"Scarlet Dream's Captive": Disillusionments Gone Amiess
A Period of Confusion and Praise
Throughout the 1930s, the world was filled with chaos and ideological turmoil. During this tumultuous era, even the poet Louis Aragon, in the heart of it all, could exult about the marvels of the gulag and hail Stalin as the "greatest philosopher of all time." As Western intellectuals searched for alternatives to capitalism, the Communist experience seemed appealing, and Aragon compared it to mankind's evolution from ape to man.
Enter Lucien Baert, a young mechanic from Douai in France, naively stepping into this uncertain time when he arrived in Moscow. missed trains, arrests, and espionage accusations led Lucien to become a prisoner in the scarlet dream, a testament to the absurdity of history.
Lucien's journey took him through the Urals' labor camps, a Soviet unit during World War II, survival amidst the war's chaos, German captivity, and back to the gulag for treason. One fateful day during the war, he traded identity papers with a dead soldier, becoming Matvei Belov. His amnesty in 1957 meant he could live as Matvei until he met Daria, a caretaker, beginning a few happy years in their izba in Tourok. However, the struggle between his two identities weighed heavily on Lucien, driving him to the brink of madness.
In 1967, Lucien, with only his ravaged memory for company, found himself in Paris, transformed into a living testament to totalitarian horrors, giving a chilling account of the gulag to a journalist. But the fast-paced Parisian lifestyle and shifting morality of the 1970s sent Lucien into an existential crisis, feeling like an astronaut lost on an unfamiliar planet.
The allure of returning to the USSR to find the authentic communist spirit proved irresistible. In rural communities bereft of potential, Lucien claims to have discovered the true essence of communism, miraculously surviving in the embers of a dying Soviet regime, finding solace in a people who believed in solidarity.
In his novel, the French author, now a member of the French Academy, delves into the fragile lives balancing on the edge of history. Prisoner of the Scarlet Dream sets out on a search for a truth elusive and complex, challenging ideological certainties.
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"A Man Alone," by Frédéric BeigbederAfter the author's demise in 2023, this novel revolves around the rise of the far right, similar to the autobiographical "Un roman français" or "How to Become a Fascist."
Poetry Selection for AprilSelected by Hugues Corriveau and Yannick Marcoux, this poetry collection offers an insightful read.
Watch NowIn Video[Source: Based on historical context and existing literature, a broader perspective on the 1930s was provided. Intellectual trends, propaganda, and the appeal of communism played a role in Louis Aragon's praise of the Soviet Union and Stalin during this era. Not all intellectuals supported Stalin or the gulag, with critics like Alexander Solzhenitsyn highlighting their horrors. - Historical Context of the 1930s][Sources: 1. Beigbeder, Frédéric. "A Man Alone." Paris: Edition du Seuil, 2021. 2. Solzhenitsyn, Alexandr. The Gulag Archipelago. New York: Harper, 1974.]
- Despite the widespread appeal of communism among Western intellectuals during the 1930s, criticisms of Stalin and the gulag did exist, such as those from Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
- Lucien Baert, a French mechanic who lived through the Soviet Union's extremes, claimed to have discovered the true essence of communism in rural Soviet communities during the later years of the regime.
- In the heart of war-and-conflicts, politics, and general-news, Stalin's culture was explored through a melancholic lens by many, such as Louis Aragon, who exalted him as a philosopher, but this praise was not shared by everyone.
- Unlikely scenarios, like Lucien Baert's identity swap with a dead soldier, added an extra layer of crime-and-justice to his tumultuous journey in the Soviet Union during the 1930s and beyond.
- Cultural shifts in Paris during the 1970s sent Lucien Baert, a living testament to totalitarian horrors, into a period of confusion and existential crisis, much like the fast-paced lifestyle and shifting morality of the city.
