The Loneliness of the Individual in the Collective Society - Doctor Zhivago and The Russian Revolution and Civil War

Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago is an epic in the style of Dostoyevsky and Tolstoi. It encompasses a difficult and controversial moment in Russian history - the Russian revolution of the 1917 and the subsequent Russian Civil War - and most importantly how this period affects the individual. In the center of the story is Doctor Yury Zhivago - an orphan, whose father kills himself when he is just a boy. Yury grows up in a friendly family, where he meets his future wife-to-be, he starts a family, and he becomes a successful and respected doctor. However, he has the unfortunate chance of living in one of the most turbulent years in Russia.

In this period of changes it is of extreme importance to whom you are loyal - to the Red Army (the leftish pro-revolutionary groups) or to the White Army (the anti-bolshevik forces). Russia is devastated by war and fighting, blood and terror, torture and betrayal. People are starving, the son kills the father, the servant betrays his master, families are separated, children are left orphans. In this brutality the character of Yury Zhivago vividly stands out. Zhivago is sensitive, poetic, and idealistic. His principles contrast the brutality and the terror of the Russian uprisings. In his mind, Zhivago understands and supports the ideas of the Bolsheviks although he comes from the upper classes. Nevertheless, he condemns their methods of acting and eventually becomes disappointed with the whole ideology of marxism, which uses power, control, and coercion to artificially create a new world order.

Despite his will, Zhivago becomes embroiled in the war as a doctor in the Red Army. He spends several years apart from his family, fighting for a cause he doesn't believe in. He is not part of neither party - the Bolsheviks condemn him because he is royalty and the royals don't accept him because he fought (involuntarily) on the side of the communists. In his love life Zhivago is also bifurcated. Married to his child friend Tonia, his great love remains Lara. They meet numerous times in their early days, but eventually the war and the subsequent revolution glues them strongly together. One of the greatest love stories ever told, their life together is impossible in the new world order. Zhivago is not accepted by neither political party and Lara is also persecuted because of her husband, the infamous fearsome Red Army general, who later is considered to be a traitor to the communist idea.

In this unstable political situation individual choice and thought are suppressed, loneliness is common, and control over one's personal life is impossible. Zhivago and Lara's husband are both in love with the same woman and they long for a stable and secure family life. Unfortunately, they are embroiled in a civil war, which ideas soon become corrupted and misguided. Pasternak's epic novel is about the honorable Russian man faced with impossible choices, which contradict his ethics and beliefs. In such a situation even the sensible Zhivago is forced to kill other people, to abandon his family, and to even leave Lara behind. This is a period of great suffering, of personal sacrifices, and of unbearable terror. A novel that must be read not only because of Pasternak's unmistakable talent to depict the conflicts in the human mind, the suffering of doing something that largely contradicts your personal ethical norms, and the great love between two souls, but also because it questions the validity of the communist revolution. At first it was a struggle for social equality and justice. Politically, this became a perverse struggle for power and control over the body, mind, and soul.

The Captain's Daughter - Love in the Time of Revolt Against Serfdom and Tsarism in Russia

About the classics of world literature - either good or nothing. Especially about the Russian classics of the 19th century, founders of contemporary Russian literature. You may find me extreme but for me the Russian literature from that period is most probably the most powerful and influential. Wordy, descriptive, and highly psychological, these are the giants Tolstoi, Dostoyevsky, Pushkin, Lermontov, Chekhov, etc. One of the most prominent and my personal favorite, Alexander Pushkin, is mostly famous for his poems. However, he also wrote verse novels (Yevgeny Onegin), drama, and prose.

In The Captain's Daughter, a historical fiction, Pushkin describes the famous revolt of Pugachev against serfdom and tsarism. This is a time of evil and love, of deceit and honesty, of hatred and generosity. The circumstances of the war between the rebels and the soldiers of the king is portrayed through the eye of the young Pyotr Grinyov. At a very early age he is sent by his father to military service in Odenburg. There he falls in love with the captain's daughter, Maria. Their love, though, is subject to difficulties and turbulences. The betrayer Shavbrin is in love with Masha and wants to make her his wife. Pugachev advances towards Odenburg, gathering loyal followers along the way. The country is on the verge of war and Pyotr must not only fight against the self-proclaimed new king but he must also protect his future wife to be.

The innocency and the naivete of Pyotr is confronted with the cruelty and ugliness of the war. Thanks to his strange encounter with Pugachev before his rise to power, Pyotr escapes death. Still, he must balance between his duties for the Queen and his love for Maria, whose salvation largely depends on the benevolence of the impostor.

The Captain's Daughter is the first novel in Russian literature that makes a coherent and exhaustive analysis of the historical turbulences in Russia at the end of the 18th century. Pushkin follows the historical sequence of events with just a little bit of anachronisms. A wonderful historical piece that accurately portrays the struggle between the servants and the aristocrats, a struggle that will continue for much of the 19th century as well and will eventually lead to the idea of social equality and justice, which, as we all know, put the foundations of communism and socialism in Russia.

Dostoyevsky's Biography

Whatever I say about Dostoyevsky's Biography by Henry Troyat will not be enough. Ever since I started managing my own blog I have conveniently evaded commenting on world classics; I just felt that the titles speak for themselves. Moreover, some of these classics are so profound and psychological; they are amazing on so many levels and I do not flatter myself to think I even understood 1/3 of them.

Dostoyevsky is one of the authors whom I greatly admire. I have read Crime and Punishment, The Demons, and The Brothers Karamazov. All three novels reveal the great psychological genius of Dostoyevsky. The plot is not important, the author gives us a limited portrait of the characters' outward appearance. The most important topics in Dostoyevsky's literature are the metaphysical anguish of the soul, the conflict between God and the Church, the meaning of life, the connection children - father, all seen through the eyes of the ordinary person. What made Dostoyevsky, otherwise an aristocrat, to focus on the beggar, the prostitute, the murderer, the thief, the rapist, the atheist, etc instead of the glamorous Russian bourgeois class. Why do women always play a secondary role in his works? Where does the fascination with God and the church come from? Why focus on the metaphysical expressions of the mind? Many more questions rise in my mind and to many of them the answer was given in Henry Troyat's Dostoyevsky's Biography.

Henry Troyat is a French author, biographer, and historian from an Armenian descent. He was born in Russia in 1907 but his family fled the country due to a threat of a revolution. They settled in Paris, where Troyat received a degree in law. His rich biography includes novels about some of the most eminent Russian figures - Dostoyevsky, Pushkin, Gogol, Boris Godunov, Tolstoy, etc. For Dostoyevsky's Biography Troyat shares in an interview: Many famous people have lead a life, which is not as nearly impressive as their works. Faced with their monotonous lives, the biographer feels the incentive to romantize, invent, interpret, and even make up. Dostoyevsky's case is different. His life path is so rich, passing from infinite despair to miraculous exaltation, that the author is more likely to diminish the tones, than to exaggerate them. It seems as the life of the genial writer is his best novel. 


Having read Dostoyevsky's Biography, I would have to agree with Troyat. Dostoyevsky's life, just like his novels, was full of rises and falls. Born in an aristocratic family, the young Fyodor spent his childhood in a severe isolation. His father deprived the family from any social activity; a typical scrooge, he established an unbearable routine, where Fyodor grew up as a loner. Even as a student in St Petersburg, his father refused to send him enough money and Dostoyevsky lived in poverty. A trend that continued during a big part of his life. Hence, the constantly repeating theme of the complex relationship father - son (mostly evident in The Brothers Karamazov). When his father died, Dostoyevsky felt guilty for ever wishing his death (remember Ivan Karamazov).

The four years in prison in Siberia greatly shaped the author's character. He was accused of a betrayal against the king for his ideas; at that time movements for the abolishment of the serfdom were highly popular. Dostoyevsky portrays his sufferings in Siberia in Notes from the Dead House.

Dostoyevsky's personal life was also difficult. He felt unrequited love several times; the author willingly sacrificed his feelings to connect the women he loved to their chosen ones. These love sacrifices have found their places in his novels as well.

The great author struggled with two sicknesses - epilepsy and gambling. The first tortured his physical body, the second - his mind. As a result most of his life he spend in constant poverty, borrowing money from friends and relatives. His second wife, 24 years younger than him, supported him greatly despite the death of two of their children.

The literary career of Dostoyevsky didn't have the best start either. He was accused of copying Gogol, of  not having a talent, even of lack of understanding of the human nature. Still, the author continued writing  and proved his opponents wrong. As already mentioned, the Russian author focused on the metaphysical anguish of the sole; he didn't care about what happened to the individual. Instead, he was fascinated with the internal dialogue, the motivation; not the actual crime, but what happened before that and after that in the human mind. Dostoyevsky was in love with the Russian people. He believed them to be European prophets, meant to take care of and wake up the Western world. The clash between God and the Church and the problem of the true faith were also central in his literature. Again, mostly evident in the novel that made him famous - The Brothers Karamazov.

I can continue writing about Dostoyevsky's life and how it shaped his talent and this blog will not be enough. As for Henry Troyat, his style is amazing. Dostoyevsky's biography is far from boring and uneventful, but I believe that even if it was, Troyat would still make a masterpiece worth reading from it. Indeed, a very good novel. If you are fascinated with Dostoyevsky, just like I am, you won't let go until you finish it. Highly recommended for all of you Russian fans.