{"id":3864,"date":"2021-08-24T17:23:35","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T17:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/farefwd.com\/?p=3864"},"modified":"2021-08-26T17:13:54","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T17:13:54","slug":"solovyov-and-larionov","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/2021\/08\/24\/solovyov-and-larionov\/","title":{"rendered":"Solovyov and Larionov"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

The Obscure Order of History<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Eugene Vodolazkin\u2019s debut novel explores the relationship between the history and the present\u2014but any answers it offers are elusive.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Review by Sam Buntz
<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

The past,\u201d Faulkner famously noted, \u201cis never dead. It\u2019s not even past.\u201d The Russian writer Eugene Vodolazkin\u2019s novel Solovyov and Larionov <\/em>seems to be in sync with this dictum. The novel details the life of a historian, Solovyov, with particular emphasis on his quest to discover why a renowned White Russian general, Larionov, was never shot by the Soviets but continued to live on to a natural death. Rather than evacuating with the other White Russians, Larionov stays behind to face the Communist regime\u2014but, mysteriously, avoids the Gulag and the firing squad, when many far-less conservative figures meet that very fate. Instead, he lives on as a low-key emblem of the opposition. Solovyov\u2019s coming of age story leads him from humble beginnings in a rural town known only by its position on the train line, Kilometer 715, to the university in St. Petersburg, to the resort town of Yalta, where the general had lived out the remainder of his days after being defeated in the Russian Civil War. The narrative toggles back and forth between their lives. It never quite suggests a parallel between them, but it provides moments where Solovyov\u2019s academic consideration of the general\u2019s life gives way to a more personal, direct connection with people involved in the general\u2019s history\u2014such as both Solovyov\u2019s female love interests.<\/p>

So, why was<\/em> general Larionov never shot? It should be said right off that this question is never answered in the book. There is nothing to spoil on that count. The purpose of the novel does not seem to be to provide any clear, final revelation about the meaning of the general\u2019s life, of Russian history, of the fight against Communism, or of the nature of time and death. It deals with all of these, providing incidental insights on them that are often memorable\u2014but, overall, the book strikes the reader (at least this reader) as a crux without any solution. I am more than open to correction on this count. In fact, I would like to be corrected. Perhaps the novel is intended to be enigmatic\u2014but it is difficult to tease out what exactly this enigma is meant to evoke. This might be because some context about Russian history or lived experience in Russia is missing for the American reader; there is no clear indication of why<\/em> the general\u2019s ability to survive for so long should really matter personally to the reader. Perhaps to a Russian, who readily identifies with the White Army or understands it as a valiant Lost Cause, this hits with greater emotional resonance and the question need to be asked.<\/p>

However, I was surprised that this question, which seems so obvious, is never raised in the narrative. What is the universal, existential import of the general\u2019s life and death? There are moments in the general\u2019s life that hint at some greater meaning\u2014like when he lies on the ground before a battle and imagines dying, melting back into the primordial earth. Additionally, the general keeps notes on all the people he knew in school. When someone from this cohort dies, he transfers their papers from a folder labeled \u201cLiving\u201d to a folder labeled \u201cDead.\u201d When they are all dead, the general transfers all the papers back to the \u201cLiving\u201d folder. I liked this detail. And there are other interesting reflections, such as those of a historian who equates the general with a holy fool who strives to become \u201cdead to the world,\u201d despite that the general does not particularly act like a holy fool in the rest of the narrative. But in all these moments, is there something clear\u2014a uniting thread, or a hidden order perceptible to Russians that eludes the American reviewer? In any case, one cannot fault Lisa Hayden\u2019s beautifully rendered translation, which is smooth and deft. There must be some other cultural gap that prevents a clear sense of connection to the (presumed) unity underlying the narrative.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

And what does Larionov mean to Solovyov? Solovyov wonders about this, too\u2014after all, Larionov is Solovyov\u2019s subject of study as a budding historian. But I found Solovyov\u2019s attitude towards his subject somewhat difficult to decipher. What is at stake for Solovyov, aside from his career? Though Solovyov seems a relatively objective enquirer into the past, at one point his mentor tells him, \u201cNo matter what a person studies, above all he is studying himself.\u201d Early, Solovyov wonders if he is, in fact, studying himself by studying the general\u2019s life. In fact, the narrative leads Solovyov on a journey into his own past, as he attempts to re-connect with his teenage sweetheart, who may have been related to the general. But Solovyov never finds her, and nothing is revealed on that score either; Solovyov\u2019s investigation simply ceases as he locates some pages relating to the general\u2019s memoirs.<\/p>

Solovyov has some erotic adventures in the course of his academic research, which at one point lead him to break into a mansion with his lover, Zoya, a young woman connected to the general during his final years in the resort town of Yalta. But Solovyov\u2019s love interests are peculiarly uncharacterized. His teenage sweetheart, Leeza, is a bit low key and shy, while Zoya is rather more adventurous and impetuous. But what these love affairs signify, and why Leeza is connected with the general by name, are never fully drawn out. An aura of mystery hangs over the proceedings, but one is unsure where to go in this haze, groping around for a firm foothold.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

For an American reader encountering Solovyov and Larionov<\/em>, one cannot get away from the persistent feeling of puzzlement. There seems to be something essential missing in this picture.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

I wanted to like this book, but, frankly, I felt like I could not find a point of access to properly appreciate or comprehend it. I have no real sense of why Vodolazkin wrote the book, and I suppose his second, critically acclaimed novel, Laurus<\/em>, must be a better entry point. I can see, though, that Solovyov and Larionov<\/em>, his debut, must have personal resonance for him, in that it deals with his chosen vocation and the coming of age of a historian who might be, to some extent, modeled on his author. For an American reader encountering Solovyov and Larionov<\/em>, one cannot get away from the persistent feeling of puzzlement. There seems to be something essential missing in this picture. I consulted other reviews to see if I was missing something obvious, but I found them to be of no help in this regard.\u00a0<\/p>

The main problem with the novel, in my view, is that Solovyov is insufficiently troubled. His only goal, essentially, is to become a historian. He wants to perform good research and write revealing new papers. But the deeper personal and existential weight of these historical inquiries is not brought home. It feels like the stakes of the fight between Communism and the White Russian Cause should weigh more heavily on the proceedings. As it is, the stakes for Solovyov are not particularly high. And it is hard to say what the question, \u201cWhy wasn\u2019t general Larionov shot?\u201d really means. Did he evade death due to some deeper, meaningful reason? Was he secretly a Red turn-coat, as another historian suggests? No answers.<\/p>

The best I can guess is this: perhaps the point of the book is that our attempts to understand the past are mostly futile\u2014but occasionally we sense a greater unity, some sort of cosmic structure underlying events. We must bear the weight of the mysteries to get to these moments (however fleeting they may be). Solovyov and his mentor reject the idea that history is progressive\u2014they reject \u201cgrand narratives,\u201d in a sense. Solovyov muses:<\/p>

The majority of nations had periods of ascent but as a rule achieved those a) at the expense of other peoples and b) for an extremely limited time. The interaction of those rises and falls was the sum of the vectors that absorbed one another and constituted the essence of world history. It had no common vector. With this state of things, it remained unclear what historical progress, which is now taken as an axiom, was composed of. Was it the ability\u2014the professor dreamt of a rhetorical question\u2014to destroy ever larger numbers of people with each century?<\/em><\/p>

At the same time, they suggest that there is a different kind of meaning embedded in the whole, one that is not tied to key moments, to peaks and valleys. Early in the story, Solovyov\u2019s mentor says that, in history, \u201cNo exhaustive truths exist.\u201d Rather, one should focus on \u201cthe beauty of reliable knowledge.\u201d However, he goes on to say that the meaning of Larionov\u2019s life would not be found at its hypothetical \u201cpeak\u201d but in its entirety. If so, this feels like something the book should give us\u2014the tracing of an order, a gestalt. But the reader is left wondering whether this has, in fact, occurred. We are left puzzled by this book\u2014by hints of a unity that seems to be on the verge of appearing before flowing away. Then again, that is often what life is like. However, we turn to fiction for some form of revelation, something more than the teasing hints life offers. In a Russian context, this revelation might be clearer. For this reader, however, it was not.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Sam Buntz<\/strong> is a writer based in Chicago. His work has appeared in <\/em>The Federalist, <\/em>The Washington Monthly, <\/em>Pop Matters, and <\/em>Athwart. A graduate of Harvard Divinity School, his writing often focuses on the intersection of religion, politics, and pop culture.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Solovyov and Larionov<\/strong> was published by Oneworld Publications on November 1, 2018. <\/em>Fare Forward appreciates their provision of a review copy of the novel, and you can purchase your own on their website here<\/a>. <\/em>
<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eugene Vodolazkin\u2019s debut novel explores the relationship between the history and the present\u2014but any answers it offers are elusive. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"off","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-review","category-newsletter","entry","has-media"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farefwd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Solovyov-and-Larionov-3D.jpg?fit=1500%2C1383&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3864"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3883,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3864\/revisions\/3883"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}