Before and During
Late Soviet stagnation, Moscow. Alyosha - a writer who suffers from fits accompanied by memory loss - admits himself to a psychiatric institute for experimental treatment.

Inspired by Ivan the Terrible's “Memorial Book of the Disgraced” and his own spiritual crisis, Alyosha has been trying to record the memories of people in his life who “died before their time, leaving nothing behind except in my memory”. In hospital, however, he changes tack and decides to dedicate his Memorial Book to the memories of the elderly patients in his ward, described to him as alumni of the early-Soviet Institute for Natural Genius. This plan, however, is hijacked by one patient who tells him a story that reaches even further back into the past of the Russian Revolution. He learns about the philosopher, Nikolai Fyodorov, who believed humanity's greatest task was to physically resurrect its dead ancestors, and Madame de Staël who, through supernatural means, became the midwife of the Bolshevik Revolution and a lover of, among others, Fyodorov, Scriabin and Stalin.

"Before and During" makes for a fantastical and satirical retelling of Russian history, one that is rich in the philosophical and historiosophic legacy of Russian literature.
1120142250
Before and During
Late Soviet stagnation, Moscow. Alyosha - a writer who suffers from fits accompanied by memory loss - admits himself to a psychiatric institute for experimental treatment.

Inspired by Ivan the Terrible's “Memorial Book of the Disgraced” and his own spiritual crisis, Alyosha has been trying to record the memories of people in his life who “died before their time, leaving nothing behind except in my memory”. In hospital, however, he changes tack and decides to dedicate his Memorial Book to the memories of the elderly patients in his ward, described to him as alumni of the early-Soviet Institute for Natural Genius. This plan, however, is hijacked by one patient who tells him a story that reaches even further back into the past of the Russian Revolution. He learns about the philosopher, Nikolai Fyodorov, who believed humanity's greatest task was to physically resurrect its dead ancestors, and Madame de Staël who, through supernatural means, became the midwife of the Bolshevik Revolution and a lover of, among others, Fyodorov, Scriabin and Stalin.

"Before and During" makes for a fantastical and satirical retelling of Russian history, one that is rich in the philosophical and historiosophic legacy of Russian literature.
20.88 In Stock
Before and During

Before and During

by Vladimir Sharov

Narrated by Al Bernstein

Unabridged — 11 hours, 25 minutes

Before and During

Before and During

by Vladimir Sharov

Narrated by Al Bernstein

Unabridged — 11 hours, 25 minutes

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Overview

Late Soviet stagnation, Moscow. Alyosha - a writer who suffers from fits accompanied by memory loss - admits himself to a psychiatric institute for experimental treatment.

Inspired by Ivan the Terrible's “Memorial Book of the Disgraced” and his own spiritual crisis, Alyosha has been trying to record the memories of people in his life who “died before their time, leaving nothing behind except in my memory”. In hospital, however, he changes tack and decides to dedicate his Memorial Book to the memories of the elderly patients in his ward, described to him as alumni of the early-Soviet Institute for Natural Genius. This plan, however, is hijacked by one patient who tells him a story that reaches even further back into the past of the Russian Revolution. He learns about the philosopher, Nikolai Fyodorov, who believed humanity's greatest task was to physically resurrect its dead ancestors, and Madame de Staël who, through supernatural means, became the midwife of the Bolshevik Revolution and a lover of, among others, Fyodorov, Scriabin and Stalin.

"Before and During" makes for a fantastical and satirical retelling of Russian history, one that is rich in the philosophical and historiosophic legacy of Russian literature.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"If Russian history is indeed a commentary to the Bible, then this is an audacious attempt to shine a mystical light on it." — Anna Aslanyan, The Independent

"...darkly brilliant...ironizes and genuinely challenges the conceits woven through modern Russian history and culture: fleshly resurrection, holy foolishness, erotic utopia and the sexualization of terror." — Muireann Maguire, Russian Dinosaur

Product Details

BN ID: 2940177349770
Publisher: Heraclon Publishing Canada
Publication date: 01/01/1993
Edition description: Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

'Scriabin was still very young then," Ifraimov continued, "but everything about him - his countenance, his demeanor - was erotic through and through: his fine, languorous features, the sensual dimple on his chin, his intoxicated gaze, and that same languor and voluptuousness in the way he moved, the way he touched the instrument; Balmont rightly said of him that he kissed sounds with his fingers. His fingers really did move smoothly and tenderly, as if taking their time, even lingering, so as to draw out the pleasure. He caressed every key, only for the piano to give birth to spasmodic, convulsive rhythms, to sounds that were broken and twisted, and you began to understand that this was not merely a caress, but slow, refined torture, and that only by tormenting himself and the instrument did music exist for him. "When he was alone with de Staa-l for the first time, he was very tense, as though unsure whether she would understand him, accept him; for a long time he held back, playing for time, but then he began talking with a terrible conviction with which she too was instantly infected. She was like Mother Eve, he told her; her passive feminine principle was waiting - still merely waiting - to be given form, and it was hindering him. She found herself inwardly agreeing: she really was cold, uptight. That was when he took her by the hand and told her to relax, and she understood, feeling her body obey his voice and soften, no longer resisting him. " ' Every animal, insect, and blade of grass,' he would say to her, 'bears the countenance of our spiritual movements. They are created by the same caresses with which man caresses woman; so it has been since the days of Adam. It was not God but Adam who, caressing Eve, begat and named with his caresses all that surrounds man in this world.'" ' Here are birds,' he would tell her, barely touching her nipple with his lips or his tongue, 'they are winged caresses. Here are twisting, serpentine caresses - they are caresses wandering at large,' said he, the tips of his fingers sliding up from her little feet, up and up, and then along the very edge, so that she was filled with fear for him; he circled the entrance, the dip which led inside her, then carried on up over the stomach, between the breasts, wrapping his fingers around one, then the other, as if framing them, before straightening up once more over the hollow of the clavicle and up the neck to the earlobe and hair. "Then he would start mauling her,..'

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