“How do you tell a communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin.”
-Ronald Reagan
The following paper analyses a short story named “New Generation,” written by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and published in 2011 in the context of the Basic Philosophical and Religious Questions of the BPRQs approach. Before comprehending the underlying standpoint of the writer regarding the universe it is imperative to have a glimpse of its content briefly. The story is set in the era of the 1920s to the early years of the 1930s and elaborates on the analogous life experiences of the leading disposition: Anatoly Pavlovich Vozdvizhensky, who is a professor as well as an engineer at Rostov University. Evidently, Vozdvizhensky passes a working-class student, Lyoshka Konoplyov, regardless of his low obtained marking according to the state’s policy to observe affirmative actions toward working-class students. At a point in the story, a speaker in a rally affirms to the students that they are a new generation and will one day pilot the global communist revolution. The story ambiguously ends when, after some years professor gets caught by a special police GPU and meets Konoplyov there. At this stage, Konoplyov tries to give favor to his teacher.
In the light of the text of the short story, it is definite that Solzhenitsyn opposes the concept of the oligarchy that somehow has enveloped the democratic perception of new Russia; alongside, he also resists the idea of Soviet communism. Through his characters, he attempts to assert the significance of moderate and self-criticism-based patriotism, and by doing this, he denies any extremism-based nationalism. Through “New Generation,” the author depicts the catastrophe of the Russian microcosm. The story tells that to offer favor and an easy escape to his professor, Konoplyov manipulates his subs and says that he “either a bullet in the back of the neck or a term in the camps.” (Solzhenitsyn, 9) Solzhenitsyn develops a point that the universe has an altering nature and, therefore, it is not possible to predict it. The positions and authorities changed from one character to another; once, it was Vozdvizhensky who assisted his student, and now Konoplyov gets the power to ease the troubles of his former professor.
According to Solzhenitsyn, people are sometimes left with no option except to be maneuvered by the rules and regulations developed and implemented by their higher authorities. Konoplyov “dragged upside and own” (Solzhenitsyn, 2) into the field of engineering forcefully, regardless of lack of interest. And then Vozdvizhensky suppressed by policies to pass the working class student. Afterward, the subordinates of Konoplyov in GPU were forced to obey his commands to release Vozdvizhensky. Consequently, all the revolutionary and communist choices make the professor advise his daughter to follow a path that features less resistance and difficulties and recommends she get connected with a youth organization of communism. In this way, he fails all of his students, daughter and fellow engineers as well as himself.
By analyzing the philosophical and ethical and, in this case, the political and authoritative points of view of the author, it becomes evident that people cannot live a happy life with a lighter conscience in the presence of undue pressure. Sometimes, unwarranted policies and regulations compel a person to go against his conscience, which, in turn, tarnishes the soul and makes him restless from the inside. Take the instance of the professor who, despite being released, “broke into sobs.” (Solzhenitsyn, 10) Moreover, it can be concluded from the perspective of Solzhenitsyn that communism devises unhealthy and morbid ways of life and communism is chiefly responsible for the bitterness people confronted in history.
Work Cited
Solzhenit︠s︡yn, Aleksandr Isaevich. Apricot Jam And Other Stories. Canongate, 2012.
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