The Commissariat of Enlightenment: A Novel [Paperback]

Ken Kalfus (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 3, 2004

Russia, 1910. Leo Tolstoy lies dying in Astapovo, a remote railway station. Members of the press from around the world have descended upon this sleepy hamlet to record his passing for a public suddenly ravenous for celebrity news. They have been joined by a film company whose cinematographer, Nikolai Gribshin, is capturing the extraordinary scene and learning how to wield his camera as a political tool. At this historic moment he comes across two men -- the scientist, Professor Vorobev, and the revolutionist, Joseph Stalin -- who have radical, mysterious plans for the future. Soon they will accompany him on a long, cold march through an era of brutality and absurdity. The Commissariat of Enlightenment is a mesmerizing novel of ideas that brilliantly links the tragedy and comedy of the Russian Revolution with the global empire of images that occupies our imaginations today.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Kalfus's two well-received short story collections (Thirst and Pu-239 and Other Russian Fantasies) set a high standard for his first novel, a sweeping, quasihistorical fiction spanning two tumultuous decades in Russia. From the opening scenes at Leo Tolstoy's deathbed (and the surrounding media circus) to the rise of Stalin, the narrative unfolds with Kalfus's signature mix of carefully researched history, subtle social commentary and leaping, imaginative storytelling. Tolstoy's demise in 1910 presents a career-launching opportunity for a young cinematographer who's beginning to understand the power of film to change or create political reality. This knowledge comes in handy as Russia moves unsteadily from postrevolution chaos toward the Soviet state and its bureaucracies, one of which is the Commissariat of Enlightenment, the powerful agency in charge of propaganda. The cinematographer's fate merges with that of Comrade Astapov, director of the massive Red agitprop campaign. Those who resist the commissariat include a church congregation that refuses to give up its faith, an experimental theater director, and a resilient young woman who makes an abstract, pornographic film in the name of sexual education for women. Unforgettable re-creations of embalmer and scientist Vladimir Vorobev (who mummified Lenin), Joseph Stalin and Countess Tolstoy anchor the plethora of plot developments, which involve many minor-and major-characters with double identities and secret agendas that demand patience and close attention from the reader. Told in supple, witty and gritty prose, the story exhibits all the vigorous intelligence and vision readers have come to expect from Kalfus.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From The New Yorker

For Comrade Astapov of the Agitprop Section of the Commissariat of Enlightenment, the filmmaker protagonist of this début novel, "life's struggle was not to control events, but the way in which they were remembered." His story begins in 1910, at the press-besieged deathbed of Tolstoy, where his talent for manipulating film to falsify events earns the notice of Stalin. Astapov's distortions are the perfect metaphor for Kalfus's own special effects: Stalin, of course, wasn't there when Tolstoy died. Preoccupied with truth, media, history, and politics, this novel shows its mechanisms proudly. Its stunning conclusion is a postmortem voice-over from the embalmed mind of Lenin, who, still conscious, is able to survey Russia's future, and is eternally irritated by the abuses of his successor.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (February 3, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060501391
• ISBN-13: 978-0060501396
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,026,733 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lies More True Than Truth, February 23, 2003

By 

"krchicago" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Commissariat of Enlightenment: A Novel (Hardcover)

In the West, the Enlightenment replaced supernatural religious explanations of the world with faith in human reason and science. In the Soviet Union, the Commissariat of Enlightenment replaced Orthodox religion and its icons with faith in the objective historical necessity of socialism and the new icon of Lenin. In the West, our science has ultimately taught us that to measure a thing is to change it; in Soviet propaganda, the film camera's lights were used to distort reality, giving the appearance of truth to lies created in the name of an allegedly greater truth. As Ken Kalfus' protagonist observes, the belief in invariant facts is itself a kind of superstition, giving insufficient credit to man's ability to remake both the past and the present.

In the guise of a novel set in the waning days of the Russian Empire and the early days of the Soviet Union, Ken Kalfus has given us a brilliant meditation on the power of images and words, the nature of truth, and the human need for myth and immortality. The book itself illustrates some of his themes -- the characters and scenes are drawn so vividly and persuasively that if you were to ask me a year from now how Lenin died or how he came to be embalmed, I would probably tell you the (inaccurate -- or is it?) story that Kalfus tells. The development of Gribshin/Astapov from a naive and emotionally vulnerable young man into a propagandist so entranced by images that he has lost almost all ability for direct human connection is subtle and seen from the outside, as though observed by (what else?) a camera. This is superb fiction, thought-provoking and entertaining at the same time. Highly recommended.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Seriously entertaining: the birth of (the Soviet) nation, June 16, 2003

By 

John L Murphy "Fionnchú" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Commissariat of Enlightenment: A Novel (Hardcover)

(4 1/2 stars). Four set pieces alone would justify reading of this novel: the making of Tolstoy's death mask (the narrator describes that the cement left one of the Count's recently closed eyes with a little popping sound); a true revolt of the proles unfolds just as the camera man hopes for footage of the same to stand in for the Kremlin where Stalin "might" have been as an extra if he had not really not been there for the October (read: November) revolution; the embalming of Lenin as he/before he dies; and the final chapter's stream-of-consciousness relation of the rise and fall of the USSR from Lenin's own supine p-o-v.

I came to this novel curious about how ideas are sold to people, and the novelistic control of this theme more than rewards the careful reader. Not a long book, this is both its strength and its slight shortcoming. I imagine Kalfus had pared down a longer draft, as there is no unessential material here at all. A lesser novelist would have wandered into fleshing out more characters, following up the fates of Volodov and Astapov with subplots stretching into the future, and would have showed off more of his (or her) knowledge about the time. I'll certainly search out his two earlier volumes of short stories now. As the bibliographical note after the novel indicates, his research matches his fictional talents. He even acknowledges Sheila Fitzpatrick's "unimaginatively titled" Commissariat of Enlightenment--for such an organization did exist, as Fitzpatrick studies. What a title: a group to enforce and rule over indoctrination into "scientific" study of history, laden with documents written by intellectuals for workers to educate the latter about why they were so idolized by the former.

With a keen understanding of the, well, dialectics involved in such a Soviet mission, Kalfus deletes, drains, and cuts, like the film editing, the embalming, and the dictate by terror that he intertwines into the three themes of his story. It makes for gripping if not casual reading. I only wish he had allowed more room for following through Astapov's fate after the establishment of Stalin's power. Yes, a whole other novel is buried in a few asides of this one. I wish there was a sequel--Kalfus makes you care about all three of his protagonists, no mean feat when they all turn out to be so terrifying in their respective devotions to their propagandistic crafts.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An enjoyable novel of ideas., February 26, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Commissariat of Enlightenment: A Novel (Hardcover)

Kalfus knows his material on Russia, where this story is set. This is part historical fiction--one that takes acknowledged liberties, even distortions--and part novel of ideas. The novel is written in two parts, the first of which deals with Tolstoy's dying days and the media circus and inner-circle infighting that attends this debacle. The second half of the novel takes place in post-revolutionary days and incorporates characters and themes from the first half in a manner that is resonant, even predictable, but not pat. Major themes include: visual culture trumping the written word; the manufacture of "history" through media, including propaganda (the then new medium of film is central); the limitations of science, especially when confronted with the religious impulses/needs actually felt by people. As is often the case with novels of ideas, the characters are rather thin and without much inner life. Action is privileged over motivations. But if you like the ideas, you'll like the novel.