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silverflight8I finished The Red Scarf yesterday, and meant to post about idealism sliding to cynicism, and then I went on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
sf_drama and was completely derailed.
The Red Scarf is written by Kate Furnivall and centers around two young women who are in a Siberia labour camp--Anna and Sofia (I am not even going to try to pronounce the last names in this book. I give up.) What was really interesting to me, though, is the shift in ideology that Mikhail Pashin experiences. [And also seeing a book that doesn't just automatically scream COMMUNISM IS BAD without justification.]
I think that the people who tried to institute communism--the ideological embodiment of it, anyway--really, genuinely wanted to make their world a better place. As far as people in the Western hemisphere can see it, though, it's failed miserably. And I think the slow realization that perhaps those shining ideals that were so worshipped in the past aren't as perfect is fascinating. How do you deal with that kind of shake-up? What do you do when the solid ground of your beliefs crumbles right out of existence?
Mikhail and Vasily were both strong supporters of communism, right before the revolution; Mikhail born of a lower class, Vasily very much of the aristocracy. It's interesting to see, though, that SPOILERS AHEAD Mikhail seems to lose that utter devotion as he grows, while Vasily holds onto his conviction that communism is right. I think the reason why is because Mikhail was a fanatical boy and didn't really understand that his actions ironically mirrored the regime that he was trying to topple, and after finding out that he'd just put the same kind of power, masquerading under "for the common good", stops believing in what he used to. Vasily, on the other hand, is of the aristocracy, so he's seen that side, but is still a supporter of communism. I think he knew (better than Mikhail, at any rate) what both sides were like: he knew two different perspectives.
sf_drama and was completely derailed.The Red Scarf is written by Kate Furnivall and centers around two young women who are in a Siberia labour camp--Anna and Sofia (I am not even going to try to pronounce the last names in this book. I give up.) What was really interesting to me, though, is the shift in ideology that Mikhail Pashin experiences. [And also seeing a book that doesn't just automatically scream COMMUNISM IS BAD without justification.]
I think that the people who tried to institute communism--the ideological embodiment of it, anyway--really, genuinely wanted to make their world a better place. As far as people in the Western hemisphere can see it, though, it's failed miserably. And I think the slow realization that perhaps those shining ideals that were so worshipped in the past aren't as perfect is fascinating. How do you deal with that kind of shake-up? What do you do when the solid ground of your beliefs crumbles right out of existence?
Mikhail and Vasily were both strong supporters of communism, right before the revolution; Mikhail born of a lower class, Vasily very much of the aristocracy. It's interesting to see, though, that SPOILERS AHEAD Mikhail seems to lose that utter devotion as he grows, while Vasily holds onto his conviction that communism is right. I think the reason why is because Mikhail was a fanatical boy and didn't really understand that his actions ironically mirrored the regime that he was trying to topple, and after finding out that he'd just put the same kind of power, masquerading under "for the common good", stops believing in what he used to. Vasily, on the other hand, is of the aristocracy, so he's seen that side, but is still a supporter of communism. I think he knew (better than Mikhail, at any rate) what both sides were like: he knew two different perspectives.
