Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Stunning novel about a world coming apart forever, March 10, 2003
While we are, as Americans, familiar with the story of the Stalinist purges and know something of post-Revolutionary Russian history, the Russian Civil War between the White and the Red is not as well-known.But this is the crux of the struggle that subsequently determined Russian history. Many authors tried to give a view of that turbulent period; Pasternak in "Doctor Zhivago", Solzhenitzen marginally in "Ivan Denisovitch" (Denisovitch was in a gulag because he was a returnee from the German front and thus viewed as a political traitor) and Ayn Rand "We the Living." Bulgakov's novel is one of the richest, most touching and well-written I have read on this historical time. He takes the story from the personal standpoint of a single family affected by the German betrayal of Russia to the incomprehensible brutality of the Civil War. The use of "white" and "red" as symbols in describing everyday objects and landscape is novelistic, the action is pure stage drama as you'd find in a play or film. This is a far better novel than "Doctor Zhivago", which dealt with essentially the same subject (families torn apart by the Civil War and their way of life forever altered.) If you are at all interested in Russian history, I can't recommend "The White Guard" enough to you. I just loved it.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A superior novel., December 31, 2001
Jacques Barzun in "From Dawn to Decadence" says that those who live in the midst of a Revolution often do not perceive the tidal wave of historical forces sweeping by them. Nonetheless, they are acutely conscious of being caught up in a whirlwind. In "The White Guard", the characters do not expound in depth about the loss of the old order or imminent rise of the new one. But they are terribly aware of the pain and upheaval that marks their daily lives. Nikolka, Alexi, and Elena Turbin are members of a middle-class family in Kiev. The time is 1918 and the Socialist Petlyura's army is outside the city. Nikolka, Alexi, and their friends go out from the warmth of their apartment to do their part to thwart his advance. However, the Germans, who were their erstwhile protectors, leave the city and are accompanied by the military and political leaders of Kiev. The Turbins and their friends feel betrayed. After a brave but futile defense the `officers' (synonymous with upper middle class) rip off their identifying markings and attempt to blend in with the populous at large. Looming in the background are the dreaded Bolsheviks and one gets the strong sense that the present troubles are but a hint of what is to come. However, this imminence is not apparent to the Turbins. They can neither glean nor control the inexorable flow of history. However, they can "Go on living...and be kind to one another...". The White Guard is a challenging but rewarding novel that, like much of great literature, exhorts the human spirit to persevere through trials and suffering. It's exposition is simple but every incident is dense with meaning. A superior novel.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great and terrible was the year of Our Lord 1918, February 15, 2008
This was an excellent Russian novel set in 1918 Kiev. It follows the Turbins, a Tsarist middle class family in hiding. It is the end of WWI, and the Bolshevik Revolution is taking hold in Moscow. As loyalists to the Russian crown, the Turbins and friends are on the run from not only the Bolsheviks, but also the fierce Ukranian nationalist movement which is equally threatening. In fact, the Bolsheviks are still far away at Moscow, while the nationalists are much closer to home, and thus more of a direct threat. It is the story of a proud and pious people whose era is coming to an end. There is treachery around every corner, as the Turbins despairingly watch their beloved city of Kiev fall to the enemy. The prose is excellent, and the story is at once sad, humorous, and tragic. It is a pleasure to read and although fictional, I would consider it a good snapshot of the Russian Revolution, told from the perspective of the losing side.
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