In the two works, excerpt from Blockade Diary and “The Cave,” the authors take very different tones when describing the horrors and desperation of this period during the early-mid twentieth century.[1] Lydia Ginzburg presents the stories of a multitude of people at this time, all with a matter-of-fact tone, yet thoughtful. Her understanding of the terror of the air raids, “He doesn’t want to wake up to find the world falling about his ears, meeting his death in the tiniest fleeting moment. Better to be prepared” reveals to the reader the underlying psychology of someone in Leningrad at this time, futile though it may be in the long run (Ginzburg, 35). She presents the emotions of this time and the ironies of behavior to the outside observer, but while always maintaining that personal interaction with the individuals she describes. Her description of the power of social pressure to not steal or take more than your share, “Nothing more lies between them – no lock, no police, no queue. Just the abstraction of social prohibition” may seem inane and yet it is so effective (Ginzburg, 47). Even her description of the numbness after months of living in this terror filled existence seems so oddly matter-of-fact: “Oh, I’m not afraid of anything. I’d like to find something to be afraid of” (Ginzburg, 54).

Zamyatin veers strongly in a different style of description. Rather than focusing on many, he focuses on one couple. Instead of the matter-of-fact and understanding style of Ginzburg, he writes bordering on the absurd, comparing these people to cave men. Rather than trying to understand and explain everything, he embraces a sense of mystery, “It may be a gray-trunked mammoth, it may be the wind, and it may be the wind is nothing but the glacial roar of some supermammoth” (Zamyatin, 91). Houses are caves, one’s wife becomes a stranger, and around every corner lurks danger, “a human had come from another cave, and—who knows?—he might fly at her and seize [the food]” (Zamyatin, 94).

Both pieces present these fear-filled times to the outsider. Yet encapsulating the true emotions, reasons and psyches of the people trapped in these times requires a great deal of skill and certainly different understandings of human nature. The Ginzburg piece reminds me strongly of the movie V for Vendetta, which I will probably bring up in class. People shouldn’t be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.

https://youtu.be/KKvvOFIHs4k

[1] Although these two works were written at different times, it all seems to be one dark period of Russian history.