BOOKWORM: Russia Hater?

"Russian people must be flogged," asserted Fyodor Dostoevsky's Smerdyakov in the novel "Brothers Karamazov." The famous and utterly politically incorrect passage goes something like this: "In [18]12 there was a great invasion of Russia by Napoleon and it would have been good if those French had conquered us then: An intelligent nation would have conquered a rather stupid one and annexed it. We would have had quite a different order now. ... In terms of debauchery, their folks and our lot resemble each other. All of them are scoundrels, with the only difference that their scoundrel wears patent-leather shoes while our rascal stinks in his poverty and sees nothing wrong with this."


Last week Russian writer Viktor Yerofeyev - 130 years Dostoevsky's junior - published his new book "Entsiklopediya russkoi dushy" or "Encyclopedia of the Russian Soul" (Podkova and Dekont+, 242 pp., about 90 rubles). As if to bolster his reputation as Russian literature's enfant terrible and to once again be labeled "a stinking lackey" by indignant Russian patriots, Yerofeyev picks up where Smerdyakov left off. He writes: "What if Napoleon had conquered Russia as Smerdyakov had dreamed? ... [We should] ask that the Russians be colonized. ... The best thing would be for the whole of Russia to ask Japan to accept it as a new island. Or to follow Alaska's example and auction itself off for seven million. Then the Russians would learn to eat cheese from Normandy and drink wine from Burgundy. The transformation will be unprecedented. But some of the [Russian] peculiarities will remain. Like with the Africans. They still eat with their bare hands."


Yerofeyev, son of a high-ranking Soviet diplomat, became famous after actively participating in the samizdat literary almanac Metropol in 1979. He is the author of several novels, including the popular "Russkaya Krasavitsa," or "Russian Beauty."


His new book is a collection of about 200 short entries on different subjects, most of which reflect a nasty Russia and stupid, dirty Russians. Here are three citations from just one (!) page:


"It is difficult to imagine a people that is more inclined to make itself and others suffer. A Russian loves to spoil another's life, to put him in prison or at least to strain his nerves."


"People settled on the territory of Russia have one thing in common: They are not ready to help each other. But they are not ready to help themselves either. One may hear that Russians are generous. But Georgian hospitality is stronger than the Russians'. One may hear that Russians are free of self-interest. But Hindus are more unselfish. The Russians are most probably united in their bad qualities: laziness, envy, apathy, spiritual bankruptcy. 'Don't give a shit. Don't care. Sail in your own boat.'"


"Russians must be beaten with a cane. Russians must be shot. Russians must be smeared all over a wall. Otherwise, they'll stop being Russians. Bloody Sunday is a national holiday."


How does one react to something like this? I must admit that I like Smerdyakov. I enjoy provocative texts and my estimation of the Russians is not that high. So I should respect Yerofeyev's latest book. But something tells me his writing is not altogether sincere; it's a bit of a mask and a pose. His seeming motivation calls to mind Joseph Brodsky's famous witticism about the Soviet poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko: "If Yevtushenko is against the collective farm, then I am for it."