Without Lifting A Finger

3 December 1939.  From the sanatorium at Barvikha to Moscow To his sister Yelena Dear Lyolya! Here is some news of me. A considerable improvement has been observed in my left eye. The right eye is lagging behind, but also seems to be trying to do something useful. According to the doctor it turns out that if there is an improvement in the eyes, that means there is an improvement in the functioning of the kidneys. And if that’s the case, then I feel a new hope stirring in me that on this occasion I will get away from the old crone with the scythe and finish one or two things that I would like to finish.

12 February 1937  This is M. A. ’s sore point: ‘I am a prisoner … they’ll never let me out of here … I’ll never see the world … ’ [ … ] M. A. is in a dreadful state. ‘They won’t perform me at home, while abroad they rob me.’

30 October 1935  During the day there was a ring at our door. I went out and there was Akhmatova with such a dreadful face, and so much thinner, that I scarcely recognized her; nor did Misha. It turned out that in one and the same night both her husband (Punin) and her son (Gumilyov) had been arrested. She had come to deliver a letter to Yosif Vissarionovich [Stalin]. She was quite clearly in a confused state and was muttering things to herself.

24 September 1935  Grisha [Konsky]. In the evening, at his request, Misha read him the first three chapters of the novel [The Master and Margarita]. They produced a quite extraordinary effect on Grisha, and I think he wasn’t shamming. I wept.

A demon has taken hold of me. In Leningrad and now here, as I suffocate in these little rooms, I have begun to scribble down all over again page after page of that novel I destroyed three years ago. Why? I don’t know. I’m just amusing myself. Let it fall into the river Lethe! Anyway, I will probably put it down again soon.

Great was the year and terrible the Year of Our Lord 1918, the second since the Revolution had begun. Sun had been abundant in the summer, snow in the winter, and two stars had risen particularly high in the sky: Venus, the Evening Star; and Mars, red and quivering. But in years of peace and blood alike the days shoot by like arrows, and in the hard frost the young Turbins had not noticed the onset of shaggy white December. Oh, Father Frost, sparkling with snow and happiness! Mama, radiant queen! Where are you now?

A first for me: Bulgakov's White Guard. Takes place in and around Kiev at the time of the Russian Revolution. A tidbit from the intro: Russia was the only state founded simultaneously upon European values and Eastern despotism. Hence the permanent identity crisis of Russia, which felt itself simultaneously both European and Asian. Granted, there are class distinctions in any state, but in no other state have they been so profound that they shaped two separate nations. No other state ever held almost ninety percent of its own population in slavery for centuries. The main problem that remains unsettled is: How does one remain honorable (and Bulgakov’s favorite characters talk endlessly about honor) when living in a state founded upon dishonor, on police corruption, ubiquitous theft, and violation of individual dignity? How can one be an honorable person and yet wish to preserve this state of affairs?

“But permit me to ask you,” the foreign guest resumed after a troubled silence, “what about the proofs of God’s existence? As we know, there are exactly five of them.” “Alas!” Berlioz answered with regret. “None of these proofs is worth a thing, and humanity has long since scrapped them. You must agree that, in the realm of reason, there can be no proof of God’s existence.” “Bravo!” cried the foreigner. “Bravo! These are exactly the words of the restless old Immanuel on this subject. But curiously enough, he demolished all five arguments and then, as if to mock himself, constructed his own sixth one.” “Kant’s argument,” the educated editor countered with a subtle smile, “is equally unconvincing. No wonder Schiller said that only slaves could find Kant’s reasoning on this subject satisfactory. And Strauss simply laughed at his proof.” As Berlioz spoke, he thought to himself, “But still, who is he? And why does he speak Russian so well?” “This Kant ought to be sent to Solovki for three y...

 “I said, among other things,” the prisoner answered, “that every form of authority means coercion over men, and that a time will come when there shall be neither Caesars, nor any other rulers. Man will come into the kingdom of truth and justice, where there will be no need for any authority.”