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3.0 out of 5 stars
Little Kobas,
By
This review is from: For the Good of the Cause (Paperback)
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich was an unblushing, posthumous critique of Stalinism (Stalin had died several years before the book was published and the incumbent leader Khrushchev was the personal approver of its publication). For the Good of the Cause was Solzhenitsyn's up to date critique of the last vestiges of Stalinism. It told the story of the lives of people still living under the petty rule of wannabe dictators who continued to corrupt and terrorise local towns and regions for their personal benefit. In it, the local bureaucrats plot to take over the newly built premises of a technical school in order to turn it into a research institute and appoint themselves directors. Their reasoning, though not explained, is plainly obvious - money, glory and power. The story is also a discussion of right and wrong, as well as capitalism (or some wretched view of it) and communism.
For the Good of the Cause is, as one can guess from above, a sarcastic title. More than this, I believe the title exposes why the proletarian led visions of utopia proposed in Marxism are fundamentally flawed - the political system is wide open to abuse by selfish and callous individuals claiming to be doing the work of the socialist cause. Of course, as the political representative deciding how the `cause' is to be implemented, the Party becomes the `cause', leading to those who oppose decisions of the party as being judged as treasonous, rather than just contrarian. The edition I have (published by Sphere in March 1974) provides by way of introduction and appendices, a summarisation of the controversy and literary discourse about Solzhenitsyn and his critiques of Stalinism. What is apparent from these additional pieces is that Solzhenitsyn was subjected to a sustained attack on his reputation and ability to be published, in part due to this story and its critique of modern society. The Kremlin, it would seem, was not comfortable with a literary expression of what everyone already knew: that while Stalin had died, the government servants who had learnt their trade under his system had not. Thus the discussion that is written into the story (of good and bad, common benefit and personal benefit) was duplicated in real life about the book itself. Despite the talent of Solzhenitsyn (who Hitchens describes as "..the most valiant of the historians and the resisters in our own time..") the writing style of For the Good of the Cause seems heavily disjointed, with the whole first chapter and start of the second a long multi-character conversation with little or no identification of the speakers. Almost as though deciding that the story can't possibly go on any further like this, he makes it descend back into more conventional style. It is almost as though Solzhenitsyn intended for it to be this disorderly, with one of the students stating "Look at the sort of thing they write in the Literary Gazette. `The characters,' they say, `are too stereotyped and the plot is disjointed, but the ideas are just great!" Whether he meant it or not the effect was to make the prose not match the quality of the story to be told. Christopher Hitchens explains in his book Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere, that where all parties in the state are agreed on a matter, it is the individual pens that create the space for a true moral argument. Solzhenitsyn's little stories created that space, if only for a fleeting moment. Heavy handed censorship following the publishing of For the Good of the Cause rendered him unable to publish his future works in the Soviet Union.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Short work, big message.,
This review is from: For the Good of the Cause (Paperback)
To begin, this is a great work with a good long (about 20 pgs or so) introduction. Along with that is an appendix that includes some of the public responses to the controversial work.
Set in a post-Stalin period, this work takes place at a technical school that is relatively young with not a whole lot of money to spend. There is little equipment and even less room. So, instead of waiting for some kind of handout (which they would never get anyways), the students (about fourteen or fifteen) take matters into their own hands and decide to build themselves a new dormitory. The students and faculty represent a kind of idealistic work ethic and fervor where each does their part for the benefit of everyone and the job gets done in good time and quality. Now, after it's just about finished, instead of being able to move in, a certain self-centered bureaucrat (Knorozov) decides to take it for himself and transform it into a "research institute" in the hopes that he will become its new director, but it will deny the students a new place to live. While doing it, he makes sure he can take as much of the property around it as he can. The principle (Fyodor Mikheyevich) tries to get a straight answer from those taking the new building away, but the only answer he ever gets back is "it's for the good of the cause." The unanswered question that must be asked is: what is the good of the cause? Of course, it is quite clear that the cause is anything but good. Solzhenitsyn goes out of his way to disparage these bureaucrats, like Knorozov, as he depicts them as self-serving, egotistical, underhanded, and even perverted. The point of this extremely controversial work is that even though Stalin is dead and his reign over, there are still bureaucrats and government officials who take advantage of the good will of good people. These government officials are aptly called "little Stalin's." An excellent read.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a great find,
By Tommy Long (Houlton, ME United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: For the Good of the Cause (Paperback)
This was the first Solzhenitsyn I read and it is unbelievable if you can find it. It's more of a long short story than a short novel and just gives you a short, but good idea of what Solzhenitsyn is about. Solzhenitsyn, in my opinion, is the greatest mind in the twentieth century and this hidden gem showcases him well. For starters with Solzhenitsyn 'One Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich' is also a great read. The subject topics are quite different and both are well worth the read.
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