Book Review - The Stalin Epigram

*R E V I E W*

The Stalin Epigram
by Robert Littell

*Recommended*

Based on a true story, The Stalin Epigram tells the story of famed Russian poet Osip Mandelstam, as his career declines (suffocates is a more accurate term) under Stalin's repressive regime.

Set in mid 1930's Moscow, the literati of the time face increasing censorship by a dictator ruled Russia. Under constant threat of arrest for the suspicion of creating or possessing anti-Stalin/anti-Communism/anti-Russia poems, most writers are forced to write poetic odes to the regime or to stop writing all together.

Mandelstam had enough.  Upon witnessing the starvation and man-made famine occurring in the Crimea,  he is convinced something must be done. This is not the Russia he loves. In a moment of "sane insanity" he decides the truth must be told; that a poem can change the world, and the "right poem can bring down a dictator." In a scathing 16 line epigram, he attacks and belittles Stalin, reducing him to a soulless murderer and "peasant-slayer" "whose every killing is a treat". Reading his work first to his wife and mistress, then to friends and poets Boris Pasternak and Anna Akhmatova, Mandelstam has willingly opened Pandora's box. All who love him beg him to destroy and forget the poem.  He refuses. The only written copy in existence was given to his mistress, who was to memorize the poem and burn the pages . Out of fear and opportunism, she provides the written evidence to the secret police, who arrest Mandelstam in the middle of the night.

Through barbaric interrogation methods, Mandelstam is found guilty of crimes against Russia. With the intervention of Pasternak, his life is spared and he is exiled to a remote part of Russia, with his wife deciding to follow.

The book continues, with the journey into exile, the struggle to survive, and the fate of Mandelstam and his fellow poets.

Littell constructed his story in a unique way, with each chapter narrated by Mandelstam himself, his wife, Pasternak or Ahkmatova, and a good natured fictional character.

While classified as a novel, the people and events are real. The prisons and interrogation methods are real. Most importantly, the collectivization of farms and man-made famine and inevitable death is real.

At times, the story is difficult to read as you picture the systematic destruction of people by their own country. Some levity exists with the fictional weight lifting character, as well as the literary jabs made between the three poets. The conclusion sews everything together, but doesn't insult the reader with a fairy tale ending.

I enjoyed the book and the unique storytelling technique. Certainly a page turner, but a sad one at that.