Biography and Communism

Besides the entertaining aspects of their narratives, biographies and autobiographies generally serve two distinct functions in a society. One type displays the heroic or notable accomplishments of an individual to be emulated by the community at large. The other showcases the tragic pitfalls of life through the tale of a character whose actions are to be avoided. Under high Stalinist socialist realism, the latter appears to have been shunned in favor of uniform stories about positive heroes. This created something of an imbalance in the official art and literature. Given the works read in this class, the biography-style fiction of the post-thaw period, most notably Abram Tertz's Little Jinx, Sergei Dovlatov's The Suitcase and Mikhail Bulgakov's Heart of a Dog, "balanced" the genre by showcasing flawed and tragic individuals while simultaneously and invariably critiquing the system which created the imbalance in the first place.

Under Soviet communism, all individuals are supposedly equal in all regards and can be scientifically conditioned to live in a teleological utopia. This system creates an interesting quandary for the autobiography and biography. Whereas in western capitalism, there are multiple pathways to success and multiple ways to fail, the Soviet-style system can only logically and plausibly feature one method for success and one method for failure. To thrive, one must join the communist party, adhere to their dictates, and devote their life to furthering the goals of socialism. If one works against the goals of the political party, they will fail. The singular political party must never be shown in error, and to show a hero who defies or ignores the party's orders and achieves success is to demonstrate a "backward" step in a structure driven by progressivism.