New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-11-20
m AUTHORS REVIEWS AND COMMENT
THE OLD AND THE NEW
IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE
Influence Upon American and English Ficton-lhe Dom
mani Note-The Masters and Their Followers
mani Go ,J0 Autobiographic MY Childhood

writer's upon Russia, foremost among
them Stephen Graham, whose books,
Undiscovered Russia" and Changing
Russia" are a more sympathetic, more
understanding and interpretative intro
duction TO Russian fiction through NUS
sian life and feeling than either kro-
potkin or Vogue. He tells US In the
one book that TO know the Russian
peasant woman is to unders sand the
meaning of the reverent phrase holy
Russia" And Maxim Gorky proves him
right in that unforgettable portrait OF
his grandmother in "My Youth which
is undoubtedly the greatest work he
has yet written. And when Mr.. Graham
deplores the changing Of Russia-the
transformation began before the war
under the influence Of industrialism--
we may turn to Tchekov's play, Inc
Cherry Orchard" and understand ali
the better. Here is the passing or the
old order, the coming OF the new, eX-
pressed in terms of art.
But if Chekhov here carries the old
into the new, he mostly deals with the
static life Of what remains of the old
regime in city and country. His char
acters are still the Russians OF the
masters of a generation ago, who can
not see the wood for the trees that are
in it-stunted trees, crooked trees:
dwarfed trees, burned trees, bit OF
lichen on the bark even. Thus they
are and thus they must continue TO
grow, mysteries of fate TO be despon,,
IDENTIFY unused over. That the WOOD
needs thinning out, that the under
brush must be cut away-that forestry
will raise a new generation OF sapllngs
aspiring straight and free toward sun
light and air, does not occur TO tnem'
Nor do they have the energy TO under
take the work, even should they per-
ceive its necessity. For it is this alb
sence of will power, this acquiescence
in whatever is, this fatalism-"Nitche-
vo"-which is the great mystery OF
Russian fiction to the Occidental MIND,
a mystery all the greater for the very
frankness with which il is confessed
But with it goes that unshakable con-
fdence in the destiny Of the race, IN its
future mission to all the world. IN It's
power to work out its own salvation,
which will reject English influences to-
morrow as il exterminates German IN
fuences to-day, but which patiently
awaits the awakening without attempt.
| ing to hasten its coming. Strangest OF
all, whoever reads this literature, I'M
patiently often, with irritation some
times, but rarely without deep interest,
comes to believe in that destiny, that
mission. himself. 1t may slowly, pain
fully evolve, or. again, this war, which
has stirred the race as nothing mas
ever stirred il before, may touch 1t
into sudden, amazing energy-"Po
Russki."
1t was Goncharov who gave to this
apathy, paralyzing the highest aspira-
tions. a name. "Oblomovdom," from the
name of the hero of his best-known
novel Oblomov was an aristocrat; his
type is not unknown in the Occident,
where, for instance, W. 3. Maxwell has
drawn it in an Cotton Wool" But in
Russia the word has national mean
ing. from the hut Of the moujik to the
palace of the noble. -,
II is we'll that we arc to have the old
Russian masters in new. competent
translations along with their success
sors. OF the admirable quality OF Con.
stance Garnett's English renderings OF
Dostoievsky, published by the Macmil-
Ian Company, mention has been made
repeatedly in these columns. The sixth
volume, "The lnsulted and Injured,