Pushkin's Children: Writing on Russia and Russians

by Tatyana Tolstaya, Jamey Gambrell (Translator), Alma Guillermoprieto (Introduction)

These twenty pieces address the politics, culture, and literature of Russia with both flair and erudition. Passionate and opinionated, often funny, and using ample material from daily life to underline their ideas and observations, Tatyana Tolstaya’s essays range across a variety of subjects. They move in one unique voice from Soviet women, classical Russian cooking, and the bliss of snow to the effect of Pushkin and freedom on Russia writers; from the death of the czar and the Great Terror to the changes brought by Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Putin in the last decade. Throughout this engaging volume, the Russian temperament comes into high relief. Whether addressing literature or reporting on politics, Tolstaya’s writing conveys a deep knowledge of her country and countrymen. Pushkin’s Children is a book for anyone interested in the Russian soul.

Genres: Russia, Nonfiction, Essays, History, Russian Literature, Politics, Literary Criticism

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 2003

About the author

Tatyana Tolstaya (Татьяна Толстая) was born in Leningrad, U.S.S.R. As the great-grandniece of the Russian author Leo Tolstoy and the granddaughter of Alexei Tolstoy, Tolstaya comes from a distinguished literary family; but, according to Marta Mestrovic's interview in Publishers Weekly with the author, she hates ‘‘being discussed as a relative of someone.’’

Still, Tolstaya's background is undeniably one of culture and education. Her father was a physics professor who taught her two languages, and her maternal grandfather was a well-known translator.

Reviews

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

"You can buy four kinds of Absolut vodka (no guarantee on authenticity) around the clock...and Makarov, Suvorov, Lev Tolstoy, and Rasputin vodkas. The saleswoman yawns and says 'You know perfectly well it's all the same. They bottle it in Poland and we paste on the labels.'
'Lev Tolstoy and Rasputin are the same?' exclaimed by friend. 'What is this, relativism, deconstructivism, postmodernism?'
'If you don't like it, don't buy it,' says the saleswoman. 'No one's forcing you.'

-Excerpt from "In the Ruins of Communism", Pushkin's Children

Pushkin's Children compiles 20 essays from 1990-2000, the years spanning the fall of Communism in her home country Russia. Essays range from observational, political, to lengthy book reviews, primarily books by Russian or American authors that she praises or skewers (sometimes both simultanously). They are equally enjoyable to read, regardless if you are familiar with the source material.

Took plenty of notes and highlights in this book, and will be following up with several of the books she reviews - primarily the works of David Remnick, Joseph Brodsky, Solzhenitsyn, and David King.

Her words are fire - illuminating the dark, melting down the old patterns/ways, and strengthening with mettle and resolve.

I was already a fan of her work after Aetherial Worlds: Stories, but this book shows her skill and brilliance across forms and styles.

[Steven R. Kraaijeveld · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had expected Tatyana Tolstaya's Pushkin's Children to be a collection of literary essays; instead, most of the pieces (which, in turn, are mostly book reviews) focus more on Russian history and politics than on Russian literature as such. Nevertheless, this is hardly a fault of the book—and the reviews, as well as the few standalone essays, are very much worth reading. In a conversational manner and with strong opinions throughout, Tolstaya covers a large chunk of Russian life and modern history—which is, of course, not nearly enough to truly capture Russia and Russians, and which, in any case, as Tolstaya stresses again and again, could not be done even if you spent myriad lifetimes talking.

The primary cast of characters to which Tolstaya returns throughout the book are Gorbachev, Yeltsin, Solzhenitsyn (the later preacher-recluse rather than the writer), and, toward the end, Putin. This makes sense when you consider the dates of the pieces, which range from 1990 (Women's Lives) to 2000 (Lies I lived). The subject matter is therefore inevitably dated—but only in the sense that one would like to hear Tolstaya's opinion of today's events, in addition to those of the past.

The titular essay, Pushkin's Children, was the best piece on the explicit subject of literature. Tolstaya's characterization of Russian writers as traditionally having felt the need to balance their work between the imperatives of artistic creativity and social demands—often to the detriment of the former—was intriguing and, I think, spot on:

"Submitting to a moral but not to a creative imperative, Russian writers condemned themselves to all manner of suffering and torment. It was not only that the authorities and society cruelly punished the love of freedom—that goes without saying. The problem was also that the struggle of the poet and the citizen within any given writer usually resulted in the death of the poet. The brilliant Gogol, seeing his vocation as pointing people toward the true path to moral salvation, wrote the second volume of Dead Souls, in which, apparently, he tried to create a morally uplifting image of the positive hero. We aren’t certain what he wrote, since, unhappy with the results, Gogol burned the manuscript and then went mad, falling into a state of religious gloom. But the sparkle of Gogol’s early works dims and dies out toward the end of his life. In the last years of his life, Lev Tolstoy also ceased to be a brilliant artist, having driven himself into the narrow, cramped cage of forced morality. He didn’t stop being a brilliant personality, but his preaching, the primitive pieces for children, and the moralizing tracts for peasants are no more than a curiosity against the background of his great novels. Fortunately, Dostoyevsky avoided such an inglorious end—perhaps he was saved by the indomitable passions that raged in his soul. Nevertheless, the ideological slant of all his works is obvious. Writers of a lesser stature surrendered more quickly. And the very few who did not wish to sacrifice art on the altar of service to the Fatherland, Truth, or the People were subjected to such ferocious criticism by the “progressive thinking” sectors of society that they were literally terrorized, as though they had committed the most heinous of crimes against humanity." (84-85)

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Pushkin's Children is as good as a trip to Russia--not only for its content, the type of thing you'd hear over a table cluttered with vodka glasses, pickles and pelmeni--but the style, the assuredness which is the best thing about the Russian intelligentsia. Twenty essays on developments within Russia in the cartwheel decade of the 1990s--political and cultural... Her political analyses are quick, witty and cut to her personal take on Russian cultural truths. I loved her attacks on the late era Solzhenitsyn, and how he has taken on the mantle of pre-Western Russian mythologies, idealizing a Russia that never was... how just because someone wrote important work at one point, doesn't mean that one should get a free pass for the rest of one's life. It's a trip to Russia, that's all I can say. Can't wait to read her fiction.

[l · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked this up on a whim at the library and was rewarded with incredibly smart and engaging essays! Really enjoyable reading.

[Sara! · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved The Slynx and jumped on the opportunity to read more from Tolstaya. This book was a mixed bag for me. Her personal life / literary musings are engaging and enjoyable (Platonov, Brodsky, Solzhenitsyn). They give a unique window into the last 40 years of the USSR/Russian Federation. However, some of later reflections on politics and ethnic strife are difficult to read with a modern eye. A lot can happen in 20 years.

[Rebecca Karasik · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a lot of sass and I am here for all of it. I really enjoyed the style of each of the stories (well stories and book reviews), it was a unique way to understand Tolstaya's view on Russian politics and some other stuff too. It's more a 3.5 than a 3, but it's not a 4 for me this time.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of these essays are book reviews, which are lots of fun to read. I think I know less about the Russian state of mind than I did before I started. They apparently an inscrutable people.

[A. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave up on this. It is mostly book reviews that are sort of self-righteous and scathing and I just didn't have the energy for that many pages of someone else's indignation.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Witoldzio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short articles and book reviews by a brilliant Russian writer, the texts are definitely outdated, but the brilliance of the writing is striking. The texts come from the times when the Soviet Union collapsed. While reading the articles one can observe some evolving views of their author. Initially, she did not like Gorbatchov and preferred Yeltsin instead, but later she appears to have changed her mind. She is obviously disappointed that the giant empire collapsed and believes that Russians should have taken responsibility for "smaller nations" instead of just letting them kill each other. The writing is funny, intelligent, entertaining, and delightfully pessimistic.

[Yuliya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone who has ever asked me a question about Russia or Putin should read this book. Cause she's got the answers.

[Angela Castille · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of articles written in the late 90s and early 2000s. I was struck by the parallels between that time in Russian and what the US is going through at this moment in time.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a treat to read Tolstoy’s brilliant descendent write on a wide range of topics.