Serge, Koestler, and Bukharin

J. Hoberman’s article in the 22 October 2009 issue of New York Review of Books, Orphan of History, is a reminder of the importance of forgotten Bolshevik party member, author, exile, anarchist, prisoner, historian, critic of Stalinism, sometime Trotskyite, and Fourth International supporter, Victor Serge. Although his fame hasn’t survived in America, Serge—who also wrote under the French nom de plume the Unbroken One-- produced a series of novels, including Men in Prison, Birth of Our Power, Conquered City, The Case of Comrade Tulayev (loosely based on the real-life murder of Kirov), Midnight in the Century, the Long Dusk, and the Unforgiving Years, an autobiography, Memoirs of a Revolutionary, and history such as Year One of the Russian Revolution and Russia after Twenty Years.

Hoberman’s review doesn’t really help readers to understand the literary or artistic merits of any of the specific works or of the oeuvre in general. However, Hoberman makes it clear that Serge’s personal life was fascinating and inextricably linked with the drama and tragedy of the Bolshevik revolution and its legacy. Serge is very well placed to be one of its best chroniclers, as one of the few early participants (he aided the Bolsheviks as early as 1919-and maintained contact with all shades of socialism even when it was dangerous to do so) who managed to escape Russia and critique the Soviet Union from exile.

And while Serge was overshadowed in life and death by Trotsky as a critic of Stalin, Trotsky made no attempt whatsoever to wrestle artistically with Stalinism. So Serge deserves to be read even today. It’s interesting that Hoberman mentions that Koestler’s Darkness at Noon received a much friendlier reception that Serge’s books in post-war America. Certainly Koestler’s book is darkly insightful, unsentimental, morally compelling, and perfect in its simplicity. Yet while admitting up front that I have not yet read Serge’s books, I suspect that an insider such as Serge (who also lived in the West and died in Mexico shortly after Trotsky died there) has more to teach us about the complexity of the communist experiment than any Westerner. If Serge has a rival, perhaps it is Bukharin, who somehow managed to complete his own novel even as he awaited execution by Stalin.