The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-02-16
Boris Pilniak, the Greatest of Russian Writers

ing every tempest Oh Joy.
They work, work, love. dream and
fight. And their adventures end, as
has often been the case in the ok
raine. When the old emigree, Harry,
asks for his share of money, which
was seized in Ekaterinoslav, Youzik
refuses to give it. Shots are fired
in the night! Free people murder
others no less free. They have muir
dered the handsome Young woman
because of money, they have MUIR
dered the woman who has tasted the
violent joys of Revolution. And thus
the black banner turns to- be the
shroud of the young dead thing.
The Soviets send troop Of soldiers
who occupy the forsaken commune.
Somewhere Pilniak writes: 81 re-
manned in the free commune Peskis
up to the day when the anarchists
killed each other"
wonder whether / have succeed
ed in pointing out the strong realism
of this new author, the strength of
which is sometimes SO overpowering
that the immediate impression of
things and particulars stiles the to-
tally Of the impression. This real
list has cult Of energy and strength
of man, beast and even nature.
''The strongest among men are the
revolutionaries and among beasts of
prey" Pilniak likes to introduce the
life of wolves into the lives of men
who are in state of mutiny. "Iihru
wind and snowdrift in the sinking
darkness, are the wolves trotting at
the heels of each other a grey herd,
males and females, the leaders
ahead, and soon snow had covered
their traces. (Ivan and Maria.)
Some of the stories of Pilniak
from the years '18 and 10 are ex-
trema.y remarkable on account of
/ their being radically different from
his new things. The Oldest ones are
exactly in the grey dull tones Of
Tshechov's worst period; the drama
of the spleen in the utterly unin-
teresting life of a little bourgeois
woman. The other ones, a shade
better, describes the same sensations,
as was usually done in the pre-rev-
dictionary time. Life which had no
issue on account of it's utterly in
durable mediocrity. Without the
mighty uproar of revolution it is
not at all unlikely that the author
would have remained in the old cur
rent, and would not have added
much to Russian literature. Boris
Pilniak owes everything to the Rus
sian Revolution, up to his style
even; it was the revolution which
gave him the originality of his tall
ent, the insight in the development
of things, the broad view with which
he embraces boundless Russia, rich
in suffering and struggle, the vision
of surging strength, the whole of
those Shings which were quite hid
den to the authors of the old regime.
That is one of the chief reasons why
one is sorry to find in his writings
only an intuitive perception and a
primitive admiration of the revoiu-
| ton. What does this revolution
want? A reader must be quite pos
sessed and overcome by this idea
ON shutting this book.
What is the whole commotion
about? Is the author capable of
| giving an answer to this? The lack
of theology, one might almost say,
! of convictions, deprives his work of
/ a 1OuIudLlCH. DuL IL 10 precisely
for this reason that it acquires in
our eyes a quite particular value;
because it is the best proof of his
! spontaneity, the frankness of his
/ statements. This work shows both
in form and subject, bow deeply the
author, who himself admits to be-
! ing neither a communist nor a rev.
dictionary, is fully permeated by the
spirit of revolution.
After having finished commercial
school, Pilniak left the provincial
nest, in which he spent the heroic
years of 1917-1921, but to supply his
need in potatoes and flour. The
whole of Pilniak's interest is sacri-
feed to the social life interests. But
our opinion is that he does not mis-
understand the ideas. the influence
of which, is but too wei known TO
him. The totality of the ideas of
class of society that is struggling,
carrying off victory and power, be-
comes an enormous factor in the