Set in a country where the central press organ was called The Truth, this story by an underappreciated Soviet author, who made his name as a journalist in the 1960s, puts the very notion of veracity in perspective. The premise is simple: a group of schoolchildren, tired of April Fool’s pranks, swear “to speak the truth and nothing but the truth…and not to deceive, nor pull anyone’s leg, nor make anything up, nor make any false statement, nor lie, be it with word or voice or gaze”. The results, naturally, are catastrophic.
There is no “truth” in the original title, which translates as “The second of April”, but I had my reasons (too complex to give here) to change it. In a footnote Ilya Zverev thanks several children for providing him with material, suggesting that the story is based on real events. It is not known if he ever swore the same oath.
Originally published in Russian as ‘Vtoroe aprelya’, 1963. Published in translation in gorse 3, 2014, with an extract available to read here
A Personal Anthology 