The Bolshevik Myth · Chapter
III explained
The narrator visits Sebezh, a provincial town, and encounters local peasants and a Jewish family.
What happens
The narrator visits Sebezh, a provincial town, and encounters local peasants and a Jewish family. Through conversations, they express deep disillusionment with the Bolshevik regime, complaining of confiscations, forced conscription, and the brutality of local Communists and Chekists. The peasants distinguish between Lenin and the 'Communists,' whom they see as oppressors. The chapter highlights the economic hardship, fear, and clandestine trade that define daily life under War Communism.
Themes in this chapter
Economic Collapse and Survival
Peasants describe the razsvyorstka, loss of horses and cattle, and the need to bury food to avoid confiscation; the narrator engages in black market trade for provisions.
Betrayal of Revolutionary Ideals
Peasants contrast the promise of land and freedom with the reality of Communist oppression, saying 'we were treated like cattle before... now we are treated like cattle, the same as before.'
Terror and Violence
The young peasant recounts being shot at while fleeing, and the general fear of denunciation and arrest by Chekists and Commissars.
Characters to notice
- Unknown Narrator
The narrator travels to Sebezh, observes the market, and engages with locals, including a young peasant and a Jewish family.
- Moishe
A middle-aged Jew with red hair and beard who acts as a middleman in the black market, supplying provisions to the narrator.
- Tovarish Karus
A member of the train crew seen at the Sebezh market looking for provisions; the narrator notes his revolver is not visible.
- Yossif
Not directly named in excerpts, but the young peasant who first approaches the narrator and later complains of the razsvyorstka and conscription.
Key passages
““We were treated like cattle before,” said a flaxen-haired peasant with blue eyes, “and it was in the name of the Little Father. Now they speak to us in the name of the Party and the proletariat, but we are treated like cattle, the same as before.””
A peasant complains that under the Tsar they were dehumanized, and under the Bolsheviks they are treated no better, despite the new rhetoric.
Illustrates the theme of betrayal of revolutionary ideals and the persistence of oppression.
““God is high above and Ilytch far away,” the blue-eyed peasant said, paraphrasing a popular old saying.”
A peasant uses a folk saying to express that Lenin is distant and powerless to help them against local abuses.
Shows peasant disillusionment with central Bolshevik authority.
““No, golubtchik,” he replied, “the land we took ourselves. Isn’t it so, little brothers?””
A peasant asserts that the land was seized by the peasants themselves, not given by the Bolsheviks.
Highlights peasant agency and skepticism of Bolshevik claims.