August 1914 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

First published:Avgust chetyrnadtsatogo, 1971; expanded 1983 (English translation, 1972; expanded 1989, as The Red Wheel)

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Historical realism

Time of plot: Early twentieth century

Locale: Russia

Principal characters

• Sanya, a young man who enlists in the army
• Varya, a young intellectual, and Sanya’s former girlfriend
• General Samsonov, a general who is forthright but incapable
• Colonel Vorotyntsev, an army staff officer
• Arseny Blagodaryov, an enlisted man
• Pyotr Stolypin, a former Russian prime minister
• Dmitri Bogrov, a Russian police agent and a secret assassin

The Story:

Russia has just entered World War I. Sanya, a young university student at home for the summer in his provincial town, boards a train for Moscow to enlist in the army. Sanya has been inspired by Russia’s emperor, Czar Nicholas II, who has become a hero to his country by declaring war on Germany and Austria. Filled with patriotism, Sanya rejects his former pacifism and secretly vows to fight for his country.

On the train to Moscow, Sanya runs into a former girlfriend, Varya, who since the days when Sanya knew her at school has become educated and grown into an intellectual. Armed with radical opinions from speeches she has heard shouted on street corners, Varya questions Sanya’s patriotism and challenges his desire to join the army, saying that he has denied his support of the common people’s revolution in giving that support to the wealthy czar and his family. Sanya, defeated by her arguments, can only say that he is headed for battle because “I feel sorry for Russia.”

In 1914, as the war begins, Nicholas paces the floor in a room in his palace one day in July, while his generals urge him, against his better judgment, to mobilize the Russian army. Nicholas lashes out at the generals and berates them for their incompetence; he wishes that Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin were still alive, for he would have known what was best for Russia.

Stolypin had been murdered at a performance at the Kiev Opera House by police agent and secret assassin Dmitri Bogrov, scion of a prominent and wealthy family and a privileged and idle son intent on securing a place in the ruling class. Refusing to obey any agenda except his own, his allegiance is only to himself, even as he prepares for a career in the army. To further his career, Bogrov conspires with the czar’s secret police to acquire an entrance pass to the exclusive opera house. The police intentionally overlook the revolver hidden in his pocket. Bogrov then assassinates Stolypin and thereby halts the prime minister’s program of modernization. Bogrov is thereupon betrayed by the police, who secretly try and execute him to prevent his testifying at a public trial.

Meanwhile, on the battlefield at Tannenberg, Colonel Vorotyntsev, a graduate of a Russian military academy, and his friend Arseny Blagodaryov, an enlisted man, find themselves surrounded by advancing German troops. Rallying his men, Vorotyntsev leads a successful charge through enemy lines.

The colonel’s small victory grew out of his excellent training as a soldier and his devotion to the military. After eight years of marriage with his wife, Alina, he has become disenchanted with her and finds himself troubled by dreams of adultery. In one dream, his wife turns down the covers of the bed they were to share and finds another woman’s nightgown under the covers. Haunted by this vision of dishonor, the colonel decides that a military life holds more dignity than a domestic one.

Despite the colonel’s break through enemy lines, the Russian army, betrayed by the incompetence of the czar’s generals, is doomed. General Samsonov’s Second Army is defeated by German general Hindenburg and his soldiers. Colonel Vorotyntsev retreats from the battlefield and reports to the grand duke, the supreme commander of Russia’s armies. The colonel tells him that defeat is inevitable, that old Russia would be destroyed. The general staff refuse to believe him and cling instead to the lie that the war could still be won.

Sanya reflects on the early days of the war and longs to return with Varya to the places they had known and loved when they were young. The war has aged them, however, and Sanya is too patriotic to waste his life indulging himself. Instead, he will continue to serve the people of his mother Russia.

Bibliography

Bloom, Harold, ed. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2001. A collection of critical essays, including comparisons of Solzhenitsyn’s work with that of Leo Tolstoy and Boris Pasternak, an analysis of the representation of detention in the works of Solzhenitsyn and Fyodor Dostoevski, and a discussion of Solzhenitsyn’s experiences as a creative artist in a totalitarian state.

Dunlop, John B., Richard Haugh, and Alexis Klimoff, eds. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: Critical Essays and Documentary Materials. Belmont, Mass.: Nordland, 1973. The essays in this collection interpret numerous aspects of Solzhenitsyn’s work. Includes a bibliography of works by and about Solzhenitsyn.

Ericson, Edward E., Jr. Solzhenitsyn and the Modern World. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Gateway, 1993. Examines Solzhenitsyn in light of the collapse of Communism in Russia. Answers some of the common criticisms that are leveled at his writing.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Solzhenitsyn, the Moral Vision. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdman, 1980. Analyzes Solzhenitsyn’s work from the perspective of his Christian vision. Discusses Solzhenitsyn’s theory of art as enunciated in his Nobel Prize lecture. Includes chapters on the major novels, as well as the short stories and prose poems.

Ericson, Edward E., and Alexis Klimoff. The Soul and Barbed Wire: An Introduction to Solzhenitsyn. Wilmington, Del.: ISI Books, 2008. Two major Solzhenitsyn scholars provide a detailed biography of the writer and analyses of his major fiction, including August 1914.

Kohan, John. “Peasants, Proverbs, and Problems of Historical Narrative in August 1914.” In Proverbs in Russian Literature: From Catherine the Great to Alexander Solzhenitsyn, edited by Kevin J. McKenna. Burlington: University of Vermont Press, 1998. Analyzes the novel’s use of language and narrative structure. Part of a larger collection on the use of the proverb by Russian writers.

Mahoney, Daniel J. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: The Ascent from Ideology. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001. Focuses on Solzhenitsyn’s political philosophy and its effect on twentieth century thinking. Analyzes Solzhenitsyn’s writings to demonstrate how they represent the political condition of modern humans.

Pearce, Joseph. Solzhenitsyn: A Soul in Exile. New York: HarperCollins, 1999. Generally uncritical biography chronicles Solzhenitsyn’s evolution from pro-Marxist youth to anti-Soviet writer and, finally, to literary anachronism after the demise of the Soviet Union. Features exclusive personal interviews with Solzhenitsyn, previously unpublished poetry, and rare photographs.

Thomas, D. M. Alexander Solzhenitsyn: A Century in His Life. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998. A personal portrait of Solzhenitsyn, providing insights into his struggle with the Soviet authorities and his relationship with the two women who provided strong support for his efforts to expose the evils of the Communist regime. An imaginative, well-documented, and at times combative biography, which includes a discussion of Solzhenitsyn’s return to Russia in 1994.