My Disillusionment in Russia · Chapter
XII: Beneath the Surface explained
The narrator confronts the brutal reality of Bolshevik rule, realizing that the Communists justify any means—including lies, torture, and murder—by the end of achieving the Communist State.
What happens
The narrator confronts the brutal reality of Bolshevik rule, realizing that the Communists justify any means—including lies, torture, and murder—by the end of achieving the Communist State. She recounts specific atrocities by the Cheka, the hypocrisy of Zorin and Lenin regarding imprisoned anarchists, and the systemic corruption in schools and hospitals, where show institutions are favored over genuine care. Her disillusionment deepens as she concludes she cannot work under the Soviet government's political yoke.
Themes in this chapter
Disillusionment with Revolution
The narrator's faith in the Revolution shatters as she confronts the gap between its ideals and the brutal reality of Bolshevik rule.
Betrayal of Revolutionary Ideals
The Communists' use of lies, torture, and favoritism betrays the revolutionary principles of justice, equality, and human dignity.
Ethics and Revolutionary Means
The narrator critiques the Bolshevik belief that the end justifies all means, leading to the sacrifice of human life and integrity.
State Power vs. Individual Freedom
The labor book and the Cheka's control illustrate the state's encroachment on individual freedom, reducing citizens to subjects of surveillance.
Characters to notice
- Unknown Narrator
The narrator undergoes a profound crisis of faith, questioning the Revolution she once championed as she witnesses the gap between ideals and reality.
- Lenin
Lenin is implicated in the same deceptive methods, having assured the narrator that no anarchists of ideas were in prison while many were incarcerated.
- Zinoviev
Zinoviev is among the Communists the narrator had known who are now implicated in treachery and horrors.
- Karl Radek
Radek is cited for dishonest propaganda, claiming 50,000 Communists were in American prisons, misrepresenting the case of Molly Stimer.
- Lisa Zorin
Zorin is exposed for lying about capital punishment and the treatment of anarchists; the narrator confronts her deceptions.
- Ravitch
Ravitch is mentioned among the Communists the narrator had learned to know, now associated with the regime's betrayals.
- Lunacharsky
Lunacharsky is seen as a helpless cog in the Communist machine, his best efforts constantly curtailed.
- Doctor Pervukhin
Doctor Pervukhin, the political Commissar of the Board of Health, wastes the time of non-Communist doctors and nurses, embodying the system's discrimination.
Key passages
“I had come to realize that the Communists believed implicitly in the Jesuitic formula that the end justifies all means.”
The narrator understands that Communists fully embrace the principle that any action is acceptable if it serves their ultimate goal.
This realization is central to her disillusionment.
“The aureole was falling from the Communists.”
The narrator's idealized view of the Communists was crumbling as she saw their true nature.
A metaphorical expression of lost faith.
“Was this the Revolution I had believed in all my life, yearned for, and strove to interest others in, or was it a caricature—a hideous monster that had come to jeer and mock me?”
The narrator questions whether the current regime represents the Revolution she devoted her life to, or is a grotesque distortion of it.
Highlights her existential crisis.
