Sanin (novel)

Sanine (Russian: Санин) is a novel by the Russian writer Mikhail Artsybashev.

The book was written in 1907–at a time of a horrific political reaction to enormous changes in Russian society (democratic activities, first democratically elected Duma in 1906, as well as the Russian Revolution of 1905). Russian society was heavily influenced by the Russian Orthodox Church and to lesser extent Catholicism, Judaism, and Islam, none of which condoned an open expression of sexuality. By 1908 the novel was no longer being produced due to censorship. It was banned as a "work of pornography".[1] When Artsybashev emigrated to Poland after the Russian Revolution of 1917, he was condemned by the Soviet authorities and his books were banned from publication. They were revived in the 1990s.

Plot summary

The hero, twenty-something Sanine, after a long absence from home, comes back to visit his mother and sister.

Sanin deals with sex and sexual activity throughout the novel. Various characters including the main character Sanin and his sister Lida dabble in premarital sex. Lida describes her experience with Zarudin as her body was "thrilled and shaken with passion". Knowing it is not the best thing for a young lady not to be married and have relations, yet she longs for another chance to experience that same passion and lust.

Characters in the novel wrestle with and spar by using a variety of in-vogue philosophies, including egoism, nihilism, Tolstoyanism, Christianity, utopian socialism, and middlebrow morality. One of the characters gets to a point where he admits "that life was the realization of freedom, and consequently that it was natural for a man to live for enjoyment". Lida feels conflicts between her internalization of society's condemnation of premarital sex and her more spontaneous conclusion that "I wanted to do it and I did it; and I felt so happy".

During his stay Sanin meets various people, some of whom are neutral, amazed, threatened or excited by his way of thinking about the world and human existence. Sanin remains confident and self-assured, having seduced and deflowered a local virgin, but at the end of the book leaves town under a cloud.

Although "Sanin" focuses much of its attention on sex and sexuality of youth, the novel puts forth several strikingly feminist ideals other than sexual freedom of women. For example, near the start of the novel, Sanin states his opinion that women should be allowed to have careers, a direct opposition to the traditional belief that women should be nothing more than mothers or housekeepers. Later on, after discovering that his sister, Lida, is pregnant while unmarried, he urges her to get an abortion, yet still respects her decision not to, something very uncommon for this time period.

Critical reception

Colin Wilson wrote about Sanin:[2]

"The book's hero sneers at the unhealthy moral preoccupations of most Russians, and preaches a doctrine of sunlight and frank sensuality. The book had an enormous impact on Russian youth, who were eager to put its doctrines into practice. Probably no book in world literature has been responsible for the loss of so many maidenheads."

Wilson added that Sanin deserves more study in English.

The novelty of Sanin lies in its insertion of progressive and liberal thoughts and ideals in the literary form of a novel. Critics in 1907 and later in the Russian SFSR were furious to find such views as Sanin's in existence. They put their efforts to discrediting the book, whose references to the Bible, Shakespeare, Dickens, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, and whose precipitation of the dramatic changes in the morality and political life of the following decades were, in their view, dangerous for the Russian people.

Literature
  • Sanin written by Mikhail Petrovich Artsybashev and translated by Percy Edward Pinkerton in 1910
  • Otto Boele: Erotic nihilism in late imperial Russia the case of Mikhail Artsybashev's Sanin. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2009
  • Angelika Hechtl: Sanin $ells! Zur Rezeption von Michail Arcybaševs Roman „Sanin“. University of Vienna, 2013 (PDF)

References
  1. Otto Boele Erotic nihilism in late imperial Russia the case of Mikhail Artsybashev's Sanin Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2009
  2. Colin Wilson: Rasputin and the Fall of the Romanovs. New York, 1964
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