Novel
Cities and Years
Города и годы
Konstantin Fedin · 1924
Synopsis
Before the First World War, Andrei Startsov, a young Russian who wants to become an artist, stays in Germany. He falls in love with Marie Urbach and becomes friends with the painter Kurt Wahn, while an aristocratic German officer contends with him for Marie. War breaks out: Startsov is interned, and his friendship with Kurt falls apart. Back in Russia after the revolution, he finds Kurt again, now a convinced Bolshevik, and, in a provincial town, his Christian convictions clash with revolutionary ideology.
Context
Published in 1924, the novel was one of the first attempts by Soviet literature to understand the experience of the war of 1914 and the civil war, and it placed its author in the front rank. Its composition upsets the chronological order of events, and critics welcomed its restless character; the book revived the debate on the intellectuals who hesitated before the new state. It was adapted for the screen twice, by Evgeny Chervyakov in 1930 and by Alexander Zarkhi in 1973.
Who it is for
A novel with a convoluted structure, which demands close reading; an English translation exists.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as one of the first great Soviet novels, and as its author's most complex work.