A "Best of Old War Dogs" featured post. The webmaster is using a bogus timestamp to keep this post near the top of the blog for a while. Please scroll down for newer posts. This item was originally posted 2006.07.27.13:05.

This takes me back to the days when I was a grad student, studying Russian history. Among my professors was an English gentleman, named Keith Armes, who was my first Russian language instructor. He was a man who broke our balls learning the language, and broke his own balls in driving us. As a result, I learned Russian. In contrast, my Arabic instructor was interested in "being a nice guy' and being liked by his students. Consequently, though I got better grades in Arabic, I retain almost none of it today. There is a lesson in there for those paying attention.

In addition to teaching Russian language, Dr. Armes taught a series of courses in Soviet Literature, both the dissident, unofficial and the official literature. One entire quarter was devoted to Solzhenitsyn. Keith was additionally a rare bird in his overt anti-Communism, but he knew how to appreciate a text on its merits. And though I studied some remarkably obnoxious books, I also found some which were praiseworthy. And one which was unique. Yesterday an article from the Wall Street Journal brought me back to the past. Evgenii Zamyatin's novel We is about to be republished in a new translation.

Evgenii Zamyatin was an engineer and a recognized writer, in the O. Henry mode. He was also an Old Bolshevik, a member of Lenin's party from years prior to World War I. After the revolution he returned to Russia from England, but very quickly became disillusioned with Leninism, and became perhaps the first "ex-Communist". During 1920-21 Zamyatin wrote his distopic novel We as a warning of the mistake of collectivism, and what he saw in the offing.

As part of my Master's program, I had to write a paper outside my History major. I chose Russian literature and wrote a 60 page Master's paper on Zamyatin's We. While other literature and language scholars had already published a number of books and journal articles on the artistic merits and symbolism of We, some of it very good, and some not so much so, I did something different, even bold. I focused my paper on the question of the accuracy of Zamyatin's portrayal an forecast. How did his bitter portrayal foreshadow the realities of later, actual socialist systems? The answer was that Zamyatin was indeed a prophet.

But then personal problems arose. Before I completed the paper, Keith Armes had moved on to another University and a different professor took over the task of evaluating my paper. The daughter of one of the 1930s Moscow Reproters and a Russian mother who still followed Stalin (I met her) this professor objected strenuously to most of what I wrote, initially refusing to accept my paper. I had to go back and spend months doing further research to support peripheral points. Among other things this led me into a study of the abuses of psychiatry by the Soviets - including "Sluggish Schizophrenia" a mental illness diagnosed by the complete absence of any symptoms, save for dissidence. As it happened, her attempt to stifle my paper backfired and led to my writing a much stronger paper, and expanding my knowledge. On my second submission, she had to accept it, but still tried to get me to change aspects which seemed to offend her. I told her a polite variation of "pack sand". And there is another lesson here. You can stand up to the PC crowd. In fact, their pressure can force you to learn, and to become a better student, even when that is not their intention (and occasionally when it is).

But anyway, go read the review,and then read We. If you can find the original translation by Mirra Ginzburg, I would recommend it, but even the new re-translation, is worth the time, and I will certainly read it myself to see what changes can bother me.

Among other points of interest, this book disproves the popular claim that nobody foresaw the collapse of the Soviet Union. Zamyatin foresaw it in 1920-21, and in a way that eerily foreshadowed the details of what happened in 1990-91.

-Rurik

Contributed by George Mellinger on July 29, 2006 at 06:00 PM in Best of Old War Dogs, Books, George Mellinger, Russia | Permalink

Comments

Posted by: The Gray Dog

Rurik -
You got my interest and I just ordered "We" with the translation my Mirra Ginzburg. I look forward to reading and comparing it to Ayn Rand's "Anthem" where the societyal language did not have the first person singular pronoun "I".

Posted by: The Gray Dog | Jul 27, 2006 4:36:45 PM