Communist Art: War Stories, and the Metaphor of Movement

Throughout twentieth-century Russian literature, the motif of transportation and movement recurs frequently as a metaphorical means for the author to comment on the notions of forward progress and scientific teleology as espoused by the Soviet communist ethos. The heroes of socialist realism, for example, always seem to physically move unimpeded towards their simple goal, and they seem disoriented when forced to remain in one spot for any notable duration. In a critical commentary of this practice, artists of "the thaw" such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn deliberately chose to keep their characters in one place to force the type of psychological inquiry and confusion so uncharacteristic and awkward for men like Alyosha Ivanov and Pavel Korchagin. The differing role of "forward" or "positive" physical movement in the literature and film of mid- 20^th Century Russia thus becomes inversely related to the level of introspection and psychological evaluation afforded the main characters while simultaneously commenting on the nature of the Soviet Union's conception of inevitable progress.