The Editors and Board of Trustees of the Russian Review

Krasnoe koleso: Uzel I, Avgust chetyrnadtsatogo by Aleksandr SolzhenitsynReview by: Vladislav KrasnovRussian Review, Vol. 44, No. 1 (Jan., 1985), pp. 79-80Published by: Wiley on behalf of The Editors and Board of Trustees of the Russian ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/129266 .

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Part 4, "Works on Pushkin," omits articles published in volume 2. It does not follow the sequence in the book On Pushkin. Where there is supple- mentary material to the prose pieces in volume 2, only the additions are pro- vided. Some pieces are reconstructed from quotations in journals: "Pushkin in the Karamzin Family Correspondence," "On Nataliia Nikolaevna Pushkina and Pushkin's Duel" and "A Note on the Poem 'My Genealogy'." The quaint piece "Pushkin and Children" brightens the volume.

Part 5, "Letters," presents all of Akhmatova's published letters, a meager legacy. Among them are letters to S. V. von Stein, Lidiia Chukovskaia (more like manifestos), and Valerii Briusov. Good, concise information is given on addressees unfamiliar to the general public. Four letters to Shche- glov, other than the one here, were available had the editors consulted this writer. Letters to Osip Mandel'shtam, Nadezhda Mandel'shtam, Viktor Gorenko and Nikolai Khardzhiev had been published only abroad. Footnotes include two letters by Bonch-Bruevich. Regrettably, the editors have not managed to publish letters still in private hands.

Part 6, "Materials toward an Artistic Biography of A. A. Akhmatova," presents two articles by Gleb Struve published for the first time: "Akhmatova and N. V. Nedobrovo" and "Akhmatova and Boris Anrep." N. N. Punin's letter to Akhmatova, M. Kuzmin's foreword to her collection Evening and Nedobrovo's article "Anna Akhmatova" are reprinted for the first time.

This is, then, a commendable addition to an important edition. It could have been improved with an errata sheet, a name index, an update since 1965 of the fine bibliography in volume 2 of the set. Finally, one wishes that a fourth volume could collect the poet's impressive translations from various languages.

Sonia Ketchian Russian Research Center, Harvard University

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr. Krasnoe koleso: Uzel I, Avgust chetyrnadtsatogo. 2 vols., Paris: YMCA Press, 1983. 467, 546 pp.

The new edition of the novel, now presented as part of The Red Wheel cycle, is twice as large as the one published in 1971. Among its additions: chapter 8, which introduces a new character, the "anarchist-communist" worker Zhora; chapter 22, which focuses on Lenin's renewed hope for revolu- tion when the wheel of war starts turning (it was omitted from the first edition but appeared in Lenin in Zurich); chapters 60-62, which review the history of revolutionary terrorism in Russia and are especially aimed at deflating the heroic image of women terrorists, from Vera Zasulich and Sofiia Perovskaia to Evlaliia Rogozinnikova; chapters 63-73, which portray Petr Stolypin as a true Russian hero and statesman, whose assassination in 1911 changed the course of history; and chapter 74, which reviews Nicholas II's reign prior to August, 1914. Chapter 59 (formerly 57) is substantially rewritten, and some few para- graphs and sentences are added or deleted in a number of other chapters. Oth- erwise, the text remains as it was. All changes appear to aim at strengthening this basic thrust of the novel: Russia was well on the way to its self-fulfillment

Part 4, "Works on Pushkin," omits articles published in volume 2. It does not follow the sequence in the book On Pushkin. Where there is supple- mentary material to the prose pieces in volume 2, only the additions are pro- vided. Some pieces are reconstructed from quotations in journals: "Pushkin in the Karamzin Family Correspondence," "On Nataliia Nikolaevna Pushkina and Pushkin's Duel" and "A Note on the Poem 'My Genealogy'." The quaint piece "Pushkin and Children" brightens the volume.

Part 5, "Letters," presents all of Akhmatova's published letters, a meager legacy. Among them are letters to S. V. von Stein, Lidiia Chukovskaia (more like manifestos), and Valerii Briusov. Good, concise information is given on addressees unfamiliar to the general public. Four letters to Shche- glov, other than the one here, were available had the editors consulted this writer. Letters to Osip Mandel'shtam, Nadezhda Mandel'shtam, Viktor Gorenko and Nikolai Khardzhiev had been published only abroad. Footnotes include two letters by Bonch-Bruevich. Regrettably, the editors have not managed to publish letters still in private hands.

Part 6, "Materials toward an Artistic Biography of A. A. Akhmatova," presents two articles by Gleb Struve published for the first time: "Akhmatova and N. V. Nedobrovo" and "Akhmatova and Boris Anrep." N. N. Punin's letter to Akhmatova, M. Kuzmin's foreword to her collection Evening and Nedobrovo's article "Anna Akhmatova" are reprinted for the first time.

This is, then, a commendable addition to an important edition. It could have been improved with an errata sheet, a name index, an update since 1965 of the fine bibliography in volume 2 of the set. Finally, one wishes that a fourth volume could collect the poet's impressive translations from various languages.

Sonia Ketchian Russian Research Center, Harvard University

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr. Krasnoe koleso: Uzel I, Avgust chetyrnadtsatogo. 2 vols., Paris: YMCA Press, 1983. 467, 546 pp.

The new edition of the novel, now presented as part of The Red Wheel cycle, is twice as large as the one published in 1971. Among its additions: chapter 8, which introduces a new character, the "anarchist-communist" worker Zhora; chapter 22, which focuses on Lenin's renewed hope for revolu- tion when the wheel of war starts turning (it was omitted from the first edition but appeared in Lenin in Zurich); chapters 60-62, which review the history of revolutionary terrorism in Russia and are especially aimed at deflating the heroic image of women terrorists, from Vera Zasulich and Sofiia Perovskaia to Evlaliia Rogozinnikova; chapters 63-73, which portray Petr Stolypin as a true Russian hero and statesman, whose assassination in 1911 changed the course of history; and chapter 74, which reviews Nicholas II's reign prior to August, 1914. Chapter 59 (formerly 57) is substantially rewritten, and some few para- graphs and sentences are added or deleted in a number of other chapters. Oth- erwise, the text remains as it was. All changes appear to aim at strengthening this basic thrust of the novel: Russia was well on the way to its self-fulfillment

Reviews Reviews 79 79

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The Russian Review

as a modern, harmonious and dynamic, constitutional monarchy, but was stopped dead in its tracks by the unnecessary violence of war and revolution.

The Stolypin chapters are most crucial for an understanding of this thrust. He is portrayed not only as one of the greatest Russian statesmen ever-on the scale of Peter the Great-but also as one whose assassination has deprived the Russian ship of state of its true captain who could have either steered her away from World War I or, if that were impossible, would have provided the firm leadership that was needed to win it and thus kept the coun- try on the course of reforms that he had already initiated. Contrary to the official Soviet historiography, which vilifies Stolypin as a selfish reactionary and ruthless hangman, Solzhenitsyn portrays him as a genuine patriot and "conservative-liberal" leader who has accepted the advent of parliamentarism and tried to steer a middle course (cpeaHHM (apBaTepoM) between the extreme right and the left of the Duma. "He fought against the revolution as a statesman, not as head of police" (vol. 2, p. 193), says Solzhenitsyn. He chiefly credits Stolypin with the introduction of the essentially liberal program of freeing peasants from the village commune, strengthening of local self- government, and the resettlement of free farmers to Siberia. Whatever Stolypin's accomplishments, they were only the beginning of a broader pro- gram of reforms that were "perhaps superior to those of Alexander II" (vol. 2, p. 242) and for which Russia needed some twenty years of external and inter- nal peace.

As an alternative to the Communist version of history, the Stolypin story seems indispensable for the conception of the entire cycle and its first "knot." It not only helps to explain the 1914 defeat in Prussia and the ultimate down- fall of the tsar, but also puts into a broader perspective the views of such char- acters as Colonel Vorotyntsev, the engineers Arkhangorodskii and Obodovskii, the philosopher Varsonofiev and Professor Andozerskaia, all of whom now seem to embody Stolypin's dream of a new, wholesome Russia. As the author admits, lack of time and the urgent need to recover Russia's past from oblivion left him no other option except trying to incorporate segments from "previous knots" (chapters 63-74) within August 1914. As a result, the sense of propor- tion, which usually distinguishes his work, was bound to suffer. Moreover, he risked a "violation of the novelistic genre" (rpy6bIi HI3JIOM pOMaHHOii

copMbI) by setting the major part of Stolypin's story in small type (II, pp. 169- 354), in which part his usual polyphonic narrative had to yield to an authorial dominance.

The above shortcomings notwithstanding, Solzhenitsyn has performed the gigantic task of rescuing and artfully reviving a crucial chapter of Russian history that the Soviets spare no efforts to obliterate. Significantly, he did so by researching archives of the West, especially those of the Hoover Institution. While the ultimate judgment on its literary merits has to be withheld until the whole cycle is published, the new August is a must reading for all serious stu- dents of Russia, as it presents a formidable challenge not only to the Soviet view but also to those Western scholars and politicians who have become resigned to the idea that, without Communism, Russia has no future.

Vladislav Krasnov Monterey Institute of International Studies

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