A MAJOR DOCUMENT FROM RUSSIA: ON SOCIALIST

REALISM

Introduction The title of this article does not even begin to convey its importance as an intellectual and historical document. It is, we believe, one of the most significant Pieces of writing to come out of contemporary Russia; and we take pride in pre- senting here the first full English translation. The article was written in Russia by a Russian writer, 37 or 38 years old. He managed to convey it to Paris, where the liberal monthly Esprit published a French translation. It was written before the Pasternak affair, and has, of course, not ap- peared in Russia itself. The version that follows has been translated from the Russian by Mr. George Delinis. Mr. Dennis notes: "The style tells a good deal about the man. The article is written in poetic Prose, the oldest type of Russian prose, whose persistence in Russia was recently revealed to the West by the publication of Doctor Zhivago. This persistence may well be news also to the Russians: this article should help to allay the fears re- cently expressed by Constantine Paustovski, a talented and humane Soviet writer, that the Russian language would be completely replaced by a party jargon. "To a Western reader, Russian poetic prose does not always make easy read- ing. It is not only peppered with verse; it is also a series of lyrical outbursts. I can assure the reader that the original contains even more question marks and exclamation points than the translation. Moreover, the prose is shot through with poetic images, metaphors and rhythms. Fundamentally, it is a personal prose as well as a product of its national environment. "A closer stylistic analysis will reveal that the poetic prose of this article has been formed by a process of historical accumulation. The succession of strata can still be seen, as in a geological formation. Over the original Slav stratum is a strong layer of Byzantinism, mainly contributed by the Orthodox religion. Then comes a layer contributed by the West, in this case mostly German idealistic phi- losophy and French literature. The top layer is Marxist or, if you wish, Com- munist. The Russian language has assimilated them all, just as, no doubt, it is now engaged in assimilating American influences .. . "The best clue to unravelling the ambiguities in which the author's attitude toward Communism is inevitably involved," continues Mr. Dennis, "is the irony which sets the tone of the article. There is at least one example of it on every page. This kind of irony has been the favorite literary weapon of Russian and, indeed, European writers .. .

39 "It might help American readers to understand the outlook of the author if they recalled how Swift, savagely lashing out against the English Ascendency in Ireland, remained part of that Ascendency. Our author has freed one of his feet from Communism. He uses it to kick Communism, and some of his kicks are pretty hard. But his other foot is still stuck in Communism—and stuck fast." To these remarks very little need be added. We believe that this article pre- sents an incomparable portrait of a highly intelligent and cultivated man, whose sentiments, ironies, even confusions may well be shared by other literate Russians. For democrats and socialists in the West, it is a moral responsibility to listen to the voice of this man with the greatest attention and sympathy.—Enrroxs. What is socialist re- The most exact definition of social- alism? What is the meaning of this ist realism is given in a statute of the strange and jarring phrase? Can there Association of Soviet Writers: "Social- be a socialist, capitalist, Christian or ist realism is the basic method of So- Mohammedan realism? Does this ir- viet Iiterature and Iiterary criticism. rational concept have a natural exist- It demands from the artist a truthful ence? Perhaps it does not exist at all, and historically concrete representa- perhaps it is only the nightmare of tion of reality in its revolutionary de- a terrified intellectual during the dark velopment. Moreover, the truthfulness and magical night of Stalin's dictator- and historical concreteness of the ar- ship? Perhaps a crude propaganda tistic representation of reality must trick of Zhdanov or a senile fancy of be linked with the task of ideological Gorki? Is it fiction, myth or propa- transformation and education of work- ganda? ers in the spirit of socialism." (First Such questions, we are told, are often All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers, asked in the West. They are hotly 1934, p. 716.) debated in Poland. They are also cur- This innocent formula is the foun- rent among us, where they arouse dation on which the entire edifice of eager minds, tempting them into the socialist realism was erected. It in- heresies of doubt and criticism. cludes the link between socialist real- Meanwhile, the productions of so- ism and the realism of the past, as well cialist realism are measured in billions as its new and distinguishing quality. of printed sheets, kilometers of can- The link lies in the truthfulness of the vas and film, centuries of hours. A representation; the difference, in the thousand critics, theoreticians, art ex- ability to seize the revolutionary devel- perts, pedagogues are beating their opment and to educate readers in ac- heads and straining their voices to cordance with that development, in justify, explain and interpret its ma- the spirit of socialism. The old real- terial existence and dialectical charac- ists, or, as they are sometimes called, ter. The head of the state himself, the critical realists (because they criticized First Secretary of the CP, tears him- bourgeois society), men like Balzac, self away from pressing economic tasks Tolstoy and Chekhov, truthfully rep- to pronounce some weighty words on resented life as it is. But not having the country's esthetic problems.• been instructed in the genius and teachings of Marx, they could not • This refers to Khrushchev's speeches to foresee the future victories of social- Soviet intellectuals, collected and pub- ism, and they certainly did not know lished in 1957 under the title, For a the real and concrete roads to these Close Link Between Literature and Art and the Life of the People. victories. 40 The socialist realist, armed with the of human nature. I extend my hand doctrine of Marx and enriched by the to receive the coins. I go to a movie experience of struggles and victories, to spend some time with a pretty girl. is inspired by the vigilant attention of I write a novel to earn glory and the his friend and teacher, the Communist gratitude of posterity. Each of my Party. While representing the present, conscious moves is purposeful. he listens to the march of history and Animals do not have such long- looks toward the future. He sees the range intentions. They are moved by "visible traits of Communism," invisi- instincts. They bite to bite, and not ble to the ordinary eye. His creative for the purpose of biting. They don't work is a step forward from the art think about tomorrow, wealth, God. of the past, the highest peak of the They live without facing any complex artistic development of mankind and problems. But man invariably wants the most realistic of realisms. what he has not got. This quality of Such, in a few words, is the general our nature finds its outlet in a feverish scheme of our art. It is amazingly activity. We transform nature into simple, yet sufficiently elastic to com- our own image and turn nature into prehend Gorki, Mayakovski, Fadeev, an object. Aimless rivers become ar- Aragon, Ehrenburg and hundreds of teries of communication. Aimless trees others. But we cannot understand this become paper filled with destiny. concept at all as long as we skim the Our abstract thought is no less tele- surface of the dry formula and do not ological. Man explores the world by penetrate into its deep and hidden attributing to it his own purposeful- meaning. ness. He asks: "What is the use of the The gist of this formula—"the truth- sun?" and answers: "To give light ful, historically concrete representa- and heat." The animism of primitive tion of reality in its revolutionary de- peoples is the first attempt to conquer velopment"—is founded on the con- senseless chaos by endowing it with cept of Purpose with a capital P. The many aims, and to animate the in- Purpose is an all-embracing ideal, to- different universe with a life useful wards which truthfully represented re- to man. ality ascends in an undeviating revolu- Science has not freed us from the tionary movement. To direct this childish questions of "Why?" Behind movement towards its end and to help the causal relations that it establishes the reader approach it more closely we find the hidden and distorted pur- by transforming his consciousness— posefulness of natural phenomena. this is the Purpose of socialist realism, Science says: "man descends from the the most purposeful art of our time .. . monkey" instead of saying: "the desti- ny of the monkey is to become man." THE CONCEPT OF PURPOSE However man may have originated, Our art, like our culture and our so- his appearance and purpose are in- ciety, is teleological through and separable from God—that is, from the through. It is subject to a higher des- highest idea of purpose which is ac- tiny, from which it gains its title of cessible to us, if not through our un- nobility. In the final reckoning we live derstanding, then through our wish only to speed the coming of Commu- that there should be such a purpose. nism. This is the final purpose of all that A tendency towards purpose is part is and of all that isn't, and is the in-

LE finite—and probably purposeless—Pur- that it can do is to restore to circula- pose in itself. For how could Purpose tion old ideals of Christian love and have purposes? the liberty of the individual. But it There are periods of history when has been unable so far to set up a new the presence of Purpose is evident, Purpose. when minor passions are absorbed in Where socialism is concerned, the the striving for God and He openly Western liberal individualist or Rus- calls mankind to Himself. Thus arose sian sceptical intellectual is about in the culture of Christianity which the same position as the cultured and seized the Purpose in what is, perhaps, intelligent Roman with regard to vic- its most inaccessible meaning. Then torious Christianity. He called the came the era of individualism which new faith of the crucified God barba- proclaimed the freedom of the indi- rious and naive, laughed over the luna- vidual as the Purpose and set about tics that worshipped the cross—that worshipping this purpose with the aid Roman guillotine—and believed that of the Renaissance, humanism, super- the doctrines of the Trinity, the Immac- man, democracy, Robespierre, ban- ulate Conception, Resurrection, etc., quets and other forms of prayer. And made no sense whatsoever. But it was now we have entered the era of a new quite above his powers to advance any world-wide system—that of socialist serious arguments against the ideal of purposefulness. Christ as such. True, he could say that A blinding light pours from this the best parts of the moral code of summit of thought. "A world that we Christianity were borrowed from Pla- can imagine, more material and better to, just as contemporary Christians suited to human needs than Christian assert here and there that Communism paradise"—thus was Communism de- took its noble aims from the Gospel. fined by the Soviet writer Leonid Le- But could he say that God conceived onov. as Love or Goodness was evil or mon- Words fail us when we try to talk strous? And can we say that the uni- about it. We choke with enthusiasm versal happiness, promised for the and we use mostly negative compari- Communist future, is evil? sons to describe the splendor that is For don't I know that blindfold thrusts waiting for us. Then, under Commu- Will not make darkness yield to light? nism, there will be no rich and no Am I a monster? Is not the happiness poor, no money, wars, jails, frontiers, of millions diseases—and maybe no death. Every- Closer to me than empty luck for a few? body will eat and work as much as he PASTERNAK likes, and labor will bring joy instead We are helpless before the enchant- of sorrow. As Lenin promised, we will ing beauty of Communism. We have make toilets of pure gold . . . But not lived long enough to invent a what am I talking about? new Purpose and to go beyond our- What words and what colors are needed selves—into the distance that is be- To describe these grandiose heights yond Communism. Where whores are as modest as virgins It was the genius of Marx that he And hangmen as tender as mothers? proved the earthly paradise, of which The modern mind cannot imagine others had dreamed before him, was anything more beautiful and splendid actually the Purpose which Fate des- than the Communist ideal. The best tined for man. With the aid of Marx, 42 Communism passed from moral efforts the action of the omnipresent forces of isolated individuals—"Oh, where are of production that are now ensuring you, golden age?"—into the sphere of the collapse of capitalism and the tri- universal history, which became pur- umph of socialism. True faith is in- poseful as never before and turned compatible with toleration. Neither is into mankind's march toward Com- it compatible with historicism, i.e. with munism. toleration applied to the past. And At once, everything fell into place. though the Marxists call themselves An iron necessity and a strict hierar- historical materialists, their historicism chical order harnessed the flow of cen- is actually reduced to a desire to re- turies. The ape stood up on its hind gard life as a march towards Com- legs and began its triumphant pro. munism. Other movements are of cession towards Communism. The sys- little interest to them. Whether they tem of primitive Communism arose are right or wrong is a matter of dis- because it was fated to grow into pute. What is beyond dispute is that slavery; slavery, to give birth to feu- they are consistent. dalism; feudalism, towards capitalism; If we ask a Westerner why the and finally capitalism, so that it could French Revolution was necessary, we give way to Communism. That is all! will receive a great many different The magnificent aim is achieved, the answers. One will reply that it hap- pyramid is crowned, history at an end. pened to save France; another, that A truly religious person relates all it took place to lead the nation into the splendid variety of life to his di- an abyss of moral experiments; a vinity. He cannot understand another third, that it came to give to the faith. He believes in the Purpose so world the great principles of Liberty, that he can despise other purposes. Equality and Fraternity; a fourth, that He shows the same fanaticism—or if the French Revolution was not neces- you prefer, printsipialnost'—with re- sary at all. But if you ask any Soviet gard to history.* A consistent Chris- schoolboy—to say nothing of the bene- tian views the entire history previous ficiaries of our higher education—you to the birth of Christ as the prehistory will invariably receive the correct and of Christ. From the point of view of exhaustive reply: the French Revolu- the monotheist, the pagans existed tion was needed to clear the way to only to call upon themselves the will Communism. of the only God and, after a suitable The man who received a Marxist preparation, to become monotheists. education knows the meaning of both It can therefore hardly surprise us past and future. He knows why this that, in another religious system, an- or that idea, event, emperor or mili- cient Rome has become an indispen- tary leader was needed. It is a long sable stage on the road to Communism. time since men had such an exact Or that the Crusades are not ex- knowledge of the meaning of the plained by their internal dynamics, by world's destiny—not since the Middle the ardent efforts of Christians, but by Ages, most likely. It is our great priv- ilege to possess this knowledge once • Printsipialnost' is a Russian word more. with no English equivalent. It describes the mental habit of referring every mat- The teleological nature of Marxism ter, however small, concrete or trivial, is most obvious in the works of its to lofty and abstract principles. latest theorists. They brought to Marx. 43 ism the clarity, strength and rigor of the movement towards the Purpose military orders and economic decrees. have their destiny: to hamper the A good example is Stalin's judgment movement towards the Purpose (once, on the role of ideas, taken from the no doubt, the destiny of Satan). "Idea," fourth chapter of the Short Course of "superstructure," "base," "law of na- History of the Communist Party of ture," "economics," "forces of produc- the Soviet Union: tion"—all these abstract and imper- "There exist different ideas and sonal concepts suddenly come to life, theories. There are old ideas and theo- are covered with flesh and blood and ries which have outlived their time become like gods and heroes, angels and serve the interests of outdated and devils. They create purposes and forces of society. Their significance suddenly, from the pages of philo- lies in their hampering the growth sophical treatises and scientific investi- of the society and its forward march. gations, there resounds the voice of There are also new, advanced ideas the great religious Mystery: "The base and theories which serve the interests produces the superstructure so that of the advanced forces of society. it can serve the base." (J. Stalin: Their significance lies in facilitating Marxism and Linguistic Questions.) the growth of the society and its for- ward march." THE PURPOSE OF THE CREATION As long as its famous author lived, This is not the only happy turn of the Short Course was the bedside book phrase by Stalin which the author of of every Soviet citizen. The entire the Bible might envy. The specific literate population was constantly teleology of Marxist thought consists urged to study it and in particular its in leading all concepts and objects to fourth chapter, containing the quint- the Purpose, referring them all to the essence of the Marxist creed and writ- Purpose and defining them all through ten by Stalin himself. A quotation the Purpose. The history of all epochs from V. I1'enkov's novel The Great and nations is but the history of hu- Highway illustrates the universal va- manity's march towards Communism, lidity that was attached to the Short and the history of the world's thought Course: happened, so to say, in order to bring "Father Degtyarev brought in a forth "scientific materialism," i.e. small volume and said: 'Everything is Marxism, i.e. the philosophy of Com- said here, in the fourth chapter.' Vin- munism. The history of philosophy, kentii Ivanovich took the book and proclaimed Zhdanov, "is the history thought: 'There is no book on this of the birth, rise and development of earth that contains everything that a the scientific world view and its laws. man needs ..: But Vinkentii Ivano- As materialism grew and developed min [a typical sceptical intellectual] in the struggle against idealism, so soon realized that he was wrong and the history of philosophy is the history accepted Degtyarev's view, which was of the struggle between materialism that of all advanced people: This book and idealism." (A. A. Zhdanov, "Con- `contains everything that a man tribution to the Discussion of G. F. needs.' " Aleksandrov's History of Western Eu- Every word of this quotation is per- ropean Philosophy," June 24, 1947.) vaded by the spirit of purposeful. These proud words seem like the voice ness. Even the ideas that do not favor of God Himself exclaiming: "The whole history is My history, and since did they save and what did they I assert myself in the struggle with change in this world, these ancient vir- Satan, world history is also the his- gins of both sexes, these egoists of tory of My struggle with Satan." humanism who bought themselves in And so it rises before us, the sole easy conscience penny by penny and Purpose of all Creation, as splendid rented themselves a cozy corner in as eternal life and as compulsory as the heavenly almshouses? death. And we fling ourselves towards We did not want salvation for our- it, breaking all barriers and rejecting selves but for all of humanity. Instead anything that might hamper our fran- of sentimental sighs, individual peg tic course. We free ourselves without fection and amateur dramatics for the regret from belief in an afterlife, from benefit of the hungry, we set about love of our neighbor, from freedom to correct the universe according to of the individual and other prejudices, the best of models, the shining model by now rather shopworn and looking of the Purpose which we approached all the sorrier by comparison with the ever more closely. great Ideal before us. Thousands of So that prisons should vanish for- martyrs of the revolution gave up their ever, we built new prisons. So that lives for the new religion and sur- all frontiers should fall, we surround- passed the first Christians by their suf- ed ourselves with a Chinese wall. So ferings, their steadfastness and their that work should become a rest and holiness: a pleasure, we introduced forced la- bor. So that not one drop of blood Polish commanders be shed any more, we killed and killed Branded our backs with Five-pointed stars. and killed. Mamontov's bands In the name of the Purpose we Buried us alive turned to the means that our ene- Up to our necks. mies used: we glorified Imperial Rus- The Japanese Burned us in fireplaces sia, we wrote lies in Pravda [Truth], Or railroad engines we set a new Tsar on the now empty And poured lead and tin throne, we introduced officers' epau-

Into our mouths. lettes and tortures ... Sometimes we They all roared: felt that only one final sacrifice was "Abjure!" But from our burning throats needed for the triumph of Commu- Only three words came: nism—the renunciation of Commu- "Long nism. Live O Lord, 0 Lord—pardon us our Communism!" sins! MAYAKOVSKI Finally, it was created, our world, To our new God we sacrificed not in the image and likeness of God. It only our lives, our blood and our is not yet Communism, but it is al- bodies. We also sacrificed our snow- ready quite close to Communism. And white soul, after staining it with all so we rise, stagger with weariness, en- the filth of the world. circle the earth with bloodshot eyes, It is fine to be gentle, to drink tea and do not find around us what we with preserves, to plant flowers and hoped to find. cultivate love, non-resistance to evil Why do you laugh, scum? Why do and other philanthropies. But whom you claw with your well-cared nails 45 the spots of blood and dirt that have (Decree of the Central Committee of stuck to our jackets and uniforms? the CPSU (b), August 14, 1946.) You say that this is not Communism, It must be remembered, when read- that we took the wrong turning and ing this decree of the Central Com- that we are further from Communism mittee, that the interests of the peo- now than when we started. Well then, ple and of the state—which, inciden- where is your Kingdom of God? Show tally, are exactly the same from the it! Where is the free personality of point of view of the state—have but the superman that you promised? a single aim: the all-pervading and Achievements are never identical all-absorbing Communism. "Literature with the original aim. The means used and art are part of the whole people's to reach the aim change its original struggle for Communism... The high- appearance into something unrecog- est social destiny of art and literature nizable. The stakes of the Inquisition is to mobilize the people to the strug- helped to establish the Gospel; but gle for new advances in the building what is left of the Gospel after the of Communism." (N. S. Khrushchev, stakes have done their work? Yet all "For a Close Link Between Literature of them—the stakes of the Inquisi- and Art and the Life of the People," tion and the Gospel, the night of Kommunist magazine, number 12, Saint Bartholomew and Saint Barthol- 1957.) omew himself—add up to one great When Western writers deplore our Christian culture. lack of freedom of speech, their start- Yes, we live in Communism. It re- ing point is their belief in the free- sembles our aspirations about as much dom of the individual. This is the as the Middle Ages resembled Christ, foundation of their culture, but it is modern Western man resembles the organically alien to Communism. A free superman, and man resembles true Soviet writer, a true Marxist, will God. But all the same, there is some not accept these reproaches, and will resemblance, isn't there? not even know what they are all This resemblance lies in the subor- about. What freedom—if the compari- dination of all our actions, thoughts son be permitted—does the religious and longings to that sole Purpose, person require from God? The free- which may have long ago become a dom to praise God still more ardently? meaningless word but still has a hyp- Contemporary Christians, who have notic effect on us and pushes us on- broken their spiritual fast and accept- ward and onward—we don't know ed the spirit of individualism, with its where. And, obviously, art and liter- free elections, free enterprise and free ature could not but get caught in the press, occasionally abuse the phrase meshes of that system and become, as "freedom of choice" that Christ is Lenin predicted, "a small wheel and supposed to hale bequeathed us. This a small screw" of the gigantic state sounds like a dubious borrowing from machine. "Our magazines, both scien- the parliamentary system to which tific and artistic, cannot be apoliti- they are accustomed, for it bears no cal... The strength of Soviet litera- resemblance to the Kingdom of God, ture, the most advanced in the world, if only because no president or prime is that it is a literature for which minister is ever elected in paradise. there can be no other interests than Even the most liberal God offers only those of the people and of the state. one freedom of choice: to believe or

46 not to believe, to be for Him or for to these positions, and affirms and de- Satan, to go to paradise or to hell. fends them in the work." Communism offers just about the same It is with the same joyous facility right. If you don't want to believe, that this artist accepts the directives you can go to jail—which is by no of the party and the government, from means worse than hell. And for the the Central Committee and its First man who believes, for the Soviet writ• Secretary. For who, if not the party er to whom Communism is the pur- and its leader, knows best what kind pose of his own and humanity's of art we need? It is, after all, the existence (and otherwise there is no party that leads us to the Purpose in place for him either in our literature accordance with all the rules of Marx- or in our society), there can be no ism-Leninism, the party that lives and such dilemma. For the man who be- works in constant contact with God. lieves in Communism, as Khrushchev And so we have in it and in its lead- correctly noted in one of his latest er the wisest and most experienced cultural pronouncements, "for the ar- guide, who is competent in all ques- tist who truly wants to serve his peo- tions of industry, linguistics, music, ple, the question does not arise of philosophy, painting, biology, etc. He whether he is free or not in his crea- is our Commander, our Ruler, our tive work. For him, the question of High Priest. To doubt his words is which approach to the phenomena of as sinful as to doubt the will of God. reality to choose is clear. He need not These are the esthetical and psy- conform or force himself; the true chological concepts the knowledge of representation of life from the point which is indispensable to anyone who of view of Communist partiinost'* is would penetrate the secret of socialist a necessity of his soul. He holds firmly realism.

Works produced by socialist realists a remarkable purposefulness. They all vary in style and content. But in all develop in one direction, and a direc- of them the Purpose is present, wheth- tion well known in advance. This di- er directly or indirectly, open or rection may exhibit variations in ac- veiled. They are panegyrics on Com- cordance with time, place, conditions, munism, satires on some of its many etc.; but it is invariable in its course enemies, or descriptions of life "in and its destiny: to remind the reader its revolutionary development," i.e. once more of the triumph of Com- life moving towards Communism. munism. Having chosen his subject, the So- Each work of socialist realism, even viet writer views it from a definite before it appears, is thus assured of a angle. He wants to discover what po- happy ending. The ending may be tentialities it contains that point to sad for the hero, who runs every pos- the splendid Purpose. Most subjects sible risk in his fight for Communism; of Soviet literature have in common but it is happy from the point of view of the superior Purpose; and the author never neglects to proclaim his * Partiinost' is the point of view that considers everything in terms of the cor- firm belief in our final victory, either rect party line. directly or through a speech of his 47 dying hero. Lost illusions, broken with such a grandiose denouement, it hopes, unfulfilled dreams, so charac- still exists implicitly and symbolically, teristic of literature of other eras and commanding the development of char- systems, are contrary to socialist real- acters and events. For example, many ism. Even when it produces a tragedy, of our novels and stories deal with it is an Optimistic Tragedy, the title the work of a factory, the building of of Vishnevski's play in which the hero- an electricity work, the application of ine dies at the end but Communism an agricultural decree and so on. An triumphs. economic task is carried out in the A comparison between some repre- course of the action (e.g. the start of sentative titles of Soviet and Western building introduces the plot; the end literature is revealing. Journey to the of building—the denouement). But the End of the Night (Celine); Death in task is presented as an indispensable the Afternoon and For Whom the Bell stage on the way towards a higher Tolls (Hemingway); Everyone Dies purpose. In such a purposeful view, Alone (Fallada); A Time to Live and even technical processes acquire dra- a Time to Die (Remarque); Death of matic tension and can be followed a Hero (Aldington) are all in minor with great interest. The reader finds key. Happiness (Pavlenko); First Joys out step by step how, against all kind (Fedin); It is Well! (Mayakovski); of obstacles, the plant was put to Fulfilled Wishes (Kaverin); Light over work, the "Victory" collective farm the Earth (Babayevski); The Victors gathered a good crop of corn and so (Bagritski); The Victor (Simonov); on. He closes the book with a sigh of The Victor (Chirikov); Spring in the relief and realizes that we have made Victory Collective Farm (Gribachev), yet another step towards Communism. and so on, are all in a major key. Since Communism is for us the in- The splendid aim towards which escapable outcome of the historical the action develops is sometimes pre- process, many of our novels have made sented directly at the end of the work. the impetuous course of time the main- This method was brilliantly used by spring of their action. The course of Mayakovski. All his major works after time, working its way towards the the Revolution end with passages Purpose, works for us. The Soviet about Communism or with fantastic writer does not think in Proustian scenes describing life in the future terms. He does not search for lost Communist state (Mystery Bouffe; time; his motto is rather: "Time, 150,000,000; About This; Vladimir march on!" He hastens the course of Il'ich Lenin; It is Well!; With a Full life and affirms that each day lived is Voice). Gorki, who during the Soviet not a loss but a gain for man—because era wrote mainly about the days be- it brings him closer to the desired fore the Revolution, ended most of his ideal, even if only by one millimeter. novels and plays—The Artamonov Af- This purposefulness of the historic fair; The Life of Klim Sam gin; Egor processes is linked with the great in- Bulichev and Others; Dostigaev and terest our writers show in history, Others—with a vision of the victorious both recent and remote. Recent his- Revolution, which was a stage on the torical events like the Civil War and way to Communism, and the conclud- collectivization are landmarks on the ing gesture of the old world. road we chose. In more remote eras Even when the book does not end it is, alas, harder to find the move-

48 ment towards Communism. But if the the fire of the Civil War and the cold writer concentrates hard enough he of early Communist construction. will uncover, even in the most remote As soon as the literary character be- of times, some phenomenon that comes fully purposeful and conscious might be called progressive because, of his purposefulness, he can enter in the final account, it aided in some that privileged caste which is univer- way our victories of today. The writ- sally respected and called "positive ers merely anticipate somewhat and heroes." This is the Holy of Holies give these events the Purpose that they of socialist realism, its cornerstone and did not yet have. And so the leaders main achievement. of the past like Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great or the peasant rebel THE POSITIVE HERO Stenka Razin, though they did not The positive hero is not simply a know the word "Communism," still good man. He is a hero illuminated by know quite well that our future will the light of the most ideal of all be brilliant. They never cease to cel- ideals. Leonid Leonov called his posi- ebrate this future from the pages of tive hero "a peak of humanity from our historical novels, and they con- whose height the future can be seen." staritly gladden the heart of their read- He has either no faults at all or else ers by their astounding perspicacity. but a few of them—for example, he Another subject is offered to our sometimes loses his temper a little. literature by the internal world of These faults have a twofold function. man's psychological life. This inter- They help the hero to preserve a cer- nal world moves towards the Purpose tain likeness to real men and they by dynamics of its own, fights against provide something to overcome as he "the traces of the bourgeois past in raises himself ever higher and higher its conscience," and re-educates itself on the ladder of political morality. under the influence of the party and However, these faults must be slight of surrounding life. A large part of or else they would run counter to his Soviet literature is an "educational basic qualities. It is not easy to enu- novel" which shows the Communist merate these basic qualities of the metamorphosis of individuals and en- positive hero: ideological conviction, tire communities. Many of our books courage, intelligence, will power, pa- turn around the representation of triotism, respect for women, self-sacri- these moral and psychological proc- fice, etc., etc. The most important, of esses, which aim at producing the course, are the clarity and directness ideal man of the future. One such is with which he sees the Purpose and Gorki's Mother, where an ignorant strives towards it. Hence the amazing woman, defeated by life, is transformed precision of all his actions, thoughts, into a conscious revolutionary. Writ- tastes, feelings and judgments. He ten in 1906, this book is generally firmly knows what is right and what considered the first example of social- is wrong; he says plainly "yes" or "no" ist realism. Or there is Makarenko's and does not confuse black with white. Pedagogical Poem about the young For him there are no inner doubts criminals who take the road to hon- and hesitations, no unanswerable est work, or Ostrovski's novel How questions and no impenetrable se- the Steel Was Tempered, i.e. how the crets. Faced with the most complex steel of our youth was tempered in of tasks he easily finds the solution-

49 by taking the shortest and most direct books in which all the heroes are pos- route to the Purpose. itive. This is but natural, once we The positive hero first appeared in are coming ever closer to the Pur. some books of Gorki written in the pose. So that if a book about the first decade of the twentieth century. present deals not with the fight He started by proclaiming to the against the enemies but with, say, a world: "One must say firmly yes or model collective farm, then all its char- no!" Many were shocked by the self- acters can and must be positive. To assurance and straightforwardness of put negative characters in such a situ- his formulations, by his tendency to ation would, to say the least, be preach at everyone around him and strange. And so we get dramas and by his pompous monologues celebrat- novels where all moves smoothly and ing his own virtues. Chekhov, when peacefully. If there is a conflict be- he managed to read through The Pet- tween the heroes, it is a conflict be- ty Bourgeois, frowned with embarrass- tween good and better, model and ment and advised Gorki to soften the supermodel. When these books ap- loud proclamations of his hero. Che- peared, their authors—men like Ba- khov feared pretentiousness worse than baevski, Surkov, Sofronov, Virta, Gri- fire: he viewed such purple passages bachev, etc.—were highly praised and as a boastfulness foreign to the Rus- set up as examples for others. True, sian character. since the Twentieth Congress—one But Gorki was deaf to such advice. hardly knows why—our attitude to- He did not fear the reproaches and wards them changed somewhat and sneers of the shocked intelligentsia we apply to them the contemptuous and its repeated assertions that the adjective "conflictless." Once Khrush- new hero was dull-witted and narrow- chev came out in defense of these minded. He knew that his hero was writers, such reproaches were stilled the man of the future and that "only somewhat but they are still levied here men as pitiless, straight and hard as and there by intellectuals. They are swords will cut their way through." unjust. (The Petty Bourgeois, 1901.) Since we don't want to lose face Since then the posotive hero has before the West, we occasionally cease gone through many changes and pre- to be consistent and declare that our sented himself in many guises. He un- society is rich in individualities and rolled his positive qualities in many embraces many interests. And that it ways, grew big and sturdy, and finally has differences of opinion, conflicts drew himself up to his full stature. and contradictions, and literature is This happened already in the 1930s, supposed to reflect all that. when the Soviet writers dropped their True, we differ from each other in little cliques and their literary ten- age, sex, nationality and even intelli- dencies, and accepted, almost unani- gence. But whoever follows the party mously, the best and most advanced line knows that these are heterogenei- trend of all: socialist realism. ties within a homogeneity, differences To read the books of the last twen- of opinion within a single opinion, ty or thirty years is to feel the great conflicts within a basic absence of con- power of the positive hero. First he flict. We have one aim—Communism; spread in every direction, until he one philosophy—Marxism; one art— filled all our literature. There are socialist realism. This was well put

50 by a Soviet writer of no great literary does not let us sleep in peace. But we gifts but politically irreproachable: do not doubt for a single moment "Russia took its own road—that of that all these contradictions will be unanimity ... For thousands of years resolved, that the world will become men suffered from differences of opin- unified and Communist and that the ion. But now we, Soviet men and last, by competing with each other, women, for the first time agree with shall become the first. This great har- each other, talk one language that we mony is the final Purpose of Creation, all understand, and think identically this beautiful absence of conflict is about the main things in life. It is the future of socialist realism. And so this unanimity that makes us strong we can hardly reproach those over- and superior to all other people in harmonious writers who have indeed the world, who are internally torn and withdrawn from contemporary con- socially isolated through their differ- flicts but only to glance at the future, ences of opinion." (V. Il'enkov, The i.e. to find out how they can best pay Great Highway, a novel which ap- the debt which, as writers, they owe peared in 1949 and was awarded the to socialist realism. Babaevski and Sur- Stalin Prize.)* kov have not deviated from the sacred Beautifully put! Yes we really are principles of our art, but have rather all alike and we are not ashamed of developed it logically and organically. it. Those of us who suffer from super- They embody the higher stage of so- fluous differences of thought we pun• cialist realism and the embryo of the ish severely by excluding them from coming Communist realism. life and literature. There can be no The growing strength of the posi- substantial differences of opinion in tive hero is shown not only in his in- a country where even the anti-party credible multiplication—he has far elements confess their errors and wish surpassed other kinds of literary char- to rectify them as soon as possible, and acter in quantity, put them into shade incorrigible enemies of the people ask and sometimes replaced them alto- to be shot. Still less can there be such gether. His qualitative growth has al- differences among honest Soviet peo- so been remarkable. As he approaches ple and least of all among positive the Purpose, he becomes ever more heroes who think only of spreading positive, great and splendid. He also their virtues all over the world and becomes more and more persuaded of of re-educating the few remainirtg dis- his own dignity, especially when he sidents into unanimity. compares himself to contemporary True, there are still disagreements Western man and realizes his immeas- between the vanguard and the back- urable superiority. "But our Soviet ward and there is still the sharp con- man has left them far behind. He is flict with the capitalist world that now close to the peak while they are still wandering in the foothills"—this • One cannot but recall in this con- is the way simple peasants talk in our nection Khrushchev's cri de coeur against novels. And the poet runs out of words the Jews: "They are all individualists when he tries to describe this superior- and all intellectuals. They want to talk ity, this incomparable positiveness of about everything, they want to discuss our positive hero: everything, they want to debate every- thing—and they come to totally different Nobody rose so high conclusions!" For centuries and centuries.

51 You are above all glory, not matter so much that the starosta You are beyond all praise. moved, within the batting of an eye- M. ISAKOVSKI lid, from the rearguard to the van- The novel Russian Forest by Leonid guard. What matters very much more Leonov, the first writer to be award- is that we have here the straight and ed a Lenin prize—which replaced the immutable determination of the posi- Stalin prize—is the best work of so- tive hero raised, we might say, to the cialist realism for the last five years second power. Polya's behavior may or so. It contains a remarkable scene. seem stupid from the point of view of The brave birl Polya, entrusted with common sense. But it is filled with an a dangerous mission, makes her way immense religious and esthetic signifi- to the rear of the enemy—the action cance. Under no circumstances, even takes place during the Patriotic War. to further his task, does the positive As a camouflage she is supposed to hero dare so much as to look nega- collaborate with the Germans. She tive. Even in the face of the enemy plays this part for a while in talking who must be outwitted and cheated to a Nazi officer, but with great diffi- he must demonstrate his positive qual- culty: it is morally painful to her to ities. They cannot be hidden or cam- talk the enemy's language. Finally she ouflaged: they are written on his brow cannot stand it any more and reveals and they sound in his every word. And her true self and her superiority to so he defeats the enemy not by clever- the German officer: "I am a girl of my ness, wits or physical strength but by time. . . maybe just an ordinary gui, his proud attitude alone. but I am the world's tomorrow..., Polya's deed is the key to much that and you should stand up, yes, stand to the non-believer appears grossly up when you talk to me, if you have exaggerated, stupid and false—especial- a trace of self-respect left! But there ly the positive hero's propensity to you sit, only because you are nothing pontificate on elevated themes. He but a horse that the Chief Hangman makes Communist assertions at home puts through its paces ... Well, don't and at work, in friend's homes and just sit there, do something! ... Get on lonely walks, on the love couch and up and show me the place where So- on the death bed. But this is not a viet girls are shot!" contradiction; positive heroes were DETERMINATION A SECOND POWER created to present to the world, on The fact that by this pompous tirade every suitable and unsuitable occa- Polya betrays herself and moreover sion, a model of purposefulness: harms the mission with which she has Measure been entrusted does not disturb the Each detail author in the least. He finds an easy By the great Purpose way out of the resulting situation. The MAYAKOVSKI noble purity of Polya's heart converts Only men who are as straight and a starosta* who happened to listen to hard as swords will cut their way the conversation. His conscience sud- through. denly awakens, he shoots at the Ger- GORKI man, loses his life and saves Polya's. Never before have there been heroes But this is not what matters. It does like this. Though Soviet writers are proud of the great traditions of 19th * A peasant official put in charge of the village by the Germans. century Russian literature which they 52 want to follow in every possible way broad—he should be narrowed, he felt. and sometimes actually do follow (even But Dostoevsky was so broad himself though they constantly upbraid West- that he could embrace within himself ern writers for slavishly imitating out- both Orthodoxy and nihilism. He worn literary canons) the positive he- could find room in his soul for all the ro of socialist realism is a break with Karamazovs—Alyosha, Mitya, Ivan, Fe- the tradition, not its continuation. dor (some would add Smerdyakov). A very different type of hero pre- We don't know to this day which of vailed in the last century, and Russian them predominated. For breadth ex- culture lived and thought differently cludes faith: no wonder we narrowed then. Compared with the fanatical re- ourselves down to Marxism, thus ful- ligiosity of our time, the 19th century filling Dostoevsky's wish. Dostoevsky seems atheist, tolerant, disoriented. It fully understood the temptations of was soft and shrivelled, feminine and breadth, eternally disputed with him- melancholy, full of doubts, inner con- self and passionately wished to end tradictions and pangs of conscience. these disputes, offensive to the one Chernyshevski and Pobedonostsev, the God. great radical and the great reactionary, This thirst for God, this wish to be- were perhaps the only two men of the lieve arose—as did the search—in a century who really believed in God. spiritual desert. It was not yet faith, Of course, an incalculable number of and if the wish preceded faith—Bless- peasants and old women also believed ed are they who thirst!—it is like hun- in God; but they were not the makers ger preceding a meal... The great of history and culture. Culture was hunger of the 19th century perhaps made by a handful of mournful scep- conditioned us Russians to throw our- tics who thirsted for God simply be- selves so greedily upon the food pre- cause they had no God. pared by Marx and to devour it even But you might object: How about before we had time to analyze its Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, how about taste, smell and consequences. But this the thousands of other "seekers after hundred years' hunger was itself caused God," from the Populists to Merezh- by the catastrophic absence of food: kovski, whose search of God has lasted it was a hunger of godlessness. That well into the middle of our cen- is why it proved so exhausting and tury? I assume that to search means felt so unbearable, making us "go not to have. He who has, who really among the people," turn radical and believes, does not search. And what renegade and suddenly remember that

should he search for, if everything is we are, after all, Christians. ... But clear and all that he has to do is to there was no relief anywhere: follow God? God is not found; He I want to make peace with heaven, finds us and comes upon us. When He I want to love, I want to pray has found us, we cease to search and I want to believe in the good. start to act, doing His will. THE RUSSIAN DEMON The 19th century was a century of But who is it that cries so anxious- searching, of ardent or calm aspira- ly for faith? None other than the De- tions, unwilling or unable to find a mon of Lermontov's poem.* It is the solid place under the sun, torn by uncertainties and dualism. Dostoev- * Lermontov, the great romantic poet, sky regretted that the Russian was so wrote this work in 1842 —TR. 53 very "spirit" of doubt that has torn gin that he unfolded the theme in its us so long and so painfully. He con- full amplitude. The plot of Onegin firms that it is not the saints that is a simple anecdote: as long as Ta- thirst for God but those who have no tiana loves Onegin and is willing to God and have left Him. belong to him, he is indifferent to her; It is a very Russian Demon. He is but when she marries another, he too inconsistent in his passion for evil falls in love with her passionately and to figure as a full Devil and too in- hopelessly. Embedded in this banal consistent in his repentance to make story are contradictions on which Rus- his peace with God and rejoin the sian literature has dwelled to the days obedient angels. His tone is not of Chekhov and Blok: contradictions straightforward but ambiguous—"not of a spirit without God and of a Pur- day and not night, not light and not pose irrevocably lost. dark." There are only semi-tones, the The central hero of this literature- secret glitter of twilight that was later Onegin, Pechorin of Lermontov's He- glimpsed by the symbolist poet Blok ro of Our Time, Beltov of Herzen's and the symbolist painter Wrubel. Whose Fault?, Lavretski of Turgenev's A consistent atheism, an extreme Nest of Gentlefolk and Rudin of his and inflexible denial of God, resem- novel of that name—is usually called bles religion more than this vague in- "the superfluous man." For all his certitude. For this is the crux of the generous impulses he is unable to find Demon's problem: he has no faith and a destiny and he presents a lamenta- he suffers from lack of faith. His is ble example of a purposelessness that the eternal motion upwards and down- is of no use to anybody. He is, as a wards, backwards and forwards, be- rule, a reflYxi've character, with ten- tween heaven and hell. dencies to self-analysis and self-flagel- Remember what happened to the lation. His life is full of unrealized Demon? He fell in love with Tamara, projects, and his fate is sad and slight- that divine beauty incarnated in a ly ridiculous. A woman usually plays ravishing woman, and decided to be- a fatal part in it. lieve in God. But as soon as he kissed Russian literature is full of love Tamara she died, killed by his touch. stories in which an inadequate man She was taken from him, and he was and a beautiful woman meet and part once more alone in his anguished un- without achieving anything. The fault, belief. of course, lies with the man, who does For a century this was also the story not know how to love his lady as she of Russian culture, which had been deserves, actively and with a purpose. possessed by the Demon even before Instead, he yawns with boredom, like Lermontov. Russia went into a fren- Onegin and Rudin, or else he kills zied search for an ideal; and no soon- his beloved, like Aleko in Pushkin's er did she touch heaven than she fell. Gypsies or Arbenin in Lermontov's The slightest contact with God led Masquerade. to denying Him, and with the denial If only the hero were at least a low came the anguish of unrealized faith. fellow, incapable of higher feelings! The universal genius of Pushkin But no, he is a noble creature and took note of this collision in The Pris- the most attractive woman boldly of- oner of the Caucasus and other early fers him her heart and hand. But in- poems; but it was only in Eugene One- stead of rejoicing and taking life with 54 a song, he commits some irresponsi- mysteriousness and her tenderness. ble acts and, against his own desires, Pushkin's dreamy Tatiana opened up does everything he can to ensure that an age; the "Beautiful Lady" to whom his beloved shall not become his. Blok dedicated his first collected Judging by the literature of the poems closed it. Tatiana was indis- time, all hearts were broken in 19th pensable so that Onegin should suffer century Russia and no children were through the absence of somebody. born for a while. But the writers were And, concluding a love story that not describing the actual life and cus- lasted for a century, Blok took the toms of the Russian nobility; they Beautiful Lady as his Bride, only to were engaged in depth metaphysics of betray Her and to lose Her and to an aimlessly agitated spirit. In this torment himself all his life by the pur- literature, woman was the touchstone poselessness of his existence. of man. His relations with her bare Blok's poem The Twelve—a work his weakness and, compromised by her at the boundary between two hostile strength and beauty, he descends from and mutually exclusive cultures—con- the stage on which a heroic action was tains an episode that puts a full stop to be played, bows to fate and sneaks to the love theme of the 19th cen- out into nothingness with the shame- tury. The Red Guard Petka kills, ful cry of a base, useless, superfluous against his will and in a fit of anger, man. his sweetheart, the prostitute Katka. The women, those innumerable Ta- The tragic murder and the sorrows tianas, Lizas, Natalias, Bellas and of lost love resuscitate the old drama, Ninas [Tatiana is the heroine of Eu- known to us from the days of Ler- gene Onegin; Lisa of A . ,Test of Gen- montov's Masquerade and Demon. tlefolk; Bella of A Hero of Our Time], Blok himself used it in many varia- shine like an ideal, chaste and beyond tions—did not the fool Petka and big- the reach of Onegins and Pechorins, mouthed Katka, with her new boy who love them so clumsily and unsuc- friend Harlequin-Vanka, issue from cessfully. For Russian literature they Blok's own Pierrot and Columbine? served as a synonym of the ideal, as But if the old heroes, the Demons and symbol of a higher Purpose. Arbenins, just turn their emptied soul For woman is generally considered inside out and freeze into a hopeless a beautiful, pure and nebulous crea- sorrow, Petka, who followed in their 'ture. Not too much is asked from her: footsteps, is not allowed to do it. His she need not be concrete and definite more politically conscious comrades to save man; it is enough that she be rouse him and re-educate him: pure and beautiful. And since she oc- You sure go on and on, you cupies, like every Purpose, a passive bastard, What are you? A little girl? and waiting position, her beautiful, Sure, you want to turn your soul magical, mysterious and not too con- Inside out for us to see? O.K. crete nature permits her to represent Come on, snap out of it, look smart, a higher stage of the ideal and to serve Get yourself under control! as a substitute for the absent and de- ...... sired Purpose. And Petrukha soon slowed down This was the woman that the 19th His hurried steps ...... century found most to its liking. She He threw back his head impressed it by her vagueness, her And became gay once more. 55 Thus a new hero was born, never He was red and now he's white-- seen before. In bloody battles against Death whitened him. the enemy—"I will drink blood for my M. TSVETAYEVA* black-browed beauty!"—and in the In the religious struggle, the super- works and pains of the new era—"This fluous man proclaimed his neutrality is no time for babying!"—he cures and expressed his sympathy with both himself of sterile reflections and use- parties, as in these verses of the sym- less pangs of conscience. He lifts his bolist poet Voloshin: head proudly, cheers himself up and Both here and there, among the enters Soviet literature under the flag ranks of the new God whom Blok, from old One voice alone can be heard: habit, cails Jesus Chist: "Who is not for us, is against us. There are no neutrals. Truth is Forward, forward with us." Working people! And I stand alone among them The superfluous man of the 19th In the roaring flame and smoke century became even more superfluous And with all the strength that I in the 20th. To the positive hero of have the new era he was strange and in- Say a prayer for them both. comprehensible. The superfluous man Such words, as blasphemous as a seemed to him much more dangerous simultaneous prayer to God and Sa- than the openly negative enemy. Af- tan, could not possibly be permitted. ter all, the enemy was like the posi- It was more correct to proclaim them tive hero—clear, straightforward and, to be a prayer to the Devil: "Who is in his own way, purposeful. Only his not for us, is against us." And this is significance was negative—to hinder what the new culture did. If it turned the movement to the Purpose. But again towards the superfluous man, it the superfluous man was a creature was only to prove that he was not at of different psychological dimensions, all superfluous but rather harmful, inaccessible to computation and regi- dangerous and negative. mentation. He is neither for the Pur- Naturally, the leader of the new pose nor against the Purpose—he is crusade was Gorki. In 1901 he sketched outside the Purpose. Now this simply the first model of the positive hero cannot be, it is a fiction, a blasphemy. and attacked those "who were born While the whole world, having defined without faith in the heart," who "nev- itself with regard to the Purpose, is er felt that anything was true," who divided into two antagonistic camps, "forever wandered between yes and he feigns not to understand this and no." keeps mingling his colors in vague Gorki roared "No!" at these super- and ambiguous schemes. He proclaims fluous men, who roused his ire by their that there are no Reds and no Whites indefiniteness, and called them "petty but simply people, poor, unfortunate, bourgeois." Later he extended the con- superfluous people: cept of "petty bourgeois" far and wide They all lie in a row— and cast into it all who did not be- No line between them. 0 Marina Tsvetayeva returned to Russia Look: soldiers! in 1940 after a long exile and committed Who's ours? Who's theirs? suicide two years later. She has been He was white and now he's red— posthumously "rehabilitated" recently and The blood reddened him. her work republished.—Tit. 56 long to the new religion: property fluous hero, formerly so enchanting. owners large and small, liberals, con- The only dissonant note was perhaps servatives, hooligans, humanists, deca- struck by Sholokhov in his Quiet dents, Christians, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy. Flows the Don. Having shown the trag- Gorki was a man of printsipialnost'; ic fate of that superfluous man, Grigori G. Chulkov called him the only truly Melekhov, he bade him an affectionate believing writer of his time. He knew farewell. Since his hero belonged to that all that is not God is Devil. the simple people and not the intel- The literary revaluation of the su- ligentsia, it was possible to close an perfluous man and his rapid transfor- eye to Sholokhov's behavior. Today mation into a negative figure was in- his novel is considered a model of so- tensified in the 1920s, the formative cialist realism. But it is a model that, years of the positive hero. When they for obvious reasons, has found no were placed side by side, it became imitators. obvious to everybody that there are Meanwhile, other superfluous men, no heroes without Purpose, but only wishing to save their lives, renounced heroes who were for or against the their past and duly transformed them- Purpose and that the superfluous man selves into positive heroes. One of was, when all is said and done, a cam- them recently said: "There is nothing ouflaged enemy, a base traitor who in the world more disgusting than should be unmasked and punished as fence-sitters ... Yes, yes, I am a Red. quickly as possible. A Red, the devil take you." (Fedin's Thus wrote Gorki in The Life of An Extraordinary Year, 1949). The Klim Samgin, Fadeyev in The Deba- curse was addressed, of course, to the cle, and many others. In The Towns Whites. and the Years Fedin purged his heart Thus did the hero of 19th century of the last drop of pity for the super- Russian perish ingloriously.

In its content and spirit, as in its Peoples, know this dread Colossus: central figure, socialist realism is much God is with us, so honor ye the closer to the 18th century than to the Russian. 19th. Without realizing it, we jump These verses of the 18th century over to the heads of our fathers and poet Derzhavin have a very contem- revive the tradition of our grandfa- porary ring, though the language thers. Like ourselves, the 18th century would, of course, need modernizing. had the idea of political purposeful- Like the socialist system, so 18th cen- ness, the feeling of its own superiority tury Russia conceived of itself as the and a clear consciousness that "God center of Creation. Inspired by the is with us": plenitude of its virtues—"self-created Hark, hark, 0 Universe and self-fortified"—it proclaimed itself To vict'ries beyond human power; as an example to all peoples and all Listen, 0 astounded Europe To the exploits of these Russians. eras. Its religious self-conceit was so Peoples, know and understand, strong that it did not even admit the Believe ye that with us is God; possibility of the existence of other Believe that, aided by His hand, A single Russian can defeat norms and ideals. In his Portrait of All your abysmal evil forces. Felitsa, Derzhavin, praising the ideal 57 reign of Catherine II, expressed the It made Russia and it raised her desire that To heights of stars and crests of time. Peoples savage and remote, Covered still with wool and scales, A. PROKOFIEV Dressed only with leaf and bark, And adorned with wings of birds, Eighteenth century literature pro- Should all gather at Her throne, duced its own positive hero. He is "the Hear the gentle voice of Law, friend of common good"; he "strives So that tears should run in torrents to surpass all in courage," etc.; i.e. he Down their swarthy, sunburned constantly raises the level of his po- faces. They should cry and understand litical morality, possesses all the vir- The bliss of living in our time, tues and tells everybody just what to Should abandon their equality, do. This literature knew nothing of And all subject be to Her. the superfluous man. Neither did it Derzhavin simply cannot imagine know the destructive laughter that was that these "savages," the Huns, Finns the chronic disease of Russian culture and other peoples that surrounded from Pushkin to Blok and reached its the Russian throne somewhat in the climax among the decadents. "All the manner of the Internationale, should most lively and sensitive children of reject this flattering offer and not wish our century are stricken by a disease to submit at once to Catherine, who unknown to doctors and psychiatrists. is, after all, "celestial grace incar- It is related to the disorders of the nate." For him, as for our writers, any- soul and might be called 'irony.' Its one who does not wish to become like symptoms are fits of an exhausting the model proposed to him and does laughter which starts with a diabolic not hasten to forget his barbarous mockery and a provocative smile and "equality" and accept the proferred ends as rebellion and sacrilege." (A. gift of "bliss" falls into one of two Blok, Irony, 1908.) categories. He either is so stupid that Seen in this way, irony is the laugh- he does not understand his own in- ter of the superfluous man who de- terests, in which case he must be re- vides both himself and everything sa- educated. Or he lacks virtue and is, cred in this world. "I know men who to use one of our words, a "reaction- are ready to choke with laughter when ary," in which case he must be li- they learn that their mother is dying, quidated. For in our world there is that they are starving to death, that nothing finer than this state, this faith, their fiancee has betrayed them. this life and this Empress. So Derzha- Through this accursed irony, every- vin believed, just as a contemporary thing is the same to them: good and poet who celebrates the new reign in evil, the blue sky and the stinking Derzhavin's language: pit, Dante's Beatrice and Sologub's There is no country like vast Untouchable Lady. [Fedor Sologub, a Russia, poet of the turn of the 20th cen- No flowers grow as bright as ours, tury, with decadent tendencies.] Every- Great is our people, free and deathless, thing is confused, as in a tavern or Our proud, eternal Russian people. a fog." (Blok, ibid.) Irony is the faithful companion of It stemmed attacking hordes of unbelief and doubt; it vanishes as soon Batu And broke all chains that held it as there appears a faith that does not down, tolerate sacrilege. There was no irony 58 in Derzhavin, nor in Gorki—except Socialist realism starts from an ideal for a few early tales. In Mayakovski image to which it adapts the living there are a few examples, mostly from reality. Our demand "to represent life prerevolutionary times. Mayakovski truthfully in its revolutionary devel- soon found out what he could and opment" is really nothing but a sum- what he could not laugh about. He mons to view truth in the light of could not permit himself to laugh at the ideal, to give an ideal interpreta- Lenin, whom he praised to the skies, tion of reality, to present what should any more than Derzhavin would laugh be as what is. For we interpret "revo- at his Empress. Pushkin, by contrast, lutionary development" as the inevit- addressed indecent verses even to the able movement towards Communism, chaste and modest Tatiana. Pushkin towards our ideal, in the light of was the first to taste the bitter joys which we see reality. We represent of self-negation, even though he was life as we would like it to be and as gay and had a balanced character. As it is bound to become, when it bows for Lermontov, he almost seems to to the logic of Marxism. This is why have imbibed the poison in his child- socialist realism should really be called hood. In Blok himself and in his con- "socialist classicism." temporaries Sologub and Leonid An- Some theoretical books and articles dreev, destructive laughter became an by Soviet writers and critics use the elemental force sweeping everything terms "romanticism" and "revolution- before it. ary romanticism." Gorki wrote much As in the 18th century, we became about the links between romanticism severe and serious. This does not mean and socialist realism. He longed for that we forgot how to laugh; but "the illusion that exalts" and de- laughter ceased to be indecent and fended the artist's right to embellish disrespectful; it acquired a Purpose. life and to present it as better than It eliminates faults, corrects manners, it is. These calls did not remain un- keeps up the brave spirits of youth. heeded, though many of Gorki s for- It is laughter with a serious face and mulas are now veiled by an embar- with a pointing finger: "This is not rassed silence or interpreted pharisai- the way to do things!" It is a laugh- cally: it is obviously not easy to admit ter free from the acidity of irony. that what we really need are some Irony was replaced by pathos, the pretty lies. No, no, God forbid! We emotional element of the positive are against illusions and against ideal- hero. We ceased to fear high-sounding ization, we write only the truth and words and bombastic phrases, we were at the same time present life in its

no longer ashamed to be virtuous. revolutionary development ... Why The solemn eloquence of the ode should we embellish life? It is quite suited us. We became Classicists. beautiful as it is, we are not out to When Derzhavin, in his old age, embellish it, we just want to show wrote the ode "To the great boyar the germs of the future it contains .. . and military commander Reshemysl," he gave it a subtitle "or the image of EARLY ROMANTICISM what a great lord should be." The All this talk is merely our usual lit- art of socialist realism might be given erary politics. In reality—as Gorki the same subtitle: it represents the knew—romanticism suited our tastes world and man as they should be. only too well. It gravitates towards the 59 ideal, makes our wishes pass for after the Revolution was its betrayal the truth, likes pretty knick-knacks, is than to insult its memory by reproaches not afraid of bombast. This is why and suspicions. Unlike the party, the it had its well-known success among state, the Ministry of State Security, us. Yet romanticism has played a less collectivization, Stalin, etc., the Rev- important part in our art than might olution needs no justification by the have been expected. It made its pres- Communist paradise that awaits us. It ence felt mostly in the prehistory and is self-justified and justified emotion. initial period of socialist realism. In ally, like love or inspiration. And its mature period—the last 20, 30 years even though the Revolution was —socialist realism has had a compara- carried out in the name of Commu- tively slight romantic tinge. nism, its name does not sound less Romanticism is intimately connected sweet to us for that. Maybe even with the Sturm and Drang period of sweeter... Soviet literature, the first five years We live between past and future, after 1917, when life and art were between the Revolution and Commu- flooded with sentiment, when the nism. And if Communism promising blazing elan towards a happy future us golden mountains and represent- and the world-wide significance of the ing the inevitable logical outcome of revolution were not yet regimented by all human history imperiously pulls a strict political order. Romanticism us forward, the past too pushes us in is our past, our youth for which we the back. For it is we who accom- long. It is the ecstasy of swollen ban- plished the Revolution. How then can ners, the explosions of passion and we blame it or blaspheme against it? rage, the rattling of sabers and the We are caught in this psychological neighing of horses, the shootings with- squeeze. In itself, we may like it or out judgment and without conse- not. But both before us and behind quences, the "On to Warsaw!", the us stand temples so splendid that we life, sleep and death under the naked could not bear to attack them. And sky lit by the fires of regiments as when we remember that, should our nomadic as the Tartars of old: enemies win, they would make us re- Youth that led us turn to the prerevolutionary mode of To the march of sabers, life (or incorporate us in Western Youth that threw us democracy, it hardly matters), then, On the ice of Kronstadt. I am sure, we will start once more from where we started. We will start Battle horses Carried us off, from the Revolution. On city squares While working on this article I They massacred us. have caught myself more than once E. BAGR TSKI dropping into irony—that unworthy These are not just the sentiments device! I caught myself trying to avoid of revolutionists who have survived the phrase "Soviet power." I preferred and grown fat. The memory of the to use its synonyms, like "our state," revolution is as sacred, both to those "the socialist system" and so on. No who took part in it and those who doubt this was due to the fact that were born after it, as the image of when I was young, the words of one a dead mother. It is easier for us to of our Civil War songs went straight grant that everything that happened to my soul: 60 All of us into the fight Romanticism is powerless to express For Soviet power our clarity and precision. Composed And as one man we'll die Fighting for it. gestures and even moderately solemn speech are foreign to it. It waves its It is enough for me to pronounce arms, gets excited and dreams distant the words "Soviet power" to make me dreams of the time when Communism see the Revolution with my mind's is all but built and will be seen any eye. I see the taking of the Winter moment. Palace, the cracking motion of ma- In affirming an ideal, romanticism chine-gun belts, the bread cards for is not binding enough. It takes the one eighth of a pound, the defense wish for the reality. This is not bad of Red Petersburg. In a strictly logi- in itself, but it smells of subjectivism cal judgment, "Soviet power" and and lack of self-restraint. The wish is "the socialist state" are the same the reality, because it must be, Our thing. But if I have a few things life is beautiful not only because we against the socialist state—trifles, all want it to be beautiful but also be- of them—I have absolutely nothing cause it must be so: it has no choice. against the Soviet power. Ridiculous? All these arguments, mostly voice- Maybe. But this is also romanticism. less and unconscious, gradually dried Yes, we are all romantic with re- up the hot current of romanticism. gard to our past. But the further away The river of art was covered with the we are from our past and the closer ice of classicism. As art became more we come to Communism, the weaker precise, rational and teleological, it becomes the romantic halo that art squeezed out romanticism. has bestowed upon the Revolution. This is understandable: romanticism THE SHIFT TO CLASSICISM is, indeed, part of our nature; but it The cold breath and ponderous is not all of it. Sometimes it even heaviness of classicism was felt by us violates our nature. long ago, but few men dared to be Romanticism is too anarchical and outspoken on this subject. "The spir- too emotional, while we are becoming it of classicism blows upon us from ever more disciplined rationalists. It is all directions. All breathe it; but they at the mercy of turbulent feelings and either cannot distinguish it or don't diffuse moods, forgetting logic, com- know its name or simply are afraid mon sense and law. "The folly of the to speak about it." (A. Efros, The brave is the wisdom of life," the young Messenger on the Doorstep, 1922.) Gorki assured us. This advice was The most daring of all was N. Pu- timely when the Revolution was made: nin, a fine art critic. At that time he fools were necessary then. But can we was connected with futurism; he is call the Five Year Plan "folly of the completely forgotten now. Already in brave"? Or the guidance of the Party? 1918 he noted "the marked classicism Or, indeed, Communism itself, inevit- of Mayakovski's verses." He declared ably prepared by the logical course of that in his Mystery Bouffe—his first history? Here every point is thought major post-revolutionary work—Maya- through, rationally foreseen and sub- kovski "ceased to be a romanticist and divided into corresponding paragraphs. became a classicist." He forecast that What folly is this? Hm, comrade Gorki, "much as he would like to, Mayakov- you obviously haven't read your Marx! ski will never again rebel as impetu-

61 ously as he did in the past." tional and social trait of our classi- Although his forecast proved re- cism, born as it was of Russian democ- markably correct—and not only as re- racy. But neither the heroes nor their gards Mayakovski—the term "classi- authors ever suspect that they are in cism" did not take hold in a Soviet bad taste. They try with all their pow- literature that kept becoming more er to be beautiful, polite and cultured. clearly classicist. It was, perhaps, too They present every detail "correctly" embarrassingly frank. Also, it recalled and "in the best of tastes." certain undesirable associations that "Under the white ceiling sparkled seemed to lower our dignity. We pre- an elegant chandelier, fringed with ferred to call ourselves modestly "so- transparent glass pendants, as with cialist realists" and hide our name icicles ... Tall silvery columns sup- under this pseudonym... ported a blindingly white cupola, dec- Beginning with the 1930s, the pas- orated with necklaces of electric sion for solemnity finally imposes it- bulbs." self and a pompous simplicity of style. What is this? A Tsar's palace? No, the hallmark of classicism, becomes an ordinary club in a provincial town. fashionable. We call our state "the "On the stage, by the polished wing Power"; the mujik—"cultivator of the of the grand piano stood Rakitin, bread"; the rifle-"saber." We cap- dressed in sober gray. Like a blue italize a great number of words. Al- river, a necktie flowed down his legorical figures and personified ab- breast." stractions invade our literature, and A singer? A fashionable tenor? No, we speak with slow solemnity and a simple party worker. grandiose gestures. And now let's look at the people. It does not curse, it does not fight, it Yes, we believe, we must believe does not drink itself senseless the way That truth exists—this is our stand; the Russian people used to do. And And that the good is not defenseless And conquers evil in the end. if takes a drink at a wedding table A. TvAxnovsxu covered with exquisite foods, it is only as an accompaniment of toasts: The time has come! In vain with cruel fate "Terentii raised his eyes, looked The Fascist Lord has Moscow at the round of guests, rumblingly threatened long. coughed into his fist, caressed the But to victorious Moscow fell silver flow of his beard with a Berlin. trembling hand, and said: M. Isnxovsxt 'First of all let us congratulate the young couple, may they be The first heroes of Soviet literature happy and embellish the earth by stormed the fortresses of capitalism their presence.' The guests followed him with with torn bast shoes on their feet and their toasts, among the melodious sexual oaths on their lips. They were clinking of the wine glasses: coarse and unrestrained: "Vankal Put 'May they honor their parents!' some paper rubles in your shoes! 'May they have healthy children!' You can't scoot barefoot to the meet- 'And not injure the glory of the kolkhoz!' " ting!" (Mayakovski). But now they ac- quired good looks, elegant clothes and The quotations are taken from the refined manners. If they are some- novel From the Whole Heart by E. times lacking in taste, this is the na- Maltsev, published in 1949. It is like 62 dozens and hundreds of other novels. seems satisfactory to contemporaries. It is a sample of classicist prose of Still I must sadly confess, with other average literary quality. The style has of my contemporaries, that our litera- long become a commonplace of our ture has become progressively impov- literature, and passes from author to erished in the last two or three dec- author without undergoing any sub- ades. Fedin, Fadeev, Ehrenburg, Iva- stantial change. nov and many others have written Every style has its distinctive quali- worse and worse with the years. The ty. But classicism is more prone than twenties, of which Mayakovski wrote other styles to impose its mark, to ob- that "Only poets, alas, we have none," serve pedantically definite canons and now seem to be the years in which norms, to be conservative as to form. poetry flourished. Since the writers It is among the most stable of styles. It accepted socialist realism en masse— brings and accepts new elements mostly the beginning of the thirties—litera- in its formative period, but later tries ture has gone down and down. Some to follow established models faithfully few glimmers of light during the Pa- and is hostile to researches in form, triotic War did not save it. experimentalism and originality. This In this contradiction between the is why it rejected the talents of many victory of socialist realism and the poets who wanted to embrace it but low quality of literary production, retain their personality: V. Khlebni- many are inclined to blame socialist kov, O. Mandelshtam and N. Zabolot- realism. They say that great art can- ski among them.* Even Mayakovski, not be written under it and even that whom Stalin called "the most tal- it is the death of all art. But Maya- ented poet of our Soviet era," re- kovski provides a refutation, to start mained in it a tragically solitary fig- with. For all the originality of his tal- ure. ents he remained an orthodox Soviet Mayakovski was too much of a rev- writer, perhaps the most orthodox So- olutionary to become a traditionalist. viet writer—and this did not stop him To this day he is accepted politically from writing good poetry. He was an rather than poetically. For all the exception to general rules, but most- peans written to his glory, his rhythms, ly because he observed these rules images and language seem overbold to more strictly than others. In his poet- most of our poets. Those who want ic practice he carried out the de- to follow in his footsteps copy his mands of socialist realism more radi- mannerisms but are unable to grasp cally and more consistently. For the what is essential in him—his boldness, contradiction between socialist realism inventiveness and passion. They imi- and literary quality, the blame must tate his verses but don't follow his fall on literature, i.e. on the writers example... who accepted the rules of socialist Geniuses, of course, are not born realism but did not have sufficient ar- every day, and the state of art rarely tistic consistency to embody them in deathless images. Mayakovski had that * A. F. Khlebnikov, who died in 1922, consistency. was one of the founders of Russian fu- Art is not afraid of dictatorship, se- turism; Mandelshtam, who rebelled verity, repressions, or even conserva- against the symbolists, died after depor- tation; Zabolotski is among the most tal- tism and cliches. When necessary, art ented Soviets poets today.—Tx. can be narrowly religious, dumbly 63 governmental, devoid of individuality sicistic nature of our art, they still —and yet good. We go into esthetic consider it realism. They do it because raptures over the stereotypes of Egyp- they base their judgments on the lit- tian art, Russian icons and folklore. erary criticism of the 19th century, Art is elastic enough to fit into any which is farthest away from us and bed of Procrustes that history presents most foreign to us. Instead of follow- to it. But there is one thing it can- ing the road of conventional forms, not stand: eclecticism. pure fantasy and imagination which Our misfortune is that we are con- the great religious cultures always vinced socialist realists but not con- took, they try to compromise. They vinced enough. Submitting to its cruel lie, they maneuver and they try to rules, we are yet afraid to follow to combine the uncombinable: the posi- the end the road that we ourselves tive hero, who logically tends towards have chosen. No doubt, if we were the pattern, the allegory—and the psy- less educated, it would be easier for chological analysis of character; ele- us to attain the integrity that is in• vated style, declamation—and prosaic dispensable to a writer. But we went descriptions of ordinary life; a high to school, read all kinds of books, and ideal—and truthful representation of learned only too well that there were life. great writers before us—Balzac, Mau- The result is a loathsome literary passant, Tolstoy and, yes, what's his salad. The characters torment them- name?—Chekhov. This is what has un- selves not quite like Dostoevsky's, are done us. We wanted to become famous mournful not quite like Chekhov's, and to write like Chekhov. This un- found their happy families not quite natural liaison produced monsters. like Tolstoy's, and, suddenly becoming It is impossible, without falling into aware of the time they are living in, parody, to produce a positive hero in scream at the reader the copybook the style of full socialist realism and slogans which they read in Soviet news- yet make him into a psychological papers, like "Long live world peace!" portrait. In this way, we will get nei- or "Down with the Warmongers!" ther psychology nor hero. Mayakovski This is neither classicism nor realism. knew this and, hating psychological It is a half-classicist half-art, which is analysis and details, wrote in propor- none too socialist and altogether not tions that were larger than life. He realism. wrote coarsely, poster-style, homerical- ly. He avoided like a plague descrip- THE CONTRADICTION tions of common life and rural na- It seems that the very term "social- ture. He broke with "the great tra- ist realism" contains an insoluble con- ditions of the great Russian litera- tradiction. A socialist, i.e. a purpose- ture" and, though he loved Pushkin ful, a religious art cannot be pro- and Chekhov, he did not try to imi- duced with the literary method of the tate them. All this helped Mayakovski 19th century called "realism." And a to lift himself to the level of his epoch really faithful representation of life and to express its spirit fully and cannot be achieved in a language clearly, without alien admixtures. based on teleological concepts. If so- But the writing of so many other cialist realism really wants to rise to writers is in a critical state right now the level of the great world cultures precisely because, in spite of the das- and produce its Communiad, there is

64 only one way to do it. It must give vedere in the treasury of world art. up the "realism," renounce the sorry The strength of a theological sys- and fruitless attempts to write a so- tem resides in its constancy, harmony cialist Anna Karenina or a socialist and order. Once we admit that God Cherry Orchard. When it abandons its carelessly sinned with Eve and, be- effort to achieve verisimilitude, it will coming jealous of Adam, sent him off be able to express the grand and im- to labor at land reclamation, the plausible sense of our era. whole concept of the Creation falls Unfortunately, this is unlikely to apart, and it is impossible to restore happen. The events of the last few the faith. years are dragging our art on a road After the death of Stalin we en- of half-measures and half-truths. The tered upon a period of destruction death of Stalin inflicted an irrepara- and re-evaluation. It is a slow and ble loss upon our religiously esthetic inconsistent process, it lacks perspec- system; it cannot be resuscitated tives, and the inertia of both past and through the now revived cult of Le- future lie heavy on it. Today's chil- nin. Lenin is too much like an ordi- dren will scarcely be able to produce nary man and his image is too realis- a new God, capable of inspiring hu- tic: small, bald, dressed in civilian manity into the next historical cycle. clothes. Stalin seemed to be specially Maybe He will have to be supple- made for the hyperbole that awaited mented by other stakes of the Inqui- him: mysterious, omniscient, all-pow- sition, by further "personality cults" erful, he was the living monument and by new terrestrial labors, so that of our era and needed only one qual- after many centuries a new Purpose ity to become God—immortality. will rise above the world. But today Ah, if only we had been intelli- no one yet knows its name. gent enough to surround his death And meanwhile our art is marking with miracles! We could have an- time between an insufficient realism nounced on the radio that he did not and an insufficient classicism. After die but had risen to Heaven, from the loss it suffered it is no longer able where he continued to watch us, in to fly towards the ideal and to sing silence, no words emerging from be- the praises of our life in a sincere neath the mystic moustache. His relics and high-flown style, presenting what would have cured men struck by pa- should be as what is. In our works ralysis or possessed by demons. And of glorification resound ever more children, before going to bed, would openly the notes of baseness and hy- have kneeled by the window and ad- pocrisy. The most successful writers dressed their prayers to the cold and are those who can present our achieve- shining stars of the Celestial Kremlin. ments as truthfully as possible and But we did not listen to the voice our failings as tactfully, delicately and of our conscience. Instead of intoning untruthfully as possible. This is what devout prayers, we set about dethron- happened with Dudintsev's novel Man ing the "cult of personality" that we Does Not Live by Bread Alone, which ourselves had created. We thus blew stirred up a lot of noise and was pub- up the foundations of that classicist licly anathemized for blackening our colossus which, if we had waited but bright socialist reality. a little, would have joined the Pyra- But is the dream of the old, good mid of Cheops and the Apollo of Bel- and honest "realism" the only heresy

65 to which Russian literature is suscep- socialist realist of all) and of many tible? Is it possible that all the les- other realists and non-realists teach sons that we received were taught in us how to be truthful with the aid vain and that, in the best of cases, of the absurd and the fantastic. all we wish is to return to the natural- Having lost our faith, we have not ist school and the critical tendency? lost our enthusiasm about the meta- Let us hope that this is not so and morphoses of God that take place be- that our need for truth will not in- fore our very eyes, the miraculous terfere with the work of thought and transformations of His entrails and imagination. His cerebral convolutions. We don't Right now I put my hope in a phan- know where to go; but, realizing that tasmagoric art, with hypotheses instead there is nothing to be done about it, of a Purpose, an art in which the we start to think, to set riddles, to grotesque will replace realistic de- make assumptions. We may thus in- scriptions of ordinary life. Such an vent something marvelous? Perhaps; art corresponds best to the spirit of but it will no longer be socialist our time. May the fantastic imagery realism. of Hoffmann and Dostoevsky, of Goya, (Translated from the Russian Chagall, and Mayakovski (the most by GEORGE DENNIS)

66