The Seven Days of Creation by Vladimir Maximov

First published:Sem dnei tvoreniia, 1971 (English translation, 1974)

Type of work: Social chronicle

Time of work: From the Russian Revolution through the 1960’s

Locale: Russia

Principal Characters:

• Pyotor Lashkov, an elderly Communist Party functionary who becomes a Christian
• Andrei Lashkov, his brother, a warden in the Kurakin forest
• Vasilii Lashkov, his brother, a janitor in Moscow
• Antonina Lashkov, his daughter, whose return home with an infant son reinforces Pyotor’s belief in religion
• Vadim Lashkov, his grandson, a debauched variety artist

The Novel

The Seven Days of Creation chronicles the anguished searching of three generations of the Lashkov family for the meaning of human suffering. In six chapters, each representing a weekday preceding Sunday, the author portrays the increasing cynicism and growing alienation of this Russian family and the subsequent attempts of its members to attain a rewarding life and to rejoin the human family safely and hopefully.

In the course of the novel, the characters travel across Russia literally and spiritually, seeking more redeeming relationships. Specific incidents prompt dreams and flashbacks. The activities and interactions of family members elicit varying responses, some empathic and others accusative.

One July dawn, the intractable Pyotor Lashkov awakens to the bitter realization that he has alienated himself from his family and friends. Sensitive, however, to his middle-aged daughter’s drunken despondency, he resolves to renew human ties. When he seeks to pay respects to the family of a deceased acquaintance, he mistakenly visits a home in which religious services are being held. This encounter foreshadows the eventual conversion of the elderly atheist.

When his bewildered grandson, Vadim, visits, Pyotor advises the despairing young man to find solace with Pyotor’s brother Andrei, a warden in the Kurakin forest. In a flashback, Pyotor recalls his own disturbing visit with the shell-shocked Andrei, before Andrei became a warden. Yearning to revive family attachments, Pyotor seeks out his brother Vasilii in Moscow, whom he has not seen for more than forty years. The brothers are so ill at ease that when Vasilii goes out to buy more liquor, Pyotor hastens away,repulsed by the stench and premature decay in the room.

The first chapter, “Monday: A Traveler in Search of Himself,” relates several other attempts to amend self-indulgences. Antonina marries Nikolai Leskov; it is an ill-fated marriage, but one which promises some redeeming fulfillment. Acknowledging responsibility for his estrangement from family and friends, Pyotor resolves to rectify his errors and to reestablish family ties, hoping by this change to ensure the preservation of both his family and the country that he loves.

The second chapter, “Tuesday: The Cattle Drive,” details Andrei’s first assumption of a leadership role: evacuating cattle from Uzlovsk and the surrounding district, which stretches to the distant mountains. As he has never been one to give orders, Andrei initially lacks the confidence to act with authority. Nevertheless, he succeeds in saving the life of a lame concertina player, befriending a philosophical veterinarian, herding freezing cattle into a church, and transporting a critically ill child to a doctor. Seduced by the sharp-tongued yet respected Alexandra, he refuses to flaunt their affair and becomes a target for her vituperative reproaches. In the course of time, they resolve their differences and marry.

Vasilii’s interactions with the tenants in his building form the basis of the third chapter, “The Yard at the Midpoint of Heaven.” These residents, a motley crew, form an extended family as they share one another’s joys and sorrows. For example, they help Otto Stabel, an Austrian plumber, erect a house for himself and his beloved wife, Grusha. Everyone suffers when the authorities require portions of the walls demolished in order to conform with building specifications. Such restrictions exemplify the governmental control that negates individual creativity. A frail woman, Shokolinist, who was the original mistress of the house, adds a supernatural quality. Continuing to collect overdue books for the library, this wraith outlives Vasilii, who dies observing her in the yard where Stabel’s house had been.

The fourth chapter, “Late Light,” begins with Vadim’s observing the snowy streets of Moscow as he rides to the hospital. The vivid description of his ward parallels scenes in other Russian works, such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Rakovy korpus (1968; Cancer Ward, 1968). Visits from Pyotor and special treatment by the hospital director, who ultimately commits suicide, do not deter Vadim from escaping with the aid of a nurse and Natasha, a young woman whom he has befriended.

“Friday: The Labyrinth,” the fifth chapter, recounts the experiences of Antonina and Nikolai as they join a building work team in Central Asia. Attracted to the Jewish foreman, Osip Meckler, Antonina sleeps with him, comforting him in his despair at realizing that the team is building a prison. When he commits suicide and Nikolai is imprisoned, she writes to her Christian friends, seeking assistance.

In “The Evening and Night of the Sixth Day,” Pyotor visits the friends of the deceased Vasilii, attends the wedding of Andrei and Alexandra, and welcomes home Antonina and her infant son, who bears his name. Tenderly clutching his grandson, Pyotor strides into the spring dawn.

The Characters

Having been exposed to the harshness of orphanages and reform schools, and later to the confinement of mental hospitals, Vladimir Maximov sensitively sketches his characters, all of whom feel estranged from themselves and from society. They attempt to counteract their deplorable situation with a yearning for relationships and with loving concern for others. An Orthodox Christian, Maximov believes religion is the hope for these disillusioned Russians. His background as an itinerant bricklayer informs the peripatetic life-style of his characters. At the same time, his career as a poet and playwright allows him to create articulate characters who express a vivid love of nature. Pyotor, the protagonist, becomes increasingly sensitive to the wonders of creation as he seeks to renew ties with estranged relatives. At the end of the novel, when Pyotor carries his infant grandson toward the horizon of a dawning spring day, Maximov describes his response to the glorious occasion: “He went, and he knew. He knew, and he believed.”

Pyotor’s ability to satisfy his yearnings and his desire to begin again eventually convert the elderly Communist to Christianity. Gupak, a recurring character, expounds traditional religious values to Pyotor, as well. Gupak charitably befriends Antonina and in his relationships with others demonstrates principles which form the basis of religion.

Vadim’s life experience parallels Maximov’s youthful rebellion and travel throughout Russia. Both see distress in the eyes of their compatriots and empathize with their fear of alienation from society. Like Maximov, Vadim expresses skill with words and shrewdness in establishing an identity in the minds of others.

Women play a forceful role in this novel. Among them, Alexandra, Andrei’s wife, exhibits feminist qualities. Although sarcastic, she works hard, gaining the respect of the men on the cattle drive. She wins Pyotor’s admiration when, in later years, he attends her marriage to Andrei. Pyotor appreciates her attempt at “wresting her share of belated happiness from fate at long last.” Antonina offers greater depth of characterization. Initially she appears as a middle-aged drunk who lacks purpose; after converting to Christianity and suffering in a work camp, she returns home bearing the gift of rebirth: her infant son.

Critical Context

Publication of The Seven Days of Creation forced Maximov to leave the Soviet Union. Ironically, his first novel, Zhiv chelovek (1962; A Man Survives, 1963), won for him praise inside and outside his country. In that novel, as in most of his works, Maximov portrays the alienated person’s redemption through compassion. Karantin (1973; Quarantine, 1981) further develops the journey motif. Quarantined because of a cholera epidemic in Odessa, train passengers relate their individual stories. Kovcheg dlya nezvannykh (1979; Ark for the Uncalled, 1985) relates the experiences of a young soldier and a government official as they journey to the Kuril Islands, ultimately confronting disillusionment and the possibility of rebirth.

The Seven Days of Creation is considered a powerful description of Soviet life. This example of dissident literature inspires comparisons to the works of Fyodor Dostoevski and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The Seven Days of Creation substantiates innate human goodness and relates the struggle against the sense of alienation fostered by an authoritarian state.

Bibliography

Brown, Deming. Soviet Russian Literature Since Stalin, 1978.

Gray, Paul. Review in Time. CV (February 3, 1975), p. 68.

Moore, Harry T., and Albert Parry. Twentieth-century Russian Literature, 1974.

Rubenstein, Joshua. Review in The New York Times Book Review. LXXX (February 23, 1975), p. 10.