Fiction
THE UNFORGIVEN. By General Krassnoff. (Allen and Unwin. 10s. Od.)—This long novel describes events during the Russian civil wars after the Revolution, with all the passionate melancholy and heartfelt horror of one who believes in Tsarism as a mystical and religious force, necessary to " Eurasian " Russia. This book is not so coherent as its predecessor, for it follows the fortunes of a dispersed family, so that no single figure becomes its central and dominating power. During the first and best part, the father, General Kusskoff, does retain the reader's interest ; and he remains the most sympathetic personage in the story. He comes of an impoverished race, and has a character of extreme simplicity and kindliness. To save his wife, and wistfully hoping he may still serve Russia, he registers, and becomes an officer in the Red Army. Meanwhile, one of his sons, Igor, a 'hand- some, attractive, and libertine hussar' finds himself, after several adventures, among the Cossacks of the White Army opposed to him. The General, feeling himself " unforgiven ' by Natasha and by God for his defection from the Tsarist principle, disappears, and finally dies in Berlin comforted by his youngest son Oleg, a kind of soldier-priest. The scene shifts remarkably with Igor, who is exiled at one time to Asuncion and the forests of Paraguay. Moscow and Petro- grad are described in terms of blood, filth, and blasphemy. From this touching and naive book, which thinks Lenin sufficiently explained as an emissary of a literal Devil, it would be absurd to expect impartiality. Tsarism had its age- long horrors ; the General does not remember them. The loyal Cossacks are spoken of as " a brotherhood in Christ," brave, patient, effective ; he does not explain why they are so easily broken by the Red Armies, invariably described as cowardly and inefficient. He prays for Nemesis to overtake the Revolution, and does not consider that Revolution itself is generally a form of Nemesis. But he does convey a belief that the old Russia of gilded cupolas, dances, songs, and Eastertide, is destined to live again when rationalism has done her worst ; and the constant remembrance of resinous Aprils, white acacias on the steppes, and shining breadths of water, bears witness to the strength of the nostalgia of the Russian wanderer.
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