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Crime or Punishment: Russian Narratives of Incarceration

'Running The Gauntlet' - One Of The Worst Forms Of Punishment In History (Landsknecht Spiessgericht)

The word gauntlet in “running the gauntlet” does not refer to the protective gloves of medieval knights as one might think at first, but to the Swedish word gatlopp, a compound of gata, "lane," and lopp, "course," and referred to a traditional form of punishment, in which two lines of people beat a person forced to run between them. The German Landsknecht and many other military organizations practiced this punishment throughout the ages. Idioms such as “to pass through the line” or “to run the gauntlet” are not only figures of speech frequently cited by newspapers when referring to someone who has to overcome a series of difficult trials or has to pass by people criticizing him sharply but also mentioned by famous authors such as Tolstoy and Hemingway. However, these sayings also keep alive the memory of one of the most brutal punishments in history.

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"After the Ball" Annotations 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.