The Great Ice Age
Tins anthology both harrows and inspires. It covers the years 1918 to 1961. Its editors 'have given pride of place to writers who were mur- dered, hounded into silence, or otherwise per- secuted (e.g. Babel, Pilnyak and Pasternak) and to some others (e.g. Ehrenburg and Paustovsky) who despite their overtly "conformist" past have attempted, in the years since Stalin, to restore the literary and human values all but destroyed by him.' The nineteen writers selected were thus chosen mainly for the integrity with which they wrote on awkward subjects at often awkward times.
This criterion for judging a writer has tradi- tionally been of great importance in Russia, ever since the poet-diplomat Kantemir wrote his first satire in 1729. From that time on, Russian writers came more and more to act as the chief voice of the people vis-à-vis the ruling class.
The Russian tendency has been to consider con- tent in literature both separately from form and prior to it. Belinsky began this, and Cherny- shevsky took it to extremes. Thus, seen through Russian eyes, the editors of this anthology have indeed 'succeeded in their principle aim of show- ing that the Soviet period has been by no means as barren in literary achievement as is often supposed': most of the items collected here are both moving in their truthfulness and historically revealing. They show how their authors reacted to such phenomena as the 1917 Revolution, the trahis'ort des clercs that followed, Stalin's assault on literary freedom in 1929, the war years' inter- lude of lessened control, the more lasting 'Thaw'
since Stalin's death. None of the writing is directly concerned with politics, but its integrity and its disregard for the vague but semi-compul- sory doctrine of 'socialist realism' do give it a political edge. For to Stalin and the literary 'dogmatists' still surviving today, even to be apolitical, let alone politically critical, is an offence.
In its present form, however, the book would be worth buying for Max Hayward's impressive introductioii alone. Into thirty-five pages he com- presses the bare bones of forty-four years of literary history. His acute feel for the atmo- sphere of the personal and political dramas and a carefully chosen scatter of telling quotes adds flesh to the narrative. Generous space is given to the post-1953 period. In particular, Mr. Hayward traces the alternation of Thaw and Freeze, and the emergence of the loose group- ings of 'liberals,' under Tvardovsky, and 'dogmatists,' under Kochetov. He shows well how these groupings compete for the support of the party leadership.
The anthology contains two literary master- pieces: a moving poem by Pasternak, and 'Mahogany,' a powerfully written sketch by Pilnyak of life in a benighted provincial town in 1928. With elemental flair, Pilnyak conveys the exact flavour of the most varied, but all pro- foundly Russian, characters: aristocrats; bour- geois; party men; virtuous maiden aunts living as in the seventeenth century; an appealing young practiser of free love; and a half-mad com- mune of idealistic Communists, expelled from the party in 1921 and now subsisting in an under- ground brick-kiln. It was probably Pilnyak's presidency of the 'fellow-travelling' Russian Writers' Association that, in 1929, led the Soviet authorities to frame him over the publication of 'Mahogany' abroad.
Pasternak's poem was written for his friend, the emigree poetess Tsvetaeva, in 1928. Much of its beauty miraculously survives in the trans- lation by George Reavey. In Symbolical lan- guage; Pasternak conveys his pessimism about the age: poets can only strive now to preserve their personal integrity. If, however, they succeed in this, their words will one day inspire the generations to come.
Of the items more notable for their content than their literary merits, those by Zamyatin and Zoshchenko are the most poignant. Zamyatin published his perceptive and intensely relevant essay 'On Literature, Revolution and Entropy' in 1924, sensing before others the processes in motion which eventually led to the cultural dis- aster of 1929 and his own framing as one of its first victims. Showing that 'Revolution is every- where and in all things; it is infinite,' he argued that 'Heretics are necessary to health' and ap- pealed desperately : 'Right now we need in literature . . . the most ultimate, the most fear- some, the most fearless "Whys?" and "What
nexts?" ' But the sword was to prove mightier
than the pen. It was for his 'Before Sunrise,' pub- lished in 1943, that the humorist Zoshchenko, together with Akhmatova, was reviled by Zhdanov when the Deep Freeze began in 1946, One of the great merits of this anthology is that it helps to illustrate this important fact: athwart the barren Thirties and • Forties, the Twenties were much superior both in literary achievement and in fruitful debate to the Fifties and 'early Sixties, This is not surprising: a crushed tradition cannot revive at the drop of a Stalin. What gives hope, however, is the proof that a revival is now getting under way. For in his introduction Mr. Hayward speculates 'whether history might not have taken a somewhat
different turn' if more writers had been as courageous as Zamyatin. But he ends with a fine tribute to 'the majority of Soviet writers' who 'have acquitted themselves with honour in a situa- tion which required more courage, patience, intelligence and fortitude than could ever be imagined by people who live in more fortunate circumstances.'
PETER REDDAWAY
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