The New York herald., 1922-06-18
ne uorld Of # Foreign Books

|, on the necessity for patience, and ]
cannot allow myself to teach others
the dubious virtues of obedience and
patience. Such sermons are organi-
cally inimical to me. and>I consider
them absolutely harmful to my
country" In the essay entitled
1.-Two Souls" he analyzes the Russian
national character and finds in it the
elements Of East and West con-
stantly at war with each other. I'VE
Russians" he says. ''have two souls;
one from the Mongol nomad, the
dreamer, the mystic, the idler, the
fatalist, and by the side of this help
less soul there dwells in US the soul
of the Slav, which can blaze up,
bright and beautiful, but which
burns out swiftly and is little capa-
BILE of offering resistance to the poi
sons which sap its strength" 1t is
noteworthy that he stakes his hopes
upon the Western, active element
In this respect, as In many others.
Cork speaks for the intellectual
forces directing the revolution. This
is inspired by the ideals of Irrational
istic, energetic westernism. In this
connection it may be pertinent to
mention the Eurasisn movement. an
intellectual fad which is fostered by
a group of reactionary minded Rus
sian thinkers. The so-called Eura-
slams emphasize Russia's ethnic kim
ship with the Turanian East and
summon their country back to the
Orient. A volume embodying their
doctrines appeared last year in Sofa.
v,
Gorkfs outlook accounts for his
opposition to Tolstoy's preachments
of non-resistance and Dostoyevsky's
exaltation of patience and meekness.
He believes that the social philoso-
ply of both these writer's has done
Russia great harm. 'rDostoyevsky,"
he says, sis genius. but he is our
evil genius" And so he protested
against the staging of 1.-THE Pos
sessed." the novel which caricatures
Russian revoiutionists. One recalls
the paragraph in Petersburg
paper last year on the occasion of
Dostoyevsky's centenary, when a
Communist professor wrote: I'VE
citizens of the Socialistic Fatherland
cannot travel the same road with
Dostoyevsky. 1t does not
behoove our republic to celebrate his
anniversary. =. 1t is neces-
sary to choose between Dostoyevsky
and the republic"
The longest essay in Gorki's book
is entitled '"The Destruction of Per-
sonality." His thesis here is that
individualism impoverishes the indi-
vidual. To be strong a personality
must be rooted in the group. Every
hero is the bearer of the will and
the energy of the group. "The indi-
vidual is the burning apex of huge
pyramid of experience; the broader
the base Of the pyramid. the more
living experience it compasses the
brighter, the more beautiful, the less
likely to be quenched is the flame"
In this thesis Cork finds the clew to
the history of European and. more
particularly, Russian culture. The
decadence OF Russian literature, for
example, he attributes to the fact
that contemporary writers are no
longer controlled by the social ethos,
no longer creat;vely conscious Of
their social function. Gorki's anti
individualistic bias, like his enthusi-
asm for reason and action, is. intel
lectually speaking, the very moving
force of the revolution.
To turn from this passionate theo-
rizing to simple statement of facts.
1t is interesting to consider an auto
geographic sketch by young author
who Is one of the latest arrivals in
Berlin from the Soviet republic. In
passing we may note that the Ger
man capital is becoming the chief
center of Russian publishing abroad.
now boasting thirty-two Russian
publishing firms. Boris Pilnyak's
brief account would be hard to match
for its vivid glimpses of what the
life of Russian writer's is now like