The Thinking Reed

In Rasputin’s novella Poslednyi srok [The Last Term] both present-day language and the values of the new generation of consumers clash with traditional values and, at the same time, with eternity — with death. They do not stand up to this test. Putting the question like that does not and cannot have any deliberately reactionary and retrograde implications. It is natural that in a period when the future is uncertain it is precisely the past, tradition, history that prove to be the only generally accessible criteria for testing and evaluating the present. The ‘back-to-the-soil’ people have at least two important positive ideas — defence of architectural monuments and protection of the environment (for them, nature and the art of the past are embodiments of the eternal). Both these problems, however, can bring together people of varying political views.82 As early as 1963 the journal Oktyabr', unquestionably of the reactionary persuasion, campaigned in defence of Lake Baikal, which was threatened with ruin through the building of an industrial complex on its shore.83 At that time the fight for Baikal united many, from extreme conservatives to extreme liberals. The movement had little success. Pollution of the lake still went on, merely not as fast as before, and discussion of the matter in the press was strictly forbidden. But the ‘village prose’ writers were concerned that the public should learn of the catastrophic state of the environment, despite the silence of the newspapers. The ecologist B. Komarov wrote that ‘in certain works of documentary-fictional prose such as V. Astaf'ev’s Tsar'-ryba or V. Rasputin’s Proshchanie s Materoy, there is more of the tragic truth about the destruction of nature than in strictly scientific writings.’84 To the barbarism of a soulless society, to alienation, they try to counterpose certain absolute values. ‘In the face of growing barbarism,’ writes Komarov, ‘both the author of the outstanding novel Proshchanie s Materoy, V. Rasputin, and the author of the documentary tale Operatsiya “Kotel”, V. Sapozhnikov, turn to the concepts “God” and “the immortal soul”. They can find no other absolute, non-transient values.’85

One can, of course, find in religion many sound and profound moral ideas, but it is no secret that religion in itself provides no answers to concrete sociopolitical economic, social and ecological questions. Turning to God, as Komarov says, ‘symbolizes one’s despair’.86 And a sense of social despair is what impels people towards religion, in which they hope to find spiritual escape, at least.

The increasing popularity of religion had to be acknowledged in the official press as well. ‘Young people, too, are to be seen’, wrote E. Filimonov in Izvestiya,

at services in Orthodox and other churches, especially at the prayer-meetings of the Baptists, Seventh-Day Adventists and Pentecostals. It has become ‘fashionable’ to get married in church, to have one’s children baptized, and to wear little crosses next to the skin.87

These moods became widespread first of all among the intellectuals.

‘Do we not reject religion too sweepingly?’ said a young scientist. ‘Go to church, listen to Rakhmaninov’s “All-Night Vigil” as it sounds within the walls of an ancient church, by the bright gleam of candles and the gilded settings of icons! Isn’t that marvellous?