"Mother’s Line" by Anna Starobinets, summary Automatic translate

"Mother’s Line" is a short story by Russian writer Anna Starobinets, published in the collection "Silver Axolotl." It tells the story of a woman named Maria Yomdina, who is attempting to obtain Israeli citizenship by right of return while simultaneously concealing the growing symptoms of hereditary schizophrenia. The story is written in the genre of psychological horror with elements of mysticism, where the line between hallucination and reality blurs gradually and almost imperceptibly.

Queue at the consulate

Masha spends several hours in the stuffy hall of the Israeli consulate in Moscow, filling out a permanent residency application. The very first question — about any illnesses requiring medical attention — stumps her: she has no diagnosis, but she has symptoms, so she checks "no," even though she knows it’s a lie. Around her are families with children, irritated couples, and an elderly man with a mother who is clearly suffering from dementia, whom everyone ignores.

The consul — a grumpy, loud woman with an Odessa accent and gypsy earrings — receives Masha harshly. It turns out she doesn’t have proper documents: a notarized copy of her mother’s birth certificate, not the original; no papers for her grandfather, Abram Lvovich Yomdin, a Jew arrested in 1952 in the Doctors’ Plot. The consul prepares to refuse, but at some point Masha utters a phrase in Hebrew — "a child shouldn’t cry" — and the tone of the conversation changes. The consul is surprised: the Hebrew is archaic, old-fashioned, but still vivid. She gives Masha a chance and hands over a list of the missing documents.

A visit to the registry office and archives

Masha visits government agencies one after another. At the registry office, the employee issues duplicate documents only after Masha presents a certificate from a psychiatric hospital confirming that her mother, Natalya Abramovna Yomdina, is physically unable to appear in person. The duplicate of her mother’s birth certificate, however, has a dash in the "father" field, even though the old notarized copy listed Abram Lvovich Yomdin. The registry office employee explains that the dash means the father failed to appear and acknowledge the child. Masha gradually realizes that her grandfather was most likely unable to appear at the registry office because he went into hiding after his arrest.

At the Multifunctional Center on Yakimanka, Masha orders an extract from the house register for the same building where her grandfather lived. While she waits, she meticulously reconstructs the chronology in her notebook: her grandfather was born in 1912 in Mstislavl, worked as a surgeon at the Botkin Hospital, married his grandmother, Lyudmila Pavlovna, in May 1940, served in the war as a military doctor, returned in 1945, and was arrested on July 2, 1952. According to family legend, he escaped from the camp and visited his grandmother on the night of October 6, 1952, which is when her mother was conceived. Then came his acquittal, his departure to Israel, and a brief visit in the early 1980s, when little Masha was four or five years old.

Execution or escape

An extract from the house register states: Iomdin Abram Lvovich "departed on July 2, 1952, arrested" — and next to it is a faded purple stamp: "Executed." Almost simultaneously, a letter arrives on the phone from the Prosecutor General’s Office archive: her grandfather was executed on October 6, 1952, and posthumously rehabilitated in 1957. For Masha, this is impossible: according to her grandmother, he came to her home that very night. She convinces herself that the documents are a deliberate lie by Soviet officials, concealing his escape.

Dead men in line

It was at this moment that Masha saw ghosts — for the first time so openly and so many. A huge line of confused, mostly elderly people trailed behind her through the corridors of the Multifunctional Center, scratching at the glass, asking for hugs and kisses, saying in Hebrew, "habkeni" (hug me), "nashkini" (kiss me). Among them was the same angry old man from the registry office who, a week earlier, had shouted after her about the "betrayal gene"; now he only held out his hands.

Masha realizes that all of this is hallucinations, manifestations of the hereditary schizophrenia that afflicts her mother. She calls the ghosts "dead" out loud, causing a commotion in the hall. She calmly leaves, but at the exit, she turns around and hugs the old man from the registry office, whispering to him in Hebrew, "You must return to your country." He nods and leaves.

Inheritance through the maternal line

In the end, Masha takes stock. Her mother, Natalya Abramovna, lies in a psychiatric hospital, doped up with antipsychotics, mumbling poetry and conversing with invisible guests. Masha stopped visiting her long ago — it was too hard. Now she understands: she needs to go. And she also needs to register again at the Israeli consulate, but not for a visa for herself. Without documents confirming her Jewish roots, there is no right to citizenship. But there, behind the bars of the enclosure, remains a little girl — the consulate’s daughter — who also belongs to those Masha now sees. She needs to be embraced and set free — to a land where the sun shines, the sea roars, and the wind leaves a sweet taste on her lips.