覑械芯 楔泻褍褉褍锌褨泄 is one of the writers who are considered our 鈥溞犘拘费佈傃€褨谢褟薪械 胁褨写褉芯写卸械薪薪褟.鈥� I have not read other books by this author (maybe he indeed is a talented and valuable writer otherwise) but 鈥溞栃靶叫叫�-斜邪褌邪谢褜泄芯薪械褉泻邪鈥� looks like a really bad approach to 鈥溞犘拘费佈傃€褨谢褟薪械 胁褨写褉芯写卸械薪薪褟.鈥� It鈥檚 basically just Bolshevik propaganda, quite primitive, that has nothing to do both with literature and history.
I understand that most writers of 鈥溞犘拘费佈傃€褨谢褟薪械 胁褨写褉芯写卸械薪薪褟鈥� were sincere Bolsheviks/Communists/Socialists and they truly believed in all the good things that Bolshevik/Communist/Socialist propaganda promised, but not all of them were so obliviously blinded by it as it is shown in 鈥溞栃靶叫叫�-斜邪褌邪谢褜泄芯薪械褉泻邪.鈥� (For example, 鈥溞溠栄佈傂锯赌� by 袙邪谢械褉鈥櫻徯� 袩褨写屑芯谐懈谢褜薪懈泄 is also pretty much pro-Soviet by the internal disposition of the author and his hero, but it is complex and intelligent enough not to look like stupid pro-Soviet propaganda for illiterate peasants 鈥� contrary to 鈥溞栃靶叫叫�-斜邪褌邪谢褜泄芯薪械褉泻邪.鈥�)
The literary quality of the book is also very much questionable. I really liked its Ukrainian language: you can see how juicy and original it was at the beginning of the century, before the Soviets russified it to make it look more like a dialect of the Russian language than a unique and very flexible language with strong roots in all the neighboring European languages. However, the sentimental romanticism of very poor taste makes this book vulgar and primitive even without Bolshevik propaganda. I expected it to be clever irony, satire to the very last moment, but no, it looks like the author is deadly serious. It鈥檚 ridiculous to write like this in the Roaring Twenties!
Yes, there are some important statements about Ukrainian history and culture that are relevant for us even today, and they look quite bold for Soviet times, but they are easily explained by the fact that the author was under the spell of this short period of 鈥淯kranization鈥� 鈥� a special policy that the Soviets implemented for some time in all national republics with a powerful aspiration to be independent countries, in order to appease and tame them while they were still able to resist and fight their oppression. 覑械芯 楔泻褍褉褍锌褨泄 does not believe in 鈥溞撔笛傃� 胁褨写 袦芯褋泻胁懈!鈥� (as we may imagine from these statements) 鈥� he believes in 鈥溞撔笛傃� 胁褨写 褑邪褉褋褜泻芯褩 袦芯褋泻胁懈!鈥� and thinks that Bolsheviks are the answer to all the problems of Ukrainians.
I hope that other books by the author are better, but right now I have very little desire to explore this issue鈥�
校泻褉邪褩薪褋褜泻懈泄 芯谐谢褟写 薪懈卸褔械 (Ukrainian language review is below) This is (on a surface) an anti-war novel by Ukrainian futurist , published in 1929. The English title is 鈥淛oan the battalionnaire鈥�.
I鈥檝e read it now because this year I plan to read more of Ukrainian classics, so I took (Ukr) and decided to go through the list as it is composed, i.e. chronologically. This is the #30 in the list.
This novel is difficult to evaluate, largely because of the time and by whom it was written. Formally, it is an anti-war novel with two main characters: Stefan Boyko, a student expelled from the KPI for revolutionary activities, and the professor's daughter Joan/Zhanna (Yevhenia) Bart, a wealthy "domestic" woman of 22 who romanticizes the war and wants to become a kind of local Joan of Arc. Events begin to unfold in 1915 in Kyiv, where they both live. Stefan escapes from a policeman who was supposed to deliver him to the army and, through his friends, gets to Joan, who is having a s茅ance at the time. One of the guests, Lieutenant Sergei Golubyatnikov, is in love with Joan, has to go to the front, and is jealous of her staying with the student guests...
Two years have passed, and there is the February Revolution in the Russian Empire, the front is collapsing, soldiers are deserting en masse, and to raise morale and shame the soldiers, battalions of women and soldiers-amputees are created. "The government, as a true representative of the bourgeoisie and merchants, realized that if there was no merchandise in the store, then an ad was needed, a stunning ad that would entice everyone and bring in a significant profit. In this ad, Kerensky's government overtook even the US. Under the guise of revolutionary slogans, the imperialist appeals of the young militant bourgeoisie were put forward. "We will die for freedom and revolution. Let's go to win peace for the people. War to the victorious end!" Kerensky shouted in his speeches, and young ladies, students, and cadets clapped enthusiastically for him.鈥� Meanwhile, Stefan is conducting anti-war propaganda in the army, and Zhanna joins a women's battalion.
Here we have several layers: even in the dismissive description of propaganda, advertising is done when there are no goods! Zhanna is usually presented as an old-world personality who believes in "great Russia," but this allows her to say, for example, "Zhanna did not know who Lenin was, she heard that he was some German agent who the Germans sent to destroy the revolution." (In the later USSR, German aid to Lenin was usually not mentioned). Much other criticism of the Bolsheviks is presented under the sauce of "this is just the class enemy talking". Moreover, Stefan dreams of a new world that he will build: "In Ukraine, it will be possible to make a completely different system than in other republics. Here, the national movement has always had revolutionary ground. They have always rebelled against the masters, and the fact that these masters were and are Russians and Poles is the fault of history. Ukraine can be made into a completely different state. It can be freer than America. It will not have capitalists and exploitation, it will not have Moscow taverns with traditional Gypsies." That is why some critics see this novel as satirical, sometimes even parodic. Because in the novel, there are constant "inconsistencies": even at the beginning, a s茅ance is described as a serious theosophical study, or Stefan plans to run away from a policeman but does not take advantage of the best opportunity-when the cop sits down to fix his shoe.