, and then everyone will fall on one another and devour one another.
STAVROGIN (looking at him.): I have wondered for a long time what you resembled. But I made the mistake of looking for my comparison in the animal kingdom. It has just come to me.
PETER (his mind on other things): Yes, yes. STAVROGIN: You resemble a Jesuit.
PETER: All right, all right. But the Jesuits have the idea. They discovered the formula. The plot, the lie, and a single aim! Impossible to live otherwise in the world. Besides, we shall have to have the Pope on our side.
STAVROGIN: The Pope?
PETER: Yes, but it’s very complicated. First the Pope would have to come to an agreement with the International. It’s too soon for that. That will come inevitably later on, because it’s the same spirit. Then there will be the Pope at the summit, we around him, and beneath us the masses governed by Shigalov’s system. But that’s an idea for the future. Meanwhile, work must be divided. So in the West there will be the Pope, and among us . . . among us . . . there will be you.
STAVROGIN: Decidedly you are drunk. Get out. PETER: Stavrogin, you are handsome. Are you aware that you are handsome, and strong, and intelligent? No, you don’t know it, for you are also unsophisticated. I do know it, and that’s why you are my idol. I am a nihilist, and nihilists need idols. [You are the man we need. You never insult anyone and yet everyone hates you. You treat people as your equals and yet they are afraid of you. But you are afraid of nothing; you can sacrifice your own life as easily as anyone else’s. That Is excellent.]
Yes, you are the man I need, and I can’t think of any other. You are the leader, you are the sun. (He suddenly seizes Stavrogifis hand and kisses it. STAVROGIN repulses him.) Don’t despise me. Shigaiov has found the system, but I alone have discovered the way of putting it into practice. I need you. Without you I am nothing. With you I shall destroy the old Russia and build the new.
STAVROGIN: What Russia? The Russia of spies? PETER: When we hold power in our hands, we shall be able perhaps to make people more virtuous, if you really insist. But for the moment, to be sure, we need one or two thoroughly immoral generations; we need an exceptional, revolting corruption that will transform man into a filthy, cowardly, and selfish insect.
That’s what we need. And, on the side, we’ll give them a touch of fresh blood so that they’ll get a taste for it. STAVROGIN: I always knew you weren’t a socialist. You’re a scoundrel.
PETER: All right, all right. A scoundrel. But let me explain my plan. We begin the general upheaval.
Fires, crimes, incessant strikes, everything a mockery. You see what I
