Sanin (novel)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Sanin is the novel by Russian writer Mikhail Artsybashev. It did have an interesting existing history being written by 26 years old writer in 1904 - at the pick of the varied changes in Russian society (democratic activities, first democratically elected Duma, Russian Revolution of 1905) and published and criticized in 1907, the year of one of the most horrific political reactions in Russian history. When Artsybashev emigrated to Poland after the Russian Revolution of 1917, he was condemned by the Soviet authorities and his books were banned from publication, only to be revealed afresh to the readers in the 1990s.
Sanin is a novel of the true originality of form and content. Its hero, twentysomething Sanin, after a long absence from home, comes back to visit his mother and sister. During his stay he meets varied people, some of whom are neutral, amazed, threatened or excited by his way of thinking about the world and human existence. Sanin remains confident and self-assured and at the end of the book leaves town.
The novelty of Sanin was in the congruent insertion of the progressive and liberal thoughts and ideals in such literary form as a novel. Critics in 1907 and later in the Russian SFSR were furious to find such views as Sanin's to exist. And they put their efforts to discredit the book, whose references to Bible, Shakespeare, Dickens, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche and whose precipitation of the dramatic changes in the morality and political life of the following decades were in their view dangerous for the Russian people.
