Satires in We and Master and Margarita

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Recommended: The fall of communism in Russia

During Russia’s transition to communism in the early 20th century, conflict and unease permeated every part of life. Nothing was stable and very little of what the Bolsheviks had fought for had come to fruition by the time the USSR disbanded in 1991. The “classless society”, which was to work together for the prosperity of everyone, never became a reality. In the end, the majority of Russia’s 20th century was an utter failure on a grand scale. However, there were many amazing products of the system do to the great importance of education in Russian culture. Priceless novels were written, timeless movies were made, and great scientific endeavors were realized despite the rigid control placed upon Russian persons by the government. In fact, some of the most memorable written works of the time were written protests to the creativity-stifling situation many writers found themselves in. Because of the danger to their lives should the wrong people be upset by their writings, Yevgeny Zamyatin and Mikhail Bulgakov wrote their most popular, Soviet-life condemning novels under the guise of satire. Even though they’re satirizing the same subject, in both We and The Master and Margarita respectively, they take very different paths to do so. Satire is a literary method of saying one thing by saying something completely different yet comparable to the intended target of the satire. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, he indirectly criticized America’s Red Scare by writing about the historic Salem witch trials. Zamyatin, through his authorship of We, criticized the future of Russia he foresaw due the changes already being made by Lenin and the rest of the early Bolshevik leaders. His prediction for the future was quite accurate; ju... ... middle of paper ... ...ng live the Great Operation! Long live OneState! Long live the Benefactor! OneState’s authority begins to diminish once the Mephi object at the election, and continues to do so after the subsequent riot, the blasting open of the green wall, and then the announcement of the Great Operations unhinged the whole society. Numbers are running away from the Operation and the Guardians are forcing them to have it. D is forced to have it and afterwards he has no issue informing the Benefactor all he knows of the resistance movement. He then sits calmly during I-330’s interrogation, torture, and execution. OneState and the USSR expected a level of perfection of their citizens they could not have received if not for stripping away the ‘humanness’. OneState chose the surgical route and the USSR later took the path of brute force “because reason has to win”. (Zamyatin 225)

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