{"id":1078,"date":"2020-04-23T14:25:22","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T18:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/?p=1078"},"modified":"2020-04-23T14:25:22","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T18:25:22","slug":"the-russian-village-in-everything-flows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/2020\/04\/23\/the-russian-village-in-everything-flows\/","title":{"rendered":"The Russian Village in Everything Flows"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Cover to the Russian-language edition of Everything Flows.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

By Avery Comar<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Vasily Grossman\u2019s novel Everything Flows, <\/em>protagonist Ivan Grigoryevich embraces a linear\nconception of historical temporality.  In\nthis narrative of Russian history, Soviet autocracy represents nothing more\nthan a temporary impediment to the inevitable triumph of human freedom, \u201cIn spite\nof the genius of Lenin\u2026 In spite of the limitless, cosmic violence of Stalin\u201d\n(Grossman 199). In Ivan\u2019s conception, a linear historical narrative propelled\nby human nature would eventually culminate in a free Russia. Freedom, Grossman\nclaims, is inevitable \u2014 \u201cIt was coming to be because human beings were still\nhuman beings\u201d (199). In Everything Flows,<\/em>\nthat freedom-seeking element of human nature is embodied by the archetypal\nRussian village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Despite\nGrossman\u2019s overarching embrace of linear history, the final chapter depicts the\nRussian village as a realm that lies outside of it. The village occupies a\nvague and inexact temporality \u2014 Ivan Grigoryevich\u2019s childhood village was\n\u201ceternal and immutable\u201d (207). When the adult Ivan visits his childhood home,\nit seems to him that within the familiar houses \u201cwere sleeping the same\nchildren \u2014 children who had never grown up \u2014 and the same old men as forty\nyears ago, still not gone to their graves\u201d (207). In this temporally undefined\nspace, Ivan is able to understand the way in which even the most terrible\nmembers of humanity aid and abet the eventual triumph of freedom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Time in the village is cyclical; in approaching his childhood home, Ivan expects that his mother will emerge from the house and rest her \u201cyoung and beautiful hands\u201d on his \u201cgrey and balding head\u201d (208). By excepting village temporality from the progressive expectations of linear history, Grossman assigns the Russian village a dual role in the historical narrative: it acts as both propulsor and survivor of progress. The village encompasses the elements of Russian identity which drive history forward, but also persists unchanging over the course of that tumultuous history. In this way, Everything Flows <\/em>elevates the village to a special symbolic status within the zeitgeist of Russian identity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avery Comar is a senior majoring in History and Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Avery Comar In Vasily Grossman\u2019s novel Everything Flows, protagonist Ivan Grigoryevich embraces a linear conception of historical temporality.  In this narrative of Russian history, Soviet autocracy represents nothing more than a temporary impediment to the inevitable triumph of human … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":781,"featured_media":1079,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essays","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/781"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/havighurst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}