What does the work “Yawning Heights” by A. Zinoviev tell about?

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The history of Russian literature keeps many wonderful examples of art written in various genres. However, the 20th century most fully illuminated the problem of the need to create a new novel that combines realism, fantasy, satire, and appeal to philosophy and sociology. All this was most fully embodied in the novel "Yawning Heights", the author of which was the Soviet sociologist A. Zinoviev.

History of the appearance of the book in print

Zinoviev's book was first published in 1976 in Switzerland. At that time, its author was, though disgraced, but a prominent Soviet sociologist and philosopher, doctor of sciences, professor.

The book "Yawning Heights" caused a public outcry both in Western countries and in the USSR. And if in the West they saw in it a sharp and satirical criticism of Soviet reality, and the book as a whole was received positively, then in the USSR its publication was regarded as a betrayal of the motherland, which forced A. Zinoviev to leavecountries to emigrate.

Alexander Zinoviev "Yawning Heights". Summary of the work

The work tells the story of the city of Ibansk and its inhabitants. Moreover, the descriptions of the author are quite comical and resemble the prose of N. V. Gogol and M. E. S altykov-Shchedrin. “Yawning Heights” is an interesting work in general. This is a dystopia, and sharp social satire, and a new sociological novel in which the author-scientist expounds his scientific theories in an artistic way.

The author offers various types of his contemporaries. These are officials who are ready for any dirty trick in order to achieve their goals, hiding behind the noble slogans of building communism, these are people from the intelligentsia, some of whom dream of Western values, and some are outright talkers.

There is no clear plot in the work, the composition of the novel obeys the laws of the logic of philosophical research.

What inspired you to write the book?

Alexander Zinoviev wrote many books during his long life, "Yawning Heights" refers to one of his landmark creations.

There are many reasons for writing this book. First of all, Zinoviev, as a conscientious sociologist, could not but see that the communist slogans about the imminent victory of socialism and the construction of a completely new state system on earth are far from their real embodiment. He saw the imperfection of the society in which he lived, was not afraid to write about it openly.

Of coursemany of his contemporaries did not like this position of the scientist, who, formally being people of science or statesmen, simply sought to receive their benefits from the existing order of things and the existing social system.

The author depicted such "opportunists" with all the strength of his talent in the work "Yawning Heights". Zinoviev in general, in this first novel of his, demonstrated the full strength of both his erudition and scientific foresight of future social events.

Many of his contemporaries saw in the writer's novel only a dystopia and exposure of communism, therefore the author was ranked among a number of dissidents, and Zinoviev was far from this circle.

Understanding the novel today

Today, the work "Yawning Heights" stands alone among the works of Russian literature. It is, in essence, a socio-philosophical novel.

Modern readers are not always ready to take the book "Yawning Heights" off the shelf. This is due both to the complexity of the writer's style and to the fact that some of the realities he writes about have already been lost.

However, this novel is a milestone in the creative biography of the writer, so without careful study it is impossible to understand the essence of the philosophical and social concept of Zinoviev as a scientist.

By the way, in the last decades of his life, the author turned his attention to the contemporary capitalist world, and concluded that global capitalism, which will seek to rule the world after the death of the USSR, will become for humanitygreat evil.

Many bold thoughts were expressed by the author in the book "Yawning Heights". Zinoviev was always brave, he went through the war, and the persecution of colleagues, and separation from his homeland, he had nothing to fear in life.

Therefore, today the journalism and works of art by A. Zinoviev are more relevant than ever. And we are talking not only about the novel "Yawning Heights", reviews of which have always been different, we are talking about the entire legacy of the Russian philosopher and seer Alexander Alexandrovich Zinoviev.