Essay About Russian Revolution And Historical Point Of View Of The Novel

Darkness at Noon
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Darkness at Noon novel tries to reflect the Terror era that The USSR was going
through after the Russian revolution of 1917. For a better understanding of Darkness at
Noon there is a need to analyze not only The Great Purges era, but the French
revolution era as well (The French revolution is just one of the so many examples of
revolutions that could be use), eras where the same type of events happened during
and after each nations revolution. Centering only in the 1930s events, instead of going
all the way back on time, will force a failure to the understanding of why such actions
were taken. Will analyzing the French revolution and the events that followed 1917
Russian revolution helps to achieve the understanding of the 1930s events explaining
the historical point of view of the novel? A better understanding, explanation and the
naming of protagonists of the different eras and events will help lectors to understand
on a better way the historical point of view of Darkness at Noon. And realize, like that,
that the similitude between fiction and reality are extremely close, to the point they could
actually merge.
It is “an accepted fact” between the advocates of totalitarian paradigm that Stalin
assigned Yezhov to take a role within the Great Terror mainly to purge the “Old
Bolsheviks”, i.e., to eliminate the comrades who were with Stalin during the Bolshevik
Revolution of 1917.
To paraphrase the above quote from Tim Naftali talking about the “expert panel” on
CNN, Stalin got rid of the Old Bolsheviks with which “he could not work anymore.” This
view is repeated continuously, in The Great Purges . This book presents a complex
historical comparison from Trotsky, among other historical attempted Purges and
victorious faction to repress rivals and political opponents.
According to Deutscher, “at the root of the struggle is the insecurity of a revolutionary
party – the counter-fear of contradiction, controversy and opposition. Having crushed all
the other parties, the new rulers are not yet eliminated contradiction and opposition.”
Fanaticism as unbalanced or insane is attributed by Deutscher to other victorious
revolutionaries of the past like Robespierre, Cromwell and Luther, as well as to Stalin.
The original idea as formulated by Trotsky is that the Russian Revolution as early
as 1923 entered a conservative phase of “Thermidor”. This is a comparison with the
stages of the French Revolution which were deeply studied and discussed by Lenin,
Trotsky, Stalin and other Old Bolsheviks; as well as by many intellectuals of the Soviet
bureaucratic elite. Termidor was the month of July in the new calendar instituted
during the French Revolution, replacing the Gregorian calendar of the Catholic Church.
On 8 Thermidor, Year II (July 26, 1794 AD), the radical Jacobin Club, which had risen
during the revolution to become the ruling powers; led by Robespierre, Danton, Carnot
and other members of the Public Health Committee were overthrown. Ending like this
the radical or “revolutionary” agitation.
This Committee had led the revolution through its most terrible, the “Reign of Terror”
or reign of the guillotine, “which was the fact that the French government took.” During
this time, the Parisians were accustomed to the sound of cars moving heavily through
the streets daily, leading to the guillotine lots of “enemies of the Committee.” The
comparison made by Trotsky and Deutscher notes that, in principle, only the aristocrats
were beheaded, like Marie Antoinette, Queen of France.
But then the Jacobins extended their detention to the provinces, arresting and
executing members of the more moderate revolutionary factions like the Girondins. The
Reign of Terror did not stop there. It went even further, with the Jacobins stopping
after each other, beginning with a power struggle that Trotsky and Deutscher
compared to the “faction” of Stalin, who used the Great purges to completely eliminate
any faction that might form – or have already been formed – about Trotsky, Kirov,
Kamenev, Zinoviev, Piatikov and other Old Bolsheviks who had already been swept. In
phase (allegedly) comparable to the French Revolution.
Robespierre had his way to condemn Danton, believing that France and the
revolution would not be safe until all enemies within the country were removed. The
comparison