Demidow:Fone Kwas oder: Der Idiot

A prominent scientist is arrested in a Soviet-Ukrainian provincial town for belonging to an organization he knows nothing about. He faces the threat of torture and suspects that he will not be able to endure it. He devises a plan to pretend to the NKVD officers that he is the 'Fone Kwas' (a Yiddish term for a fool or 'simpleton'), making incoherent and unbelievable 'confessions'—hoping to be quickly convicted, then appeal and demonstrate that everything he confessed is technically and scientifically completely untenable, ultimately leading to his release due to 'wrongful' arrest. He carries out his plan, recounting legendary acts of sabotage and drawing chaotic diagrams. The more absurd and bizarre his statements, the more captivated his investigator listens, showing increasing delight. However, in the end, everything turns out quite differently than the defendant had expected. The insane reality of Stalinist terror will far surpass the fabricated phantoms of the Fone Kwas. In Fone Kwas, Georgi Demidow processes his own experiences of six months in detention and interrogations at the NKVD headquarters. In his writings, he also reflects on the fourteen years he survived in the Gulag at Kolyma. After the KGB confiscated all his manuscripts, Demidow died believing that his entire life's work had been destroyed.