$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$ hogz of entropy #161 $$$$$P $$$$ $$$$ moo, oink, up your butt. $$$$P $$$$ x$$$$ $$$P $$$$ xP$$$$ d$$$$$$$$$$$. $$$. $$$$xP $$$$ $$$$$$' >$$$$ $$$$$$$$$. $$$$P $$$$ 4$$$$$. .$$$$' $$$$'`4$$$b. $$$$ $$$$ 4$$$$$$$$$P' $$$$b 4$$$$b. $$$$$$$$$$$ 4$$$< %% $$$$$b 4$$$$$x $$$$$$$$$$$ 4$$$$$$$$$ %% >> "Hope Dies Last" << (a paper for school!!) by -> Neko ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- "It is childish to study a work of fiction in order to gain information about a country or about a social class or about the author," (Nabokov 318) wrote Vladimir Nabokov in his thoughts on his book _Lolita_. Studying a work to gain information on a country, however, is exactly the task undertaken herein. If one believes Nabokov's assertion that a culture cannot be understood merely through its literature, then it must also be believed it is coincidental that a socio-literary theme can dominate a country's thoughts, actions, and writings. The Russian society, of which Nabokov retains membership, has been oppressed under one regime after another for the past half century: the Tsarist regime followed by the late Communist regime. Throughout all of this oppression, one thing in Russia has remained constant: her peoples commitment to the hope of a better tomorrow. An old Russian saying is "nadezhda umeraet poslednye": hope dies last. Hope pervades Russian literature - it must. The depression of day-to-day life in Russian society, from serfdom to the current remnants of communism, has presented its citizens with such a bleak future that only *hope* can save them. In Russian literature, hope acts as the glue holding the words together. Alexander Pushkin, the most famous Russian poet, wrote hundreds of poems during his life. What follows are two of his untitled poems: Should this life sometime deceive you, Don't be sad or mad at it! On a gloomy day, submit: Trust - fair day will come, why grieve you? Heart lives in the future, so What if gloom pervade the present? All is fleeting, all will go; What is gone will then be pleasant. and: I loved you; and I probably still do, And for awhile the feeling may remain - But let my love no longer trouble you: I do not wish to cause you any pain. I loved you; and the hopelessness I knew The jealousy, the shyness - though in vain - Made up a love so tender and so true As may God grant you to be loved again. The preceding two poems serve as perfect examples of the unique Russian paradox of despair and hope walking hand in hand. In both poems the hope for a better tomorrow greatly overshadows the melancholy overtones. Although life is painful now for the narrator, tomorrow death will engulf him and although the reader, the "you" of the poem, will feel sorrow for his passing, it is better because the narrator is out of pain. The second poem treats the reader to a tour of despair - jealousy, shyness, even hopelessness. Suddenly, at the end, a ray of light shines through - the narrator provides hope for his loved one, even if he is to be unable to love her. Written in 1869, _War and Peace_ has proven to be an enduring novel of epic proportions. Leo Tolstoy's masterpiece tells the tale of Russian families caught up in the strife of Napoleon's invasions on Russian soil. Although Napoleon's troops are slowly converging on Moscow, the Muscovites remain hopeful until the last minute that their city will be saved. Their hope provides a source of pride for the Russian people - a refusal to go quietly. When the time comes for Napoleon to invade Moscow, the Muscovites all leave, humiliating Napoleon and leaving the Russian people with the pride that Moscow has not fallen and the hope that it will be retaken. Tolstoy writes thus about Moscow's last day: "It was a clear, bright autumn morning, a Sunday. The church bells everywhere were ringing for services, just as on an ordinary Sunday" (1028). As the main part of the story ends, the reader is left with main character Pierre's hope for his future with Natasha: "Pierre felt as if he was vanishing, as if neither he nor she existed any more, that nothing existed but happiness." Happiness and hope are themes encountered again in Nikolai Leskov's novella _The Enchanted Wanderer_. Leskov's tale acquaints us with Ivan Severyanych Flyagin, a tough man, who discovers early in life that he has been promised to God by his mother. Ivan endures the serfdom he was born into, until one day he abandons hope and becomes a highwayman. From this point, Flyagin's life continues to spiral downward: first he is accused of murder, then becomes a slave of the Tartars. All of this happens because Flyagin has abandoned his hope. Flyagin continues his descent into decadence simply because he cannot regain the hope he has lost. He enters a monastery but the same problems confront him again : he is a murderer, a slave, a criminal. Flyagin, the Enchanted Wanderer, prays to God to help him - but cannot accept God because he cannot find hope. His inability to understand the duality of hope and a high power dooms him to a life of death and destruction. In addition to his fame as a playwright, Anton Chekhov was also the author of numerous short stories. One such story is _Easter Eve_. Chekhov tells the sad tale of a lonely monk, sad that his friend, a fellow monk and composer, has died on Easter eve. As we meet the lonely monk, he is on-duty rowing a boat back and forth to take visitors to and from the monastery - some sort of modern-day Charon. No one comes to relieve this boatman, and no hope is given for the future. Written during the same time period as Leskov wrote, Chekhov, Leskov and their contemporaries hint at a depression that could not be overcome by hope, as hope could not be found. The only thing that could save them would be a revolution changing social, cultural, economic, and political boundaries. In 1917, the revolution that had been hinted at since the turn of the century finally took place. The Bolsheviks, Communists, under Vladimir Lenin took control. Lenin's outlook on the future of Russia was a positive one. In 1902 he wrote _What Is to Be Done?_, a treatise on Bolshevik organization and how to positively transfer power in Russia to a Communist state. Lenin wrote that "Social-Democracy must change from a party of the social revolution into a democratic party of social reforms" (55). Regardless of what the Communist Party and Soviet Union became, it is clear that Lenin dreamt only of a positive future for Russia and the world and engaged his whole life in hoping for a better tomorrow. The Soviets were incredibly proud of their accomplishments and dreams. It seems that Lenin and the Communists were able to provide the Russian people with something they had lost under the Tsar - their hope. Under Communism, literature had a bottom line: entertaining the proletariat. Mikhail Bulgakov wrote many short stories under the reign of Communism. Two of his most famous stories, _The Fateful Eggs_ and _Heart of the Dog_, combine the Soviet love for science as well as subtle political criticism of the Soviet government. In the former, a Muscovite scientist discovers a frequency of light that, when radiated over an object, will cause it to grow at exponential rates. At the same time as the scientist developing his ray, a plague hits the chicken population of the Soviet Union, killing them all. An enterprising young Soviet Army officer decides to use the ray - virtually untested - on chicken eggs to replenish the supply. His hope for the future is soon shattered when the Soviet government accidentally reverses the shipping order - the Army officer gets reptilian eggs while the scientist gets chicken eggs. In _Heart of the Dog_, Bulgakov revisits a scientific theme. This time two doctors decide to create a man out of a dog. At first their experiment goes well, but it soon becomes apparent that one truly cannot teach an old dog new tricks, in this case the tricks of humanity. Bulgakov wrote with a cynical hope for the future. He and a new school of Soviet writers wrote of their distrust and doubts of the Soviet government, masking their barbs in a hope for the Soviet future. Russian expatriate writer Vladimir Nabokov brings up an interesting situation in his novel _Lolita_. In _Lolita_, an older man, Humbert Humbert, falls in love with a twelve year old girl, Lolita. The novel depicts his trials and tribulations as he goes from a man without an outlet for his love to the hope that Lolita will accept him and become his outlet to their love and finally ending in Humbert's despair. Humbert always hoped for the best for Lolita - from the moment he first saw her until the moment he attempted murder to keep her pure in his eyes. Nabokov describes Humbert's delight at meeting Lolita as, ". . . the king crying for joy, the trumpets blaring, the nurse drunk" (41). One author, Nobel prize winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn, has felt the barbs of the Soviet government and wrote about his experiences in the novel _One Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich_. Solzhenitsyn based his novel on his own experiences in a Soviet gulag and, as such, the only hope the characters feel is a reprieve by death. In stark contrast to the focus on hope in much Russian literature, Solzhenitsyn had a broader agenda. By publishing his accounts, Solzhenitsyn placed his hope in the readers worldwide to question the Soviet government's actions and to hold it accountable for them. Many other Soviet writers followed suit, exposing the atrocities of the Stalinist government. Stalin's government remains a hot topic in modern-day Russia, even after the fall of Communism. In Nikita Mikhalkov's Oscar-winning portrayal of life under Stalin, _Burnt by the Sun_, a hero of the Revolution and his family come to terms with the brutal realities of the Stalinist era of Soviet government. We are acquainted with the main character, Colonel Kotov, as he employs his charisma and prestige to halt the Soviet Army from destroying a wheat field near his country home. He does this out of the hope of protecting his family, especially his young daughter, and their friends for the future. The plot quickly thickens when a mysterious stranger from Kotov's wife's past comes for a little more than a social visit. Kotov's daughter, young and innocent, never fully comprehends the magnitude of the situation the stranger has put her father in. Coincidentally, the real name of the actress playing Kotov's daughter is Nadezhda, the Russian word for hope. As the stranger takes Kotov to be purged, Kotov tells his family that he will return even though he knows his fate is certainly the gulag or even death. Nadezhda umeraet poslednye. Throughout the modern history of Russian literature hope, or the conspicuous lack thereof, has recurred as the dominant theme. Without hope a society lives without a discernible future. Hope is the future, and, as Russian writers remind us, hope dies last. --- WORKS CITED: 1. Lenin, Vladimir. _Essential Works of Lenin_. New York: Dover Publications,Inc., 1966. 2. Nabokov, Vladimir. _Lolita_. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons,1955 3. Pushkin, Alexander. "I loved you; and I probably still do." http://www.princeton.edu/~egurarie/loved.html. 15 Dec. 1997. 4. Pushkin, Alexander. "Should this life sometime deceive you." http://www.princeton.edu/~egurarie/should_life.html. 15 Dec 1997. 5. Tolstoy, Leo. _War and Peace_. New York: New American Library, 1968. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- * (c) HoE publications. HoE #161 -- written by Neko -- 12/17/97 *