The Island of Crimea by Vassily Aksyonov
**Overview of "The Island of Crimea" by Vassily Aksyonov**
"The Island of Crimea" is a novel that explores the intricate dynamics between democracy and socialism in a fictionalized, free, and democratic Crimea. The narrative follows Andrei Luchnikov, the editor of Crimea's sole Russian-language newspaper, who becomes a prominent figure advocating for the reunification of Crimea with the Soviet Union through a movement called "The Idea of Common Fate." As Andrei navigates political intrigue, including assassination attempts and relationships that intertwine personal and political motivations, the story juxtaposes the cosmopolitan and Westernized society of Crimea against the backdrop of the Soviet regime.
The novel also highlights generational conflicts between Andrei and his son Anton, who embraces a more globalized identity through a new language called Yaki, reflecting the cultural shifts among the youth. The characters, including Andrei's mistress Tatyana and the conflicted Marlen Kuzenkov, embody the struggles of individuals caught between ideologies and personal desires. As Andrei's journey unfolds, the novel critiques the disillusionment of Soviet intellectuals and offers a poignant commentary on the consequences of political choices, culminating in a dramatic conclusion that sees Crimea faced with invasion following a democratic vote for reunification. Aksyonov’s work serves as a profound reflection on identity, power, and the historical complexities of the region.
The Island of Crimea by Vassily Aksyonov
First published:Ostrov Krym, 1981 (English translation, 1983)
Type of work: Historical fantasy
Time of work: The late 1970’s
Locale: The Crimea, Moscow, the countryside near Moscow, and Paris
Principal Characters:
Andrei Arsenievich Luchnikov , the editor of theRussian Courier and a politician with the aim of reuniting Crimea with the Soviet UnionArseny Nicholaevich Luchnikov , Andrei’s father, a scholar and former colonel in the White Army during the civil war periodAnton Luchnikov , Andrei’s son, a member of the political group Yaki, which advocates a free CrimeaMarlen Mikhailovich Kuzenkov , a Russian who is the head of the Foreign Division of the Central Committee, torn between duty to the Soviet state and the democracy of CrimeaTatyana Lunina , a Soviet athlete and KGB agent, who is Andrei’s mistressColonel Sergeev , a KGB official in charge of the Foreign Division
The Novel
The Island of Crimea is a fantasy about a state which has remained free and democratic for sixty years. It is the story of democracy and socialism clashing over the tiny country of Crimea. The principal character, Andrei, is the catalyst bringing about “The Idea of Common Fate,” a movement to reunite Crimea with the Soviet Union.
The novel begins with Andrei Luchnikov driving along a modern, Westernized roadway to visit Kakhova, the mountain estate of his father, Arseny. Andrei is a middle-aged, attractive, and powerful man, who is not only the editor of the nation’s only Russian-language newspaper but also a leading political figure in Crimea. Arseny has uncovered a plot to assassinate Andrei for his efforts toward reunification with the Soviet Union. Andrei considers the threat idle and continues writing columns on the glories of the Soviet Union and the need for Crimea to reunite with her historic past.
Crimea has become a multinational democracy filled with Western-style capitalism. The traditional Crimean people have intermarried with foreigners, creating a cosmopolitan culture. The younger generation has created a language called Yaki, which is a conglomeration of English, French, and Russian. These young people have traveled and consider themselves part of a world community. Andrei sees this as a passing fad, although his son Anton participates in the Yaki movement.
The novel follows Andrei on trips to Paris and Moscow, where characters are introduced who are either opponents or advocates of Crimean reunification. In Paris, at a cocktail party, Andrei is greeted by a Western film director who agrees with the idea of reunification because he anticipates a film spectacle. The Soviet emigres at the party either avoid Andrei or talk to him under the assumption that reunification is a radical idea but not a serious issue. The first attempt on the hero’s life occurs when he leaves the party, but he continues with his schedule of events and meetings. Andrei prepares for his trip to Moscow by buying presents and goods not available in the Soviet Union, including clothing for his mistress, Tatyana Lunina.
Although he speaks fluent Russian, Andrei is given a state interpreter in Moscow. He is allowed to visit only a few places and is constantly followed by Colonel Sergeev’s KGB operatives. Andrei meets Tatyana at a cocktail party where she is escorted by her husband, Sasha. Sasha was a member of the Soviet Olympic team, as was Tatyana; both are now sportscasters. Andrei accompanies them home and a scene ensues. He believes himself in love with Tatyana and wants her to come away with him. She chooses to stay with her husband.
The trip changes dramatically at this point and becomes a revitalizing experience for Andrei. He slips away from his KGB guards and, in the company of a dissident rock group, wanders throughout the Soviet Union. Marlen Kuzenkov, a member of the Central Committee, plays an important role in allowing Andrei to see the real Soviet Union. Kuzenkov is torn between loyalty to the Soviet state, the Communist Party, and the Crimean democracy. Although he allows Andrei to slip away, he reports to the Central Committee that he can control the outcome of the Crimean election. Kuzenkov does not try to help the Soviets, nor does he interfere with the election, assuming wrongly that the Crimeans would prefer democracy to a police state.
Andrei returns to the Crimea after three weeks of travel, having crossed into Sweden with Benjamin Ivanov, a member of the rock group. Instead of being appalled by the way the Russian people live, Andrei rejoices in their tenacious hold on life. He enters the Crimean Car Rally with his friend Count Novosiltsev, a professional auto racer; they hope to score a victory for “The Idea of Common Fate” and gain votes for reunification in the upcoming election. Tatyana joins Andrei in Crimea to lend her support to the cause of reunification. Another assassination attempt is made against Andrei; though Tatyana warns Andrei, Novosiltsev is killed. Andrei wins the race and uses his victory as a political platform. He realizes, however, that Tatyana is a KGB agent and blames her for Novosiltsev’s death; she leaves.
The novel then moves very quickly toward a conclusion. The Crimeans vote to reunify with the Soviet Union and are immediately invaded. Kuzenkov commits suicide, realizing the enormity of his sin in not interfering with Andrei. Arseny and Tatyana are killed, and Andrei’s son Anton, his wife, Pamela, and their newborn son, Arseny, leave by boat for Turkey and freedom. Andrei is left at a church burying his dead while Colonel Sergeev of the KGB looks on.
The Characters
Andrei Luchnikov is aloof from the realities of day-to-day existence. He is part of Vassily Aksyonov’s own generation of intellectuals who believed that the Stalinist legacy was dead and that a new, freer Russia would emerge. As the intellectuals of the late 1960’s were disappointed, so is Andrei. The character becomes involved in the destruction of his own country. Andrei sets the wheels of change in motion only to be crushed under them.
Andrei cannot understand his father’s love, nor his attachment to an independent Crimea. Arseny sees the problems of reunification. He sees reunification as a retreat from historical reality. He himself has retreated to his mountain home, Kakhova, named after the battle in which Crimea won her independence from Soviet Russia. This retreat from political life and Andrei’s inability to value his father’s views are themes similar to those in Ivan Turgenev’s Ottsy i deti (1862; Fathers and Sons, 1867). Arseny is killed during the Soviet invasion when the Volunteer Army, the old men who served during the civil war, approach the Soviets to lay down their rusty weapons.
Anton, Andrei’s son, offers Aksyonov’s view of a younger generation participating in the community of humanity regardless of nationality. There is more than a generational conflict between father and son. Anton is not a political activist but believes that all people should have freedom. He joins the Yaki movement not to antagonize Andrei but to feel a part of a group. In the end, Anton is saved along with his wife and son by Benjamin Ivanov, the man who led Andrei out of the Soviet Union.
Andrei’s mistress, Tatyana Lunina, is the major female character of the novel. She is expected to entrap Andrei for the Soviets through her sexuality. Instead, she creates a trap for herself. Tatyana must either submit to the will of the Party or she and her family will have none of the advantages acquired by her liaison with Andrei. Tatyana is a product of the Soviet mentality. To retain her material well-being she must prostitute herself for the Party. Tatyana attempts to delude herself that she loves Andrei, but she is incapable of sustaining any human relationship, as exemplified by her divorcing Sasha in order to be free for Andrei. She subsequently leaves Andrei for a rich,elderly American businessman, ensuring her eventual murder by the KGB.
Tatyana is the link between Andrei and Colonal Sergeev, as well as between Andrei and Marlen Kuzenkov. Sergeev is a Party hack, doing as he is told without question. He is an example of the worst excesses of Stalinism. Kuzenkov is a Soviet intellectual. He questions the Party and is, at times, at odds with it. Kuzenkov speaks to Andrei at the end of the novel, begging him to understand the consequences of reunification with the Soviet Union. Sergeev is beneath Kuzenkov but has him under surveillance, proving that no one is outside the reach of the KGB.
There are many minor characters who add flavor and liveliness to the novel. Kuzenkov meets an old Russian soldier of the civil war period, who tries to justify the collectivization of agriculture and Stalinism. Andrei has a group of friends with whom he went to the Czar Alexander II school, who are all high-ranking officials in the Crimean government, businessmen, or military officials. These men join with and support “The Idea of Common Fate.” They are representative of the 1917 revolutionaries and are all murdered by their own revolution. The character Vitaly Gangut is a Soviet dissident film director. He comes out of his obscurity to film the reunification of Crimea, which turns into a very real invasion. Aside from Tatyana, the women in the novel play sexual roles and are primarily mannequins without human emotions.
Critical Context
The major context of this novel is the disenchantment of Soviet intellectuals with the Revolution. A major factor in this process was the Prague Winter, which followed the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet troops in 1968, replacing “socialism with a human face” with an approach more acceptable to the Kremlin. The Island of Crimea provides a close parallel to the events of 1968.
Aksyonov is one of a group of Soviet writers who question whether the Soviet Union will be able to rid itself of the specter of Stalin and the police state he created. Aksyonov was forced to emigrate to the West in 1980, after Ozhog (1980; The Burn, 1984) was published in Italy. His political stance stems from the time he spent in internal exile with his mother, Evgenia Ginzburg, the author of Krutoi marshrut (1967, 1979, two volumes; Journey into the Whirlwind, 1967; also as Within the Whirlwind, 1981).
The Island of Crimea is one of Aksyonov’s mature works, leaving behind the identification with Soviet youth that he showed in such works as Kollegi (1960; Colleagues, 1962). The Island of Crimea portrays the stagnant, repressive state of the Soviet Union during the years under Leonid Brezhnev.
Bibliography
Johnson, John J. “Introduction: The Life and Works of Aksenov,” in The Steel Bird and Other Stories, 1979.
Meyer, Priscilla. “Aksenov and Soviet Literature of the 1960’s,” in Russian Literature Triquarterly. VI (1973), pp. 447-463.
Meyer, Priscilla. “A Bibliography of Works by and About Vasily Pavlovich Aksenov,” in Ten Bibliographies of Twentieth Century Russian Literature, 1977. Edited by Fred Moody.
Mozejko, Edward, Boris Briker, and Per Dalgard, eds. Vasiliy Pavlovich Aksenov: A Writer in Quest of Himself, 1986.
Slobin, Greta. “Aksenov Beyond ‘Youth Prose’: Subversion Through Popular Culture,” in Slavic and East European Journal. XXX (Spring, 1987), pp. 50-64.