Making History for Stalin: The Story of the Belomor Canal by Cynthia A. Ruder (review)

Abstract

MLR, 96. I, 200I MLR, 96. I, 200I secondarymaterialon Bakhtinshows that this issue has not been made the focus of sustained study, although the claim on thejacket that it is the 'firstto examine the influence of Christianity'on Bakhtin'swork is certainly an overstatement. Coates presents a cogent reading of Christian motifs in Bakhtin, particularlyfocusing on the ideas of God, the Fall, Incarnation and Love. The strategy is particularly successfulin drawingour attention to the Christianresonancesin Bakhtin's'Author and Hero in AestheticActivity'of the mid-I92os, and a good case ismade in tracing the development of these themes in Bakhtin'slater work,when theological imagery becomes less apparent. Coates's argument, from which the book's title derives, is that the figure of the author has directlytheological connotations, but the figure is 'exiled' in the workfrom the end of the 1920s, only able to articulatehis or her own perspective through the interaction of the voices of characters.This is the kenotic incarnationof God in the modern world. One of the book's strengthsis the way Bakhtin'swork is shown to develop and change. However, in concentrating solely on Christian aspects Coates fails to examine how Bakhtin draws on German idealist philosophy, some of it Jewish (Cohen and Cassirer), in which many of the same features are found without a Christian gloss. Religion had a specific place in most idealist philosophy of the period (Simmel, Scheler, Natorp) on which Bakhtindrew, which is not considered here. Although this is clearly not Coates's area of expertise, the fact that there is even no consideration of the extent to which Bakhtin used religious terms in the absence of an establishedRussianphilosophical discoursemakes the applicationof theology to Bakhtin'sworkrathertoo direct in many cases. The weakestpart of the book is the 'strawman' argument of the chapter 'WasBakhtin a Marxist?'which draws superficial points of contrast between the works of Bakhtin and that of Voloshinovand Medvedev. The latteraretreatedas orthodoxMarxists.The section which contrasts Bakhtin's notion of dialogue with dialectics without reference to any of Marx or Hegel's writings is unsatisfactory. Nevertheless, with these reservations, Coates presents a well-written and reasoned analysis of Christian motifsthat is a realcontributionto burgeoningBakhtinscholarship. UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD CRAIG BRANDIST Making Histoy for Stalin: The Story of the Belomor Canal. By CYNTHIAA. RUDER. Gainesville:UniversityPressof Florida. I998. xvi + 248 pp. $49.95. The White Sea Canal was built with slave labour in appalling conditions, without proper equipment and without any reference to cost and efficiency, or even need. Solzhenitsynreasonablystatesthatsome I00,000 slavelabourersdiedwhileworking on the project in the firstwinter. Affidavitspresented by Viktor Kravchenkowhen conducting, and winning, a lawsuitagainstthe FrenchCommunistpaper, LesLettres Franfaises,corroborate the basic picture: ferocious treatment of slave labourers, miserable conditions and heavy loss of life. Comparisons with the building of the Panama and Suez Canals are, therefore, preposterous and odious. Notions of perekovka, the reforging of prisoners, were intended for the gullible, especially Westernintellectualsand the well-heeled literati,who duringthe I930Smade their many pilgrimages,courtesyof the Soviet state, to pay homage to Stalin'sPotemkin villages.Nothing publishedin theglasnost period in any way contradictsthe case for the prosecution which was alreadywell establishedbefore I987. So while one can welcome any attemptto fillin the lacunae, thebasicpictureof a slave-labourproject with huge lossof life remainsintact. secondarymaterialon Bakhtinshows that this issue has not been made the focus of sustained study, although the claim on thejacket that it is the 'firstto examine the influence of Christianity'on Bakhtin'swork is certainly an overstatement. Coates presents a cogent reading of Christian motifs in Bakhtin, particularlyfocusing on the ideas of God, the Fall, Incarnation and Love. The strategy is particularly successfulin drawingour attention to the Christianresonancesin Bakhtin's'Author and Hero in AestheticActivity'of the mid-I92os, and a good case ismade in tracing the development of these themes in Bakhtin'slater work,when theological imagery becomes less apparent. Coates's argument, from which the book's title derives, is that the figure of the author has directlytheological connotations, but the figure is 'exiled' in the workfrom the end of the 1920s, only able to articulatehis or her own perspective through the interaction of the voices of characters.This is the kenotic incarnationof God in the modern world...