Russian Literature of the Twenties: An Anthology

by Carl R. Proffer

Release Date: March, 1987

Edition: Hardcover

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The 20s weren't really this dull

This anthology of stories, poems, and novellas from the NEP era is Dullsville. Sorry, Dullsgorod. Even Zamyatin's We, so gripping in Mirra Ginsburg's now classic translation, falls flat in this new "accurate" rendition (a cursory review of the original Russian suggests that this We is more word-for-word accurate, but it loses most of the unique flavor that is Zamyatin). The Civil War tales are poorly represented by Armored-Train 14-69 (rather than Fadeev's The Nineteen). While Pilnyak and Bulgakov are here, neither are at their best; Bulgakov's "The Fatal Eggs" belongs to an 1950s American sci-fi horror movie - why this one was chosen over The Heart of a Dog (or Pilnyak's moving "Mahogony" over the famous "Tale of the Unextinguished Moon") is a mystery.

There are some good selections here, like "Mahogony", and a couple short ones from Zoschenko. But the good ones are not incredible and will leave one thinking that literature in NEP Russia was decadent and dull.

It wasn't. Read Pilnyak's The Naked Year, Ginsburg's translation of We, Olesha's Envy, or even, believe it or not, Gladkov's Cement. Those are all works worth a discerning reader's time.

One final comment. Robert Maguire's introduction is a good one, but fails to capture the true dynamic between politics and literature that was occuring in the 1920s. The struggle in the Bolshevik party between "intellectuals" like Trotsky and Lunacharsky and pedestrians like Stalin was mirrored in literature. Trotsky himself wrote several articles about literature, championing a diversity of forms and claiming that the bourgeois heritage must not be discarded. He lost, of course, and so did his view on literature. Maguire unfortunately only brushes the surface of that struggle.

Excellent Russian Literature Anthology

This is an excellent anthology of Russian Literature of the 1920's -- one of my favorite periods. Mayakovsky's play, "Bedbug;" Bulgakov's "Fatal Eggs," Zamyatin's "We;" are included as is poetry by Anna Akhmatova (my favorite "Lot's Wife"), Tsvetaeva, Bely, and many more. Russian literature during the 1920's was revolutionary, brilliant, multi-faceted, and as yet unbridled by the maxims of Socialist Realism. This collection is a very enjoyable read!