The Art of Compromise: The Life and Work of Leonid Leonov

Rolf Hellebust is a professor of Russian language and literature at the
University of Calgary in Alberta.

Among major literary figures in the USSR, Leonid Leonov is perhaps
currently the one most in need of scholarly re-evaluation. This, after
all, is a novelist and playwright who began writing before the
Revolution, won fame in the 1920s, was considered obsolete by the
post-Stalin era, went on to outlive the USSR itself, and, just before
his death, published a final massive novel that has put him once again
squarely in the critical spotlight. This novel, The Pyramid, has revived
the debate over Leonov’s ambiguous position with regard to Soviet
ideology. He originally made his reputation as one of the “Fellow
Travelers”—those early Soviet writers who, while generally
sympathetic to the aims of the Revolution, insisted on maintaining their
artistic independence. His work is full of ironies and vaguely implied
doubt in the validity of the Marxist-Leninist experiment; and his last
book is explicit in its anti-Stalinist, Christian orientation. Yet in
much of his writing, Leonov appeared a loyal servant of the regime, for
which he was rewarded with a prominent place in the literary
establishment.

Of course, the title of Boris Thomson’s study could be applied to any
number of important writers of Leonov’s generation who were forced
into political compromises to save their careers (or their lives), and
who thereby survived to produce works of lasting artistic value. But
while for some of these authors it is relatively easy to draw a line
between what they wanted to say and what they were forced to say, this
is not so for Leonov. As Thomson argues, he “seems to have
internalized the need for compromise and contrived to exploit it for
artistic ends.” Various themes by which Leonov expresses his
ideological ambivalence can be related back to a crucial, though
obscure, period in the writer’s biography: the civil war years of
1918–20, which the young writer spent in the northern city of
Archangel during successive anti-Bolshevik and Bolshevik military
occupations.

This is one of the best books to be written on this topic, and
certainly the first to give a balanced chronological treatment of
Leonov’s entire output. Thomson eloquently presents the fruits of four
decades worth of research, including personal interviews with the
author. He is not afraid to make his likes and dislikes known, and
offers many new interpretations that are certain to stimulate future
discussion of this enigmatic literary master.