Anyone here read Vladimir Voinovich?

[khad]

I've heard of this Russian dissident writer largely from his recent spats in the media over Solzhenitsyn, whom he regards as some sort of a retrograde freak. He's now apparently writing satire on the new capitalist Russia.

From what I gather from reviews, it seems that he occupies some kind of middle ground among Soviet dissidents, between the extreme conservatism of Solzhenitsyn and the neo-Stalinism of Zinoviev ("I was a terrorist! I deserved to be arrested!"). It doesn't seem to me that his work would be necessarily anti-socialist, but I could be wrong.

I'm wondering if anyone here could offer a leftwing perspective on his work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Voinovich


His magnum opus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnum_opus) The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_and_Extraordinary_Adventures_of_Private_I van_Chonkin) ("Жизнь и необычайные приключения солдата Ивана Чонкина") is set in the Red Army (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army) during World War II (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II), satirically exposing the daily absurdities of the totalitarian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarianism) regime. "Chonkin" is now a widely known figure in Russian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia) popular culture and the book was also made into a film (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film) by the famous Czech (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_Republic) director (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_director) Jiří Menzel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ji%C5%99%C3%AD_Menzel). Chonkin is often referred to as "the Russian Švejk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Soldier_%C5%A0vejk)".

In 1986 he wrote a satire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satire) novel Moscow 2042 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_2042), which satirized Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Solzhenitsyn) and the Soviet penchant for ludicrous rules. In this novel, Voinovich predicted that Russia will be ruled by the "Communist Party of State Security" which combines the KGB (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KGB), Russian Orthodox Church (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Orthodox_Church) and the Communist party (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union). This party is led by a KGB general Bukashin (name literally meaning "the insect") who met main character of the novel in Germany (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany). An extreme Slavophile (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavophile) Sim Karnavalov (apparently inspired by Solzhenitsyn) enters Moscow on a white horse to support dictator Bukashin in the novel [1] (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE1DF1F3CF931A35755C0A9619482 60).

His other novels have also won acclaim: Ivankiada, his novel about a writer trying to get an apartment in the bureaucratic clog of the Soviet system. The Fur Hat, is, in many ways, a satire of Gogol (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gogol)'s Overcoat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Overcoat). His Monumental Propaganda is a stinging critique of post-Communist Russia, a story that shows the author's opinion that Russians haven't changed much since the days of Stalin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin).

[Soviet]

I'll be brief:FUCKING SHIT.

[khad]

I'll be brief:FUCKING SHIT.
Have you read his books? And particularly the more recent ones on contemporary Russia? Not that I disagree with you, but I would just like an informed opinion.

[Soviet]

Yes, I've read "Chonkin",that's enough to understand what a dirty swine is Voinivich.Prehaps you don't understand what was the Great Patriotic War for Soviets and how insulting the jeering at it.Voinivich is not only a fucking anticommie,he's also an outraging his people monster.

[khad]

Yes, I've read "Chonkin",that's enough to understand what a dirty swine is Voinivich.Prehaps you don't understand what was the Great Patriotic War for Soviets and how insulting the jeering at it.Voinivich is not only a fucking anticommie,he's also an outraging his people monster.
You come off as a bit angry. And as I have told many people here, I don't care for bullshit insinuations.

I have seen the review to his recent book Monumental Propaganda. According to the reviewers the most sympathetic character is the Stalinist. He describes the current Russia as "Terror Unlimited."

http://www.amazon.com/Monumental-Propaganda-Vladimir-Voinovich/dp/0375412352


So farcical are all these people that Aglaya, a stupid, bigoted, provincial, anti-democratic Stalinist, almost winds up as the book's most sympathetic character. True, her philosophy is repellent and outdated, but, as Voinovich tells it, so is everybody else's, even his own. At least she believes in something. He, by contrast, mocks everything, including the freedom he once longed for, a freedom that has turned out to be a terrible disappointment. "Until recently," one character explains in the novel's final pages, "we were living in a zoo. We all had our own cages. The predators had theirs and the herbivores have theirs. Naturally, all the inmates of the zoo dreamed of freedom and were desperate to escape from their cages. Now they've opened up our cages. We've got our freedom and we've seen that you can pay with your life for the pleasure of running around on the grass. The only ones who are unconditionally better off are the predators, who are now free to eat the rest of us in absolutely unlimited quantities."

[Raúl Duke]

This book "Moscow 2042" sounds interesting, also the one that criticize the new Russia.

But to tell the truth I never read any... : /

[Soviet]

I don't care for bullshit insinuations.

Well,you've asked my opinion,I've answered.It's not a bullshit,it's an accurate characteristic of all dissidents.
Yes,all former dissidents criticize now the new Russia.Do you think that their concsience awaked?Not at all.The matter is that capitalist reality is so vile that the wants to dissociete themselves from it.