never seen by a doctor. They sterilized the wound with vodka. He kept his
herrings in for a week and pried them off himself.
After Trush conferred with Schetinin, who had since called in
Lazurenko’s team, Gorborukov drove the Kung to a snowy crossroad by
the village well and parked. When they opened the back door, the news
traveled fast and, soon, a semicircle of villagers had gathered around.
Baba Liuda was there along with Denis Burukhin’s mother, Lida; so were
Zaitsev and Dvornik. With the bare trees and the dilapidated houses in the
background, the scene had a strangely timeless quality: it was as if these
people had come to view a dead outlaw, or a witch. As Schetinin smoked
his pipe and went over the details with the villagers, Trush stood by the
door with his mangled rifle, ushering people in and out of the back of the
Kung. Some thanked him or congratulated him; others glared.
Pionka and Shibnev sat inside on the bunks while the tiger lay at their
feet, bleeding on the floor. It was still warm, and its paws made the men’s
boots look small. Tigers, at the best of times, have a potent smell, and
this one exuded a rank and musky, postcoital funk. Combined with its old
and improperly healed wounds, the fresh blood, and the unwashed men, it
made for an almost palpable atmosphere in the tight confines of the
Kung. It would have been striking, and possibly informative, to juxtapose
the Russians looking at that tiger with the Russians who regularly file
through Lenin’s tomb. Viewers are not allowed to touch Lenin, but there
were no such restrictions on the tiger. By turns, people patted it, kicked it,
swore at it, and spat on it. Some simply stared impassively through the
door. Most of them had never been so close to a tiger before, and so were
struck by its size. “He was so big and beautiful,” said Irina Peshkova, the
gas man’s wife. “Looking at him there, I didn’t feel sorry for those two
guys [who were killed]; I felt sorry for the tiger: I think that people did
something to him to make him kill.”
Lida Burukhina had a different reaction. Recalling her feelings that