Books in the news In The First Circle
[00:05 - 00:10]
Alex Boyd on books in the news. A quick look at a newly published material
[00:10 - 00:15]
and books of current interest. Your host is Alex Boyd and the cereal
[00:15 - 00:19]
department at the University of Illinois Library.
[00:19 - 00:23]
In Dantes Inferno. The first circle of hell is inhabited by the souls of pre-Christian
[00:23 - 00:28]
philosophers who because they lived before the birth and death of Christ. Could not
[00:28 - 00:33]
receive the blessings of salvation but because they had committed no sin they did
[00:33 - 00:37]
not deserve the condemnation of hell. In the first circle.
[00:37 - 00:42]
Alexándra soul shots these in. Published by Harper in Rome. The
[00:42 - 00:47]
first circle stands as a metaphor for a peculiar type of prison which flourished in
[00:47 - 00:51]
Russia during the reign of Joseph Stalin. These prisons were really scientific
[00:51 - 00:56]
research stations equipped with materials shipped from German factories in laboratories
[00:56 - 01:01]
during the war. The prisoners were stabbed by political prisoners although in actuality
[01:01 - 01:06]
these men were some of the most gifted physicists mathematicians electrical engineers and other
[01:06 - 01:10]
technicians in Russia. Where little to do with politics.
[01:10 - 01:15]
Basically the premise by which these institutions existed was simple. In one stroke
[01:15 - 01:21]
Stalin got rid of a large number of intellectuals always potential if not real enemies.
[01:21 - 01:26]
And because the prisons in which these men were kept were infinitely better than the labor cab camps of
[01:26 - 01:31]
Siberia. The basic instincts of these men to think and utilize
[01:31 - 01:35]
the talents were not stifled. The route to these prisons were ridiculously
[01:35 - 01:40]
easy and totally without pattern. The criminal codes in Russia were whimsical and
[01:40 - 01:45]
all embracing depending not so much on who you were or who you knew. That's how much luck
[01:45 - 01:50]
you possessed. Many of the prisoners in these institutions had served in
[01:50 - 01:55]
World War Two and had missed watching to return home in a period of incredible
[01:55 - 01:59]
mistrust and duplicity. Thousands actually went from the German front
[01:59 - 02:06]
to the Roscoe's or to Siberia with only a stop at the Russian border.
[02:06 - 02:11]
The most able of course to put into this Roscoe's which roughly translated means an operation
[02:11 - 02:15]
based on bluff and deceit. All the living conditions were
[02:15 - 02:20]
essentially good. The prisoners were continually kept on the edge of tension and uncertainty.
[02:20 - 02:25]
They were at the mercy of a corrupt so distant system. What these men of the Seraph's
[02:25 - 02:30]
because exhibit more than anything however is the enduring nature of the human spirit.
[02:30 - 02:35]
In spite of the pressures of prison and prison life. It isn't fact true that in the
[02:35 - 02:40]
years immediately after the war many of the great achievements in Russia came out of these
[02:40 - 02:45]
very institutions. If for no other reason than that many of the most accomplished citizens inhabited
[02:45 - 02:50]
them. More than just us a description of a vicious system however. This
[02:50 - 02:55]
book is a major social logical document distilling many of the speeches of life under
[02:55 - 03:00]
Stalin. It is also somewhat autobiographical since the
[03:00 - 03:04]
author himself was a mathematician and had Sir courageously in the war when in
[03:04 - 03:09]
1045 he was arrested on false charges and spent the next eight years in various prisons and
[03:09 - 03:14]
camps. This book is not first of all of those
[03:14 - 03:19]
works to reste the West. Has one day in the life of
[03:19 - 03:23]
Yvonne. Dean easy a bitch published an English translation in
[03:23 - 03:28]
1950 received immediate acclaim. That novel also
[03:28 - 03:32]
consonant concerned the constant struggle between the syphon aspects of long prison
[03:32 - 03:37]
terms and the prisoner who by ingenuity encouraged but with little real
[03:37 - 03:42]
hope managed just stay alive day by day. In my
[03:42 - 03:47]
brain Oh. The sheer Osco of the first circle the prisoners are made to feel that they have an
[03:47 - 03:53]
important and interesting job to do. What they are really working on.
[03:53 - 03:57]
Our new ways to help and circle other members of society.
[03:57 - 04:01]
This matters little to them when they realize they are doomed. They like the spirits in the first
[04:01 - 04:06]
circle of Dante stand on the edge of the business falling always quite easy.
[04:06 - 04:11]
Often unexpected and sometimes inevitable. But very few ever get
[04:11 - 04:17]
out of the rosters alist by death or to be shipped off to the hell of Siberia.
[04:17 - 04:22]
In spite of this knowledge. But there is little real fear to happy a man must be in danger of
[04:22 - 04:27]
losing something a someone he loves. A possibly his own life. These men no longer
[04:27 - 04:32]
have anything else to lose. The state has seen to that. They're there for supper and die
[04:32 - 04:37]
because they happen to be born at a time in a place when freedom and individual Wait holds
[04:37 - 04:38]
little meaning.
[04:38 - 04:45]
The first circle has been compared to six great novels as War and Peace and crime and punishment.
[04:45 - 04:50]
And Saul Saat sneezy and two such great novelists as Tolstoy and dust of
[04:50 - 04:55]
yesterday. It may be too soon to make such a firm judgment
[04:55 - 04:59]
but what is certain is that this is a superb novel.
[04:59 - 05:04]
And this has been books and those prepared and presented by Alex Boyd and sponsored
[05:04 - 05:09]
by the Illinois State Library. This program was distributed by the national
[05:09 - 05:10]
educational radio network.
🔍
This program has been transcribed using automated software tools, made possible through a collaboration between the American Archive of Public Broadcasting and Pop Up Archive. Please note that no automated transcription is perfect nor is it intended to replace human transcription labor. If you would like to contribute corrections to this transcript, please contact MITH at mith@umd.edu.