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• 1 2021-12-15T01:28:41+00:00 Religion in Russian Prison Literature 66 Xenya Currie image_header 2021-12-17T17:43:15+00:00

  Russian prison literature, or works written in the Russian language which pertain to experiences of incarceration, spans a long history, ranging from the seventeenth century to the present. Works in this literary tradition can be autobiographical, memoiristic, fictional, nonfictional; they can take the form of prose and poetry, novel and short story. Despite the great range of time over and circumstances in which works in this tradition have been written, various nodes of specificity emerge as continuous throughout many Russian prison texts. One such recurrent node is religion and appeals to religious belief, practice, and imagery. This is not to suggest that such appeals to religion appear in every single work in the tradition of Russian prison literature; rather, religion emerges as a relevant theme in various works throughout the tradition. This encyclopedia entry seeks to chronologically and non-comprehensively survey some such manifestations of religiosity in Russian prison literature.
  
  17th Century
  
  The Life Written by Himself
  
  One of the first works in the tradition of Russian prison literature was Archpriest Avvakum’s The Life Written by Himself, written from approximately 1669 to the mid-1670s. Avvakum Petrov (1620/1–1682) was an Old Believer, an Eastern Orthodox Christian who opposed the reforms to the Russian Orthodox Church introduced by Patriarch Nikon in the seventeenth century. In the Life, Avvakum recounts his experiences of imprisonment, exile, and persecution for his religious dissent. Avvakum’s Life establishes a model of the Russian prison text, one identifiable aspect of which is religiosity, that will be followed by later writers. Avvakum’s engagements with religion are immediate—he begins the Life with an appeal to the “[a]ll-holy Trinity” (Avvakum 37)—and persistent: he frequently references Biblical passages, recounts praying for divine aid, and retells experiences of God working miracles through him. That Avvakum frames his text as an hagiographic saint’s life reveals his self-presentation as a saint and a martyr. Key for Avvakum is the idea that “a true Christian [...] not only [...] live[s] in tribulations even unto death for the sake of the Truth, but passing away in ignorance of the world, [...] liveth forever in wisdom” (Avvakum 38). In appealing to this religious conviction and the ideal of Christ’s kenosis, Avvakum imbues his incarceration with religious significance, suggesting that despite his external imprisonment and suffering, he is in fact an internally liberated participant in divine wisdom.
  
  19th Century
  
  Notes from a Dead House
  
  Fyodor Dostoevsky's (1821–1881) 1862 Notes from a Dead House “was the first published account of life in the Siberian hard-labor camps” (Pevear xii). Dostoevsky’s semi-autobiographical account of his eight years of hard labor and military service after his arrest serves to humanize those who are incarcerated, a project imbued for him with religious significance. Although Notes from a Dead House’s fictional narrator Goryanchikov suggests throughout the text that his fellow prisoners are transparently legible to him, Dostoevsky’s spiritual transformation recounted in the appendix reverses this perception. A transcendent childhood encounter with the peasant Marey, who “could not have given [Dostoevsky] a look shining with more radiant love” (303) when comforting the frightened young Dostoevsky by praying that “Christ be with [him]” (302) and doing the sign of the cross, facilitates Dostoevsky’s recognition of the depth of Marey’s inner experience, regardless of his “dirt-covered” physical appearance (303). This revelation transforms Dostoevsky’s perception of those with whom he was imprisoned, such that “all the hatred and anger in [his] heart [...] vanished completely” (303). The emergent project, of affording both Dostoevsky’s fellow prisoners and Marey “respect for [their] human dignity,” is, for Dostoevsky, a deeply religiously-motivated type of vision (111).
  
  20th Century
  
  "After the Ball"
  
  Leo Tolstoy's (1828–1910) short story “After the Ball,” written in 1903 and published posthumously in 1911, also engages with religious imagery. Tolstoy experienced a profound spiritual crisis and transformation in the 1870s; as one of his post-crisis works, “After the Ball” employs religious imagery as a plea for sympathetic mercy. Religion serves to temporally place the story’s events, for Ivan Vasilyevich notes that it occurs during Butter Week, a religious and folk holiday celebrated the week before Russian Orthodox Lent begins. After the eponymous ball, Ivan Vasilyevich encounters a Tatar being beaten for desertion, whose repeated pleas for mercy are ignored by the colonel, the father of Ivan Vasilyevich’s love interest Varenka. The horror of the merciless violence to which the Tatar is subjected involuntarily invites invocations of God, for the blacksmith utters “O Lord” at the sight (Tolstoy 278). Tolstoy’s text condemns this violence through Ivan Vasilyevich’s affective response to it, for he experiences “an anguish that was almost physical to the point of nausea” and falls out of love with Varenka (278). Paralleling the Tatar’s suffering to Christ’s encourages Tolstoy’s reader to display the compassionate mercy, which the colonel fails to demonstrate, for the plight of prisoners and victims of state-sanctioned violence.
  
  Memoirs of a Revolutionist 
  
  Vera Figner's (1852–1942) 1927 memoir, Memoirs of a Revolutionist, recounts her experience of imprisonment for over twenty years for her participation in the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881. Figner’s religious belief fortifies her throughout the suffering she endures, allowing her to feel “[c]alm and radiant” as she “looks firmly ahead, fully conscious of the fact that what is coming cannot be escaped or averted” (Figner 205). That she regards Christ’s life as an ideal “example of self-sacrificing love” helps her understand her incarceration as a test of her willingness to suffer “for that good which [s]he has longed to attain, not for [her] own transitory self,” but for the sake of others (205). Although the prison, as a “living grave” (205), seeks to deny those imprisoned within it their human dignity, Figner encounters fellow prisoners who conduct themselves with profound goodness, such as her friend Ludmila Alexandrovna, a “loving, self-sacrificing spirit” who goes out of her way to avoid stepping on insects (202). Figner also finds comfort in an icon, given to her by her mother after her trial, of the “Most Holy Virgin of Joy Unexpected,” the sight of which encourages Figner to seek the small joys, without which prison life would be unendurable (228).
  
  "Requiem" 
  
  Religious imagery appears in Anna Akhmatova’s (1889–1966) poetic cycle “Requiem,” written between 1935 and 1961 about the Stalinist terror. Akhmatova parallels her son’s suffering to Christ’s, synecdochally encouraging sympathy for all incarcerated in the gulags and the “tall cross [they] bear” (Ehre 362). Yet Akhmatova’s appeals to the religious imagination also encourage a sympathetic understanding for the plight of those left behind, outside of the gulag; in section X, ‘Crucifixion,’ Akhmatova analogizes not only her son to Christ but also herself—and all the other women, particularly mothers, waiting in the prison lines—to Mary, the Mother of God. Akhmatova emphasizes the response to the crucifixion of the women who witnessed it. Mary is set apart because her grief, like Akhmatova’s, is so profound that it emerges as unwitnessable: although those around can gaze upon “Mary Magdalene trembl[ing] and we[eping]” and John “turn[ing] to stone,” “no one dared to lift his eyes / Where His Mother stood, silent and alone” (364). This invocation of religion encourages a recognition of the intensity of maternal grief which, Akhmatova suggests, both she and the Theotokos experience at their sons’ suffering.
  
  The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation
  
  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s (1918–2008) The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, one of the best-known works of Russian prison literature, brings to light the horrors of the Soviet gulag system. Solzhenitsyn engages with religion to suggest that imprisonment permits a greater degree of internal freedom than is otherwise accessible without incarceration, for prison offers him “a free head” even when his “feet [cannot] run along” (Solzhenitsyn 607). Furthermore, prison “causes the profound rebirth of a human being,” through which one’s personality, character, and soul are transformed (604). This transformation carries, for Solzhenitsyn, a religious dimension, as it helps him realize that “[o]nce upon a time [he was] sharply intolerant,” “never forgave anyone,” and “judged people without mercy” (611). His carceral experiences also facilitate his spiritually-motivated conviction that he is unwilling to survive at any price when survival at any price entails survival “at the price of someone else” (603). As incarceration enables the “soul, which formerly was dry, [to ripen] from suffering” (611), it is Solzhenitsyn’s time in the gulag which helps him “come to love [his] neighbors in the Christian sense” and to attain a greater degree of internal freedom despite external imprisonment (603). 
  
  Bibliography 

  Akhmatova, Anna. “Requiem,” translated by Milton Ehre, Literary Imagination: The Review of the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics 6.3, 2004, pp. 358–365. 
  
  Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Notes from a Dead House. Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, Vintage-Random House, 2016.
  
  Figner, Vera. Memoirs of a Revolutionist. Authorized Translation from the Russian, Northern Illinois University Press, 1991. 
  
  Petrov, Avvakum. The Life Written by Himself. Translated by Kenneth N. Brostrom, Michigan Slavic Publications, 1979, pp. 35-113.
  
  Pevear, Richard. Foreword. Notes from a Dead House, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, Vintage-Random House, 2016, pp. vii–xvi. 
  
  Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr. The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation III-IV. Translated by Thomas P. Whitney, Harper & Row Publishers, 1975, pp. 597-617. 
  
  Tolstoy, Leo. “After the Ball.” Tolstoy’s Short Fiction: Revised Translations, Backgrounds, and Sources Criticism, edited by Michael R. Katz, 2nd ed., W.W. Norton & Company, New York, NY, 2008, pp. 271–279. 

• 1 2021-11-23T21:34:21+00:00 "After the Ball" Annotations 25 Angelica Cordova image_header 2021-11-29T18:03:20+00:00 Methodology
  
  My annotations for Leo Tolstoy's short story "After the Ball" (1903), can be understood as a guide to how the text is working to point to its central idea - that is, artifice, luxury, and social privilege are founded on state-sanctioned violence and force. The Russian writer believed violence served to maintain a social order that benefited only the wealthy and ruling classes, a sentiment which is clearly expressed in a draft of his essay, The Kingdom of God is Within You, when he writes:

  "Every box at the theater, every bottle of champagne, every luxury book is that many lashes, that many days in prison, that much blood, that many groans and tears" (quoted in O'Bell 590).

  Tolstoy's critique of state violence is born from the profound moral crisis and subsequent spiritual awakening he experienced in the 1870s, following the publication of his novel Anna Karenina. His turn to Christianity would lead him to develop "an unequivocal and unconditional form of pacifism that rejected not only war but all forms of individual and collective violence" (Atack 82). All these ideas are made manifest in "After the Ball" in which Tolstoy relies on parallel imagery that actively links social privilege with state violence. Offering a blend of both context and interpretive analysis, I present and annotate key areas in the short story that support this idea. 
  
  pg. 271
  
  Ivan Vasilyevich
  
  The protagonist and narrator of the story. Handsome, well-off, and predicted to have a military career, the young Ivan Vasilyevich falls in love with Varenka B and her father, both of whom represent the possibility of upward mobility and social privilege. 
  
  Varenka B.
  
  A young noblewoman and daughter of Colonel B with whom Ivan Vasilyevich falls in love with during the ball. Throughout "After the Ball," Ivan Vasilyevich remarks on her whiteness, fragility, and ethereality. As a result, Varenka is less a body but more of an idea; for the narrator, she is the embodiment of high culture. 
  
  pg. 272
  
  Butter Week
  
  Also known as Maslenitsa, Butter Week is the last week before Russian Orthodox Lent. Marking the end of winter and the arrival of spring, the religious/folk holiday is spent basking in worldly delights before fasting from meat. In "After the Ball," we see Ivan not only indulge in food, but also the luxury and artifice of elite Russian society - social privileges, as we recognize later in the text, that are founded on state-sanctioned violence and force. Additionally, Butter Week and its connection to Easter serves as the frame for the short story's religious allusions, namely the Crucifixion and Christ's suffering. 
  
  Quadrille
  
  A fashionable late 18th-19th-century dance for four couples, with each pair forming a single side of a square. Consisting of four to five contredanses (i.e., the repeated execution of a predefined sequence of floor patterns, also known as figures), the quadrille depended on the cooperative execution of intertwining figures rather than intricate step work. 
  
  Waltz
  
  A highly popular ballroom dance that is characterized by a step, slide, and step in 3/4 time. The waltz is performed in closed position, in which partners embrace while facing toward each other.
  
  Polka 
  
  A lively courtship dance characterized by three quick steps and a hop, danced to music in 2/4 time. 
  
  pg. 273
  
  Mazurka
  
  A folk dance for a circle of couples, characterized by a lively tempo of 3/4 or 3/8 time, stamping feet, and clicking heels. The short story's emphasis of music and dance directly parallel and contrast the highly coordinated movements of soldiers and the harsh "music" of the military's fife and drums in the second half of the text. 
  
  "The more deeply I was in love, the less she seemed to me just a body..."
  
  In this moment, Varenka becomes the embodiment of all that Ivan Vasilyevich longs for - social privilege, luxury, and materiality. She symbolizes high culture and its implied elegance, refinement, and, ultimately, artificiality. 
  
  pg. 274 
  
  Epaulettes
  
  A type of ornamental shoulder piece or decoration used as insignia of rank by armed forces. The narrator's close attention to materiality, such as Varenka's dress and the Colonel's epaulettes, not only reflect a desire for upward mobility and its luxuries, but also the intersection between high culture and militarism, or the ways in which artifice, luxury, and materiality both covers and is rooted in state violence.
  
  Colonel B.
  
  Just as Varenka is the embodiment of privilege and social mobility, Colonel B. embodies Russian military rule. The narrator links both Varenka and her father, further cementing that social privilege and militarism are inextricably connected.
  
  Nikolay I
  
  The Emperor of Russia, King of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 1825-1855. His rule was one of militarism and bureaucracy, installing the military in all key positions in the country and reorganizing many government departments along military lines. As a result, the government was permeated by the military spirit of direct orders, absolute obedience, and precision. Varenka's father is frequently associated with/likened to Nikolay I, sharing the same military discipline and force. 
  
  pg. 275 
  
  "It was apparent that at one time he had danced quite well ... everyone loudly began to applaud..."
  
  While Ivan Vasilyevich describes Colonel B's dance movements as deft, he also notes the difficulty of his movements. This may be a subtle metaphor for the decline or fall of the old ideas of militarism and its failure to mask its incongruous place in society.
  
  pg. 277 
  
  Fife and drum
  Instruments part of military field music. The fife and drum served as a melodic communication system to order the soldiers' day and set vital communications such as preparatory and execution signals through battle. Their "unpleasant, shrill melody" both parallel and contrast the music of the ball. 
  
  "Black uniformed soldiers..."
  
  The uniform of the soldiers serves to starkly contrast the finery of upper-class dress, and the formation of the soldiers—echoing the coordinated movements of the quadrille, polka, mazurka, and waltz—is yet another contrast to the dancing couples of the ball. Given the structure of "After the Ball," punishment, violence, and militarism are what lurk beneath artifice, luxury, and social privilege. The parallels between the gauntlet and ball also blur the lines between brutality and high society, further suggesting the union between social privilege and militarism. 
  
  Tatar
  
  A person hailing from Northern and Central Asia. The term was frequently used to describe Mongol and Turkic invaders of Russia. In "After the Ball," the unnamed Tatar is punished for desertion. Framed as a Christ-like figure, he is flogged by soldiers as he runs the gauntlet, alluding to the Crucifixion and Christ's suffering.
  
  "His whole body twitching, his feet tramping through the melting snow ... And ever at his side there walked with a firm, bobbing step that tall officer..."
  
  This moment in the text describes "running the gauntlet," a form of corporal punishment in which the condemned is forced to run between two rows of soldiers, who strike out and attack with sticks or rods or knotted rope. To prevent the condemned from dodging the blows, the runner's hands are tied around a rifle and is then led forward by a soldier. For desertion, a soldier could face 1,500-6,000 blows when running the gauntlet. Because the punished would be unable to stand this many blows in a single session, blows were delivered in portions, with the runner healing his back in the hospital in between sessions. This type of punishment was banned in 1863.
  
  pg. 278 
  
  "Have mercy on me, lads..."
  
  Another biblical allusion meant to evoke the concept of Divine Mercy, or God's compassion.
  
  "...I caught the sight of the back of the man being punished..."
  
  The narrator's description of the Tatar's body, which is painted as "motley, wet, red, and unnatural," uses elements of the grotesque to elicit both discomfort and empathy from the reader. Additionally, the pink sash Varenka dons around her dress directly parallels the unnamed Tatar's bloodied back, reinforcing the idea that social privilege and state violence are inseparable. 
  
  Willow sticks
  
  Sharp, thin branches used by soldiers to whip and beat the bare back of one who is running the gauntlet. This could be a subversive allusion to the crown of thorns Christ was forced to wear during the Crucifixion. 
  
  Works Cited
  
  Atack, Iain. “Tolstoy's Pacifism and the Critique of State Violence.” Pacifism's Appeal, edited by Jorg Kustermans, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, Switzerland, 2019, pp. 81–102.
  
  Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "mazurka". Encyclopedia Britannica, 28 Mar. 2016, https://www.britannica.com/art/mazurka.
  
  Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "polka". Encyclopedia Britannica, 5 Jun. 2013, https://www.britannica.com/art/polka.
  
  Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "quadrille". Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 Mar. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/art/quadrille-dance. 
  
  Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "waltz". Encyclopedia Britannica, 25 Sep. 2021, https://www.britannica.com/art/waltz. 
  
  Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Tatar". Encyclopedia Britannica, 16 Apr. 2014, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tatar.
  
  McKibben, Margaret. “Carnival, Shrovetide, Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, Maslenitsa.” Russian Folk Group of Seattle, WA USA, http://www.scn.org/arts/russfolk/maslenitsa.htm.
  
  National Park Service. “Material Culture: The Fife and Drum.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 2 Nov. 2018, https://www.nps.gov/teachers/classrooms/material-culture-the-fife-and-drum.htm.
  
  Navy Department Library. “Epaulettes and Shoulder Straps.” Naval History and Heritage Command, 13 May 2014, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/w/naval-traditions-names-of-rank/officer/epaulettes-and-shoulder-straps.html.
  
  O'Bell, Leslie. “‘After the Ball’: Tolstoy Revisits ‘Childhood.’” The Slavic and East European Journal, vol. 58, no. 4, 2014, pp. 590–605. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44474468.
  
  Riasanovsky, Nicholas V.. "Nicholas I". Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 Jul. 2021, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nicholas-I-tsar-of-Russia.
  
  Tolstoy, Leo. “After the Ball.” Tolstoy's Short Fiction, edited by Michael R. Katz, Second ed., W.W. Norton, New York, NY, 2008, pp. 271–279.