Voices from the Rubble

Kontinent is a book-form periodical produced by the “third Russian emigration,” the Soviet intellectuals who came out in the Sixties and Seventies —the first emigration having occurred in 1920, the second in 1945 when two million POWs opted for the West. This third emigration, however, is more than a mere displacement of persons. It must be acclaimed as a major intellectual and spiritual event. It consists of a large group which, in a sense, remains continuous across the Iron Curtain: they publish in samizdat and magnetizdat within Russia as well as with Possev, Grani, and other publishers in the West. The group feel that their calling is not merely to speak to and for Russians; they also address the West and, indeed, all of humanity, and they have included in their publications not only Russian authors but divers ex-Communist Yugoslavs, Poles, Czechs, and Italians as well. Above all, however, theirs is not a mere voice of dissidence—although that is admitted, too—but an artistic, intellectual, and spiritual outburst that has no equal in the world today, a critique born of a new and powerful experience serving as their common source of order.

By way of illustration let me mention Mihajlo Mihajlov’s article, “Mystical Experiences in the Labor Camps.” Basing his argument on the written testimony of Solzhenitsyn, Panin, Shif- rin, and Tertz, Mihajlov comments on the astonishing number of prisoners who have experienced a strong and sustaining spiritual force—“descriptions of an intense, concentrated life . . . a life which, despite all torment, was oddly precious. . . . For those who were prepared to sacrifice their body to save their soul, some kind of strange and mysterious law, eluding understanding, preserved them both. . . . These witnesses insist that nothing in their lives occurred by mere fortuity . . . everything occurred by means of some unknown fate, which pulled and drove them along a definite road— against their own plans and attempts to change their own destiny.” Mihajlov, of course, is mistaken in his choice of words: he is speaking not of mystical but rather of spiritual experiences. The point, however, is the widespread occurrence of experiences strikingly similar to each other among persons of the most varied backgrounds, and in the absence of a community structure that might have favored such occurrences. The very experience itself —forcing a rethinking “not only of the psychology and psychoanalysis of the twentieth century, but also of Marxism in contemporary Western sociology”— is thus a capital event, as it “explodes the very foundations on which modern science and philosophy are built.”

GN

About the Author

Gerhart Niemeyer

Kontinent is a book-form periodical produced by the “third Russian emigration,” the Soviet intellectuals who came out in the Sixties and Seventies —the first emigration having occurred in 1920, the second in 1945 when two million POWs opted for the West. This third emigration, however, is more than a mere displacement of persons. It must be acclaimed as a major intellectual and spiritual event. It consists of a large group which, in a sense, remains continuous across the Iron Curtain: they publish in samizdat and magnetizdat within Russia as well as with Possev, Grani, and other publishers in the West. The group feel that their calling is not merely to speak to and for Russians; they also address the West and, indeed, all of humanity, and they have included in their publications not only Russian authors but divers ex-Communist Yugoslavs, Poles, Czechs, and Italians as well. Above all, however, theirs is not a mere voice of dissidence—although that is admitted, too—but an artistic, intellectual, and spiritual outburst that has no equal in the world today, a critique born of a new and powerful experience serving as their common source of order.

By way of illustration let me mention Mihajlo Mihajlov’s article, “Mystical Experiences in the Labor Camps.” Basing his argument on the written testimony of Solzhenitsyn, Panin, Shif- rin, and Tertz, Mihajlov comments on the astonishing number of prisoners who have experienced a strong and sustaining spiritual force—“descriptions of an intense, concentrated life . . . a life which, despite all torment, was oddly precious. . . . For those who were prepared to sacrifice their body to save their soul, some kind of strange and mysterious law, eluding understanding, preserved them both. . . . These witnesses insist that nothing in their lives occurred by mere fortuity . . . everything occurred by means of some unknown fate, which pulled and drove them along a definite road— against their own plans and attempts to change their own destiny.” Mihajlov, of course, is mistaken in his choice of words: he is speaking not of mystical but rather of spiritual experiences. The point, however, is the widespread occurrence of experiences strikingly similar to each other among persons of the most varied backgrounds, and in the absence of a community structure that might have favored such occurrences. The very experience itself —forcing a rethinking “not only of the psychology and psychoanalysis of the twentieth century, but also of Marxism in contemporary Western sociology”— is thus a capital event, as it “explodes the very foundations on which modern science and philosophy are built.”