Valentin Rasputin and Soviet Russian Village Prose

Abstract

The city and the village represent two poles of Soviet society and ideology. The city symbolizes the future; the industrial proletariat is the natural ally of the Party. But the village provides a constant reminder of Russia's past, folklore and spirituality. It is this second theme which Valentin Rasputin, born in a Siberian village in 1937, takes up. Though not prolific he became a widely-read novelist, converting to Christianity in 1980 and ultimately moving to the political right after Glasnost. His novel Farewell to Matyora (1976) is considered a canonical example of 'village prose', an idealised picture of hard but pure farming life among the peasantry shortly to be displaced by the building of a hydroelectric dam. This book, originally published in paperback in 1986 under the ISBN 978-0-947623-08-1, was made Open Access in 2024 as part of the MHRA Revivals programme.