In this week’s chapters for Demons, Stepan makes a statement that goes against the movement. Stepan saw this as an opportunity to speak his mind after his failed attempts and being overshadowed by his own son in the movement. Therefore, this relates to Solzhenitsyn’s accounts of the Gulag and how he has looked back on them as being a way to get his voice and experiences out despite the restrictions and obstacles.
“So many of my predecessors had not been able to finish writing, or to preserve what they had written, or to crawl or scramble to safety – but I had this good fortune: to thrust the first handful of truth through the open jaws of the iron gates before they slammed to, to stay shut for a long time to come.” (Solzhenitsyn. 451)
I’m sure a lot of people, like Solzhenitsyn, who were in the Gulag system were able to escape alive, but very few who wrote about their experiences did not survive. For Solzhenitsyn to be able to survive and retell his accounts of the Gulag is an incredible feat considering how Stalin’s Communist Regime would not allow for something like this to happen. I mean Solzhenitsyn was put in the Gulag for making a joke about Stalin in a letter he wrote. This relates to Stepan’s sudden outburst during the Fete, publicly criticizing the revolutionary movement led by Pyotr.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I have solved the whole mystery. The whole mystery of their effect lies – in their stupidity! (His eyes began to flash.) Yes, ladies and gentlemen, were it an intentional stupidity, counterfeited out of calculation – oh, that would even be a stroke of genius! But we must do them full justice: they have not counterfeited anything.” (Dostoevsky, 484)
In this scene, Stepan is publicly criticizing the manifesto that is being handed around during the fete. Stepan undermines the manifesto which means he is also explicitly criticizing the revolutionary movement. I think it is really interesting that some people in the crowd urge him to stop talking while others gather around to listen to what he has to say. Stepan did eventually get off stage but the fact that his words had intrigued others meant that he was able to get his opinions and message out, similar to Solzhenitsyn writing his accounts about the Gulag. Stepan being an active member in the movement already puts him in a precarious position. He is committed to this movement and any suspicion of unloyalty could potentially lead to death. So Stepan exclaiming his opinion is sort of an act of defiance against totalitarianism, much like how Solzhenitsyn’s book about his accounts in the Gulag is an act of defiance against totalitarianism and the prison camp system. Though I do wonder if Stepan really did it because he feels that the movement is going in the wrong direction or is it a response to Pyotr, his own son as an act of revenge for outing him to the public. It could be a mixture of both.
Leave a Reply