Russian

Submission and Courage: Which Will Prevail?

Before you are books about war — a war of cultural worlds and civilizations. The First World War, which destroyed the Russian Empire. The Civil War, which scorched the fates of great poets. The Great Patriotic War, seen through the eyes of a lieutenant…

Michel Houellebecq. Submission

This no longer looks like unbridled authorial fantasy: France is headed by a representative of the Muslim Brotherhood. It is only 2022; all the politicians are real, and only the victorious candidate, Mohammed Ben Abbes, is invented. With him life changes: crime falls, Turkey and Algeria join the EU, girls give up short skirts, and the Sorbonne teaches “Foundations of Islam.” Because of this François, the philologist who narrates the story, loses his job there. He is lonely and cynical and tries to find meaning under the new conditions. He travels among cathedrals and monasteries. Watching the decline of European Christianity, he concludes that Islam is both punishment and salvation for Europe. Houellebecq was accused of inciting religious hatred. Yet all he really did was mention the West’s spiritual crisis.

Vladimir Polikarpov. Russian Military-Industrial Policy, 1914–1917: State Tasks and Private Interests

How prepared was Russia for a major war a century ago? Not at all, the author believes. Military production in prerevolutionary Russia was in a deplorable state. In 1914 the future president of Finland, then a Russian officer, Carl Mannerheim predicted: “We will have to fight with clubs.” He proved right: in the summer of 1915 soldiers armed with sticks were being taken prisoner by the Germans. Our allies, above all France, supplied us not only with weapons but even with horseshoes, studs and saddles — because Russia did not have enough of its own.

By 1917, however, the Russian Empire had, with great difficulty, shifted its economy onto a war footing. But at what cost? At the cost of a maturing revolution that shattered the very foundations of the empire. A highly debatable and fascinating book.

Poets of the Twentieth Century: Zakhar Prilepin’s Library

The well-known prose writer and publicist has brought together “dissimilar poets of the Bolshevik era”: the nationally beloved Sergei Yesenin and contemporaries of his who are now almost forgotten. Poems not reprinted for decades are preceded by introductions characterizing their authors. In Prilepin’s reading, Vladimir Lugovskoy is a “romantic, military man, imperialist — an heir to Lermontov and Gumilev.” Pavel Vasilyev is “one of the most wayward and greatest poets in Russian history.” In Boris Kornilov’s work he sees “the horror of an unexpected, early and inevitable death.” And Anatoly Mariengof is simply “one of the most brilliant Soviet men of letters,” lost in Yesenin’s shadow.

Vladimir Gelfand. Diary 1941–1946

Red Army mortar man Gelfand — a sergeant and later a lieutenant — kept a diary from the first days of the war until his return home in October 1946. Dreaming of literary fame, he wrote every day despite commanders’ prohibitions and the teasing of his fellow soldiers. The result was a genuine chronicle filled with details far removed from official ceremonial rhetoric.

Gelfand himself nevertheless called Stalin “my great sun” and was not averse to slogans. The veteran died in 1983 without ever seeing his diaries published. Portions appeared in Germany, where his son had emigrated. Now the complete 800-page book has finally been published in Russian as well.