Stalin Epigram

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Autograph of "Stalin Epigram" written down at the time of Mandelstam's interrogation in prison.
Autograph of "Stalin Epigram" written down at the time of Mandelstam's interrogation in prison.

The Stalin epigram is an important satirical poem by the Russian Acmeist poet Osip Mandelstam, dated as being written in November 1933. Only 16 lines in length, the poem was in large part responsible for Mandelstam's arrest, imprisonment and ultimate death; it is both a suicide note and a searing indictment of the dictator Joseph Stalin and the rabble entourage with whom he was surrounded.

The poem is usually translated in English as a series of couplets, and although this does not reflect the structure of the poem as it is in Russian, it brings with it the strong sense of the rhythm which underpins the work.

The poem sets the tone in the opening couplet of the climate of fear which existed in Soviet Russia during those dark days. The Kremlin mountaineer of course, is Stalin, and the mountain he has climbed is the pile of corpses and ruined lives he has left in his wake in his ascent to power.

Stalin Epigram

We live, but we do not feel the land beneath us,
Ten steps away and our words cannot be heard,

And when there are just enough people for half a dialogue,
Then they remember the Kremlin mountaineer.

His fat fingers are slimy like slugs,
And his words are absolute, like grocers' weights.

His cockroach whiskers are laughing,
And his boot tops shine.

And around him the rabble of narrow-necked chiefs –
He plays with the services of half-men.

Who warble, or miaow, or moan.
He alone pushes and prods.

Decree after decree he hammers them out like horseshoes,
In the groin, in the forehead, in the brows, or in the eye.

When he has an execution it's a special treat,
And the Ossetian chest swells.
Russian: Мы живем, под собою не чуя страны...
English: Translation by A. S. Kline