The daily worker., 1930-04-19

(ReVleWed Dy y. ID. W
Within that immense social epic
still unfinished-that began with
the Russian Revolution and the
overthrow of czarism and capital
ism; that continued through the
civil wars, famine, the reconstruc-
tion and the Five Year Plan; ana
that is now leaping dynamically into
the future of the free socialist So
ciety, there are many smaller eplcs
heroic parts and an heroic whole.
Fadeyev's, "The Nineteen" is one
of them. Perhaps it never happened
literally: that is, after all, novel.
But its inner, deeper historic truth
emerges large and unassallable.
"The Nineteen is flesh and bone
of the Revolution. 1t lives and
breathes, an indelible testament OF
the invincible courage and devotion
of those raw, untaught masses who
made possible the first Workers
and Peasants Republic in the world.
"The Nineteen" is a tale of the
civil war days, when the young Sow
let Republic was desperately right
ing for life against the imperalist
counter-revolution which attacked
both from without and within. A
company of Red partisans, those IT.
regular worler-peasant bands who
played such an important part IN
saving the Revolution, retreatlng be-
fore the advancing Japanese in the
Siberian forest, is finally cut to
pieces by white guard cossacks.
| Only nineteen men and one woman
emerge to safety. 1t is a simple
story, hardly more than an episode.
But it contains the raw stuff OF the
entire revolutionary epic. And it is
told with such superb craftsman
ship, with such simplicity and pre-
cision, rising to fierce unforgettable
climax, that the effect is overpow-
ering.
"The Nineteen" has many Of the
qualities of short story-concentra-
ton, unity Of effect and the unrav-
elling of a single narrative thread.
1t has none of the vastness and color
of Gladkov's Cement" which really
envisages an entire period; but 1t
also has none of "Cement's' rheto-
rical expansiveness, subjective ideal
ism and sentimentalism. If it is pos
sible to make an analogy between
two different artistic mediums, we
may say that Cement" is like Pu-
dovkin's film, "Ten Days That
Shook the World" while "The Nine
teen" is like Eisenstein's "Armored
Cruiser Potemkin." Each Is great
in it's own way.
And out Of "The Nineteen" emerge
these simple yet profound figures:
! the carefree, half-scoundrelly, yet
brave and generous Morozka; his
wife, the tender, deep-eyed Narya,
who gives herself to all the men,
but remains essentially sweet, not
vulgar; the shepherd, Milititsa. the
most daring of all the platoon lead
ers; the boyish, impetuous second-ln-
command, Baklanov; the weak, vain,
petulent Metchik; and among them,
vet little apart, the leader OF the
band, the small, red-beardei Jewish
/ intellectual, Levinson. Levinson is a
remarkable figure, a hero who Is
human and free from idealization.
1t is he who YIELDS together this
shapeless mass and gives form, dl-
rection and articulation to their
blind loyalty and stubborn courage.
! Yet he does not stand above them,
but with them, bound to these SIM
pie people by strong, invisible ties.
Only Levinson is clearly class cons
cious.
At the end, when he learns that
his chief lieutenant, Baklanov, whose
vivid, boyish head reminded him of
his own son, is dead, something col
lapses in him and the tears stream
unchecked down his face. But he IS
still Levinson who sees the maze Of
tragedy and defeat to the great shin
ing goal ahead.
"He looked silently, with eyes
which were still wet, at this vast
ness of earth and sky, promising
bread and rest, at these distant peo-
pie on the threshing ground, whom
he would soon have to make his
own-as near to him as were the
eighteen who followed him in silence.
He ceased crying: it was necessary
to live and d man had to do his
duty"
And on this note the book ends.
A terrible, tragic end, poised amidst
death and desolation, but an end
that is bright with unquenchable
hope and the vision of new world,
where all this prodigious suffering
and heartache shall blossom in ths
"new, fine and vigorous man" that
Levinson dreamed of and that he
and the workers of the world are
fighting for.