1. V. Kataev, “Trava zabveniia” in V. Kataev, Sobranie sochinenii. 9 vols. (Moscow, 1968-72), 9 : 331. .

2. G., Kuznetsova, Grasskii dnevnik (Washington, 1967), pp. 195–96, 214Google Scholar; G., Adamovich, Odinocheslvo i svoboda (New York, 1955), pp. 96, 120Google Scholar; and V. Zenzinov, “Ivan Bunin, ” Novyi zhurnai, 3 (1942) : 301.

3. Stepun, F, “Ivan Bunin,” Vstrechi (New York, 1968), p. 1968 Google Scholar and Landinskii, A, “Poslednie gody I. A. Bunina,” Literalurnaia gazeta, October 25, 1955, p. 3.Google Scholar

4. Kataev, “Trava zabveniia, ” p. 331.

5. A. Bakhrakh, “Po pamiati, po zapiskam (II) … , ” Mosty, 1966, no. 12, p. 273.

6. “Loopy Ears” was published in the anthology Slovo (1917, no. 7). The emigre critic, Mark Aldanov, considered it one of the best works of Bunin's short fiction (see Mark Aldanov, “Ob iskusstve Bunina, ” Poslednie novosti, November 10, 1933, p. 2).

7. Typical assertions of this view may be found in Gleb Struve, Russkaia literatura v izgnanii (New York, 1956), p. 84 and Adamovich, Odinochestvo. Adamovich writes : “Bunin in our literature is the last indisputable, indubitable representative of that epoch which, not unjustly, we call ‘classical, ’ no matter how strained or unsteady is the sense of this word. Classical, that is, preserving that kind of balance which still has not slipped into confusion, indifference, or recklessness, which still has not flirted with frank and overt madness, and which has not looked upon such madness with a lecherous, confused and ingratiating smile” (Odinoehestvo, p. 83).

8. Renato Poggioli, “The Art of Ivan Bunin, ” Harvard Slavic Studies, 1 (1953) : 253.

9. In denying the influence of Russian modernism on Bunin's fiction, many Soviet and emigre scholars emphasize the writer's aloofness from aesthetic radicals and cite highly selective passages in which Bunin condemned both Decadence and Symbolism as artificial and elitist. See, for instance, Bonami, T. M., Khudozheslvennaia proza I. A. Bunina (1887-1904) (Vladimir, 1962), pp. 21, 26–27 Google Scholar and Stepun, “Ivan Bunin, ” p. 107. For Bunin's negative remarks on modernism, see I., Bunin, Sobranie sochinenii, 9 vols. (Moscow, 1965-67)Google Scholar (hereafter cited as SS), 9 : 263-64; and I., Bunin, Vospominaniia (Paris, 1950), pp. 212–23 Google Scholar. Also, see an interview of Bunin published in Russkie vedomosti, October 6, 1913.

10. See, for example, Tarasenkov, A. K., “O zhizni i tvorchestve I. A. Bunina,” Stat'i o literature (Moscow, 1958), p. 427 Google Scholar; Colin, Andrew Guershoon, “Ivan Bunin in Retrospect,” Slavonic and East European Review, 34, no. 82 (December 1955) : 156 Google Scholar; and Thomas, Winner, “Some Remarks About the Style of Bunin's Early Prose,” American Contributions to the Sixth International Congress ofSlavists, 2 vols. (The Hague, 1968), 2 : 269 Google Scholar. Interestingly, Gor'kii, once a close friend of Bunin, wrote to the writer : “You are the last writer of noble origin, of the culture which gave the world Pushkin and Tolstoi” (quoted in 1. Bunin, Memories and Portraits, trans. Vera Traill and Robin Chancellor [Garden City, 1951], p. 71).

11. V. N. Afanas'ev, for instance, in his article, “I. A. Bunin i russkoe dekadenstvo 90-kh godov” (Russkaia literatura, 1968, no. 3, pp. 175-81) has noted Bunin's brief, but intense collaboration with the Russian Symbolists as well as his hostility toward such “realistic” conventions as the formally structured narrative. James Woodward, in his article “Eros and Nirvana in the Art of Ivan Bunin” (Modern Language Review, 1970, no. 3, pp. 576-86), has demonstrated that a mystical world view underlies many of Bunin's personal and literary writings. For Bunin's own comments concerning both his restlessness with conventional literary forms and his penchant for aesthetic innovation, see Bunin, SS, 5 : 180.

12. Contrast, specifically, Bunin's novel The Village (Derevnia), published in 1910, with such works as “The Brethren” ( “Brat'ia” ) and “A Spring Evening” (” Vesenii vecher “), written in 1914, ” The Grammar of Love” (” Grammatika liubvi “), written in 1915, and ” Light Breathing” ( “Legkoe dykhanie” ) and “The Gentleman from San Francisco” ( “Gospodin iz San-Frantsisko” ), published in 1916. See L. Krutikova, “V mire khudozhestvennykh iskanii Bunina (kak sozdavalis’ rasskazy 1911-1916 gg.), ” Ivan Bunin, Literaturnoe nasledstvo, vol. 84 (Moscow, 1973), book 2, pp. 111-12 and S. Kastorskii, “M. Gor'kii i I. Bunin, ” in S. Balukhatyi et al., eds., M. Gor'kii. Materialy i issledovaniia, 2 vols. (Moscow, 1934-36), 2 : 383-405.

13. “Loopy Ears” was Bunin's first work with a genuinely urban setting. See S. Kryzytski, The Works of Ivan Bunin (The Hague, 1971), p. 148.

14. Struve, Russkaia literatura, p. 426.

15. See, for instance, Andrei Belyi in his work Saint Petersburg, written in 1913, and Kotik Letaev, published in 1918.

16. For a study of Bunin's attitude toward the past, see D. Richards, “Memory and Time Past : A Theme in the Works of Ivan Bunin, ” Forum for Modern Language Studies, 7, no. 2 (April 1971) : 158-69.

17. From Bunin's poem, “On the Eve of the Feast of Saint John the Baptist” ( “Kanun Kupaly” ), written in 1903 (Bunin, SS, 1 : 187).

18. V. L'vov-Rogachevskii, Noveishaia russkaia literatura (Moscow, 1927), p. 77.

19. Bunin's distortion of his heroes is a favorite device of both his pre-Revolutionary and emigre fiction. Compare, for instance, his description of Gervas'ka in Dry Valley (Sukhodol), Veretenkin or “Spindly-Shanked” in “A Night Conversation” ( “Nochnoi razgovor” ), and Cornet Elagin in The Elagin Affair (Delo korneta Elagina). Interestingly, Gor'kii perceived Bunin's penchant for distorted characters early in the writer's career, noting that Bunin seemingly “preferred a fog to character” (see Gor'kii's letter to K. Piatnitskii, October 13-17, 1901, in Gor'kii, M., Sobranie sochinenii, 30 vols. [Moscow, 1949-55], 28 : 187 Google Scholar. Such distortion, of course, is recognized as an important device of European modernism (see, for instance, Gasset, J. Ortega y, The Dehumanizalion of Art [Garden City, 1956],Google Scholar

20. F. Dostoevskii, Sobranie sochinenii, 10 vols. (Moscow, 1956-58), 5 : 6.

21. Bunin, 55, 4 : 386.

22. Ibid., 4 : 388, 389.

23. Scythian motifs are not uncommon in Bunin's fiction. See, for instance, his reference to the ic»n of Saint Mercurius of Smolensk in Dry Valley (ibid., 3 : 139-40, 184), the “Mongolian” features of the prince in “The Gentleman from San Francisco” (ibid., 4 : 318), Sosnovskaia's Japanese slippers, Oriental robes, and “Japanese” room in The Elagin Affair (ibid., 5 : 280, 283, 291). It is worth noting that while Raskol'nikov's sensitivity to others caused him to rescue Marmeladov, for instance, and, in turn, to be rescued by his family, his friends, and even almsgivers, Sokolovich remains isolated and unredeemed.

24. Ibid., 4 : 389.

25. From the prefix vy- or “out of, apart from” and the root word rod or “family, kin, or clan.” James Woodward, in his provocative study, Ivan Bunin, A Study of his Fiction, notes Bunin's frequent use of the word vyrodok as well as the noun vyrozhdenie or “degeneration” and the verb vyrozhdat'siaj vyrodil'sia or “to degenerate” in his fiction (Woodward, Ivan Bunin, A Study of his Fiction [Chapel Hill, N.C., 1980], p. 108).

26. A key thesis of Woodward's above-mentioned study is that Bunin's heroes sow the seeds for their destruction by discounting or ignoring the life forces which surround them. In his view, Sokolovich, as a “former sailor, ” has set upon an erroneous path by abandoning the sea, “Bunin's perennial symbol of the life-force” (ibid., p. 122). By way of interest, Kataev recalls Bunin's intense fear of soldiers and sailors (see Kataev, “Trava zabveniia, ” p. 85).

27. His own feelings are expressed, for instance, in his putevyepoemy or “travel poems” written during 1903-7 and concerning the Near and Far East, for example, “On the Shores of Asia Minor” (” U beregov Maloi Azii “) (Bunin, SS, 1 : 248), ” Hagia Sophia” ( “Aiia-Sofiia” ) (ibid., p. 254), “Jerusalem” ( “lerusalem” ) (ibid., pp. 275-76), and “The Temple of the Sun” ( “Khram solntsa” ) (ibid., pp. 276-77). Also see N. Kucherovskii, “Esteticheskaia sushchnost’ filosofskikh iskanii I. A. Bunina (1906-11 gg.), “ Ministerstvo vysshego i srednego spetsial'nogo obrazovaniia SSSR, Nauchnye doklady vysshei shkoly, Filologicheskie nauki, 12, no. 6 (54) (1969) : 25-37.

28. L. Nikulin writes that Bunin was one of the few Russian writers of the age who did not subscribe to militaristic tones in his writings. Nor did he see the war as providing the potential for the spiritual rebirth of mankind (see L. Nikulin, “Ivan Bunin, ” in Ivan Bunin, Sobranie sochinenii, 5 vols. [Moscow, 1956] [hereafter cited as Sobranie 1956], 1 : 7. For Bunin's comments concerning the war, see “U 1. A. Bunina, ” Odesskie novosti, April 26, 1916, quoted in V. Afanas'ev, /. A. Bunin. Ocherk ivorchestva (Moscow, 1966), p. 254.

29. Bunin's novella-povesr', The Elagin Affair, written in 1925, bears the greatest impact of his interest in avant-garde theater.

30. Concerning Bunin's aesthetic vision, F. Stepun wrote that Bunin “had not only the eye of an eagle for day, but those of an owl for night” (see Stepun, “Ivan Bunin, ” p. 92).

31. The Apocalypse is a key motif in Bunin's poetry and prose. See, for instance, such poems as “From the Apocalypse” ( “/z Apokalipsa” ) (Bunin, SS, 1 : 157-58; “Dies Irae” ( “Den’ gneva” ) (ibid., pp. 232-33), and scenes from The Village (ibid., 3 : 22) and Dry Valley (ibid., pp. 138, 140, and 181).

32. Ibid., 4 : 387.

33. Ibid.

34. According to I. Tkhorzhevskii, Bunin reacted to wind as foreboding change and destruction (see 1. Tkhorzhevskii, “Ivan Bunin, ” Russkaia literatura, 2 vols. [Paris, 1946], 2 : 539). Also see Bunin's letters to M. Gor'kii, June 15, 1910, June 6, 1912, and April 14, 1913 in Balukhatyi et al., M. Gor'kii, pp. 413, 431, and 438.

35. Critics have been divided as to whether Sokolovich is, in fact, a mouthpiece for Bunin's views on life. For instance, A. Gorelov, J. Woodward, N. Kucherovskii, and V. N. Afanas'ev have demonstrated that Bunin had diagnosed what he considered to be the spiritual cancer of his world long before either the appearance of “Loopy Ears” or the outbreak of World War I (see A. Gorelov, “Ivan Bunin, ” Tri sud'by [Leningrad, 1976], p. 331; N. Kucherovskii, “I. A. Bunin. Rasskazy o chelovecheskoi ‘chase zhizni, '” Russkaia literatura XX veka [dooktiabr'skii period] \T\x\a., 1974], pp. 76-77; Afanas'ev, /. A. Bunin, p. 247; and Woodward, Ivan Bunin, p. 107). Scholars who seek to dissociate Sokolovich from Bunin most often cite Bunin's retort to the critic, A. Derman, who charged that the writer had intervened too blatantly in his hero's soliloquy. Their evidence, a letter dated February 11, 1917, is inconclusive, however, in that Bunin cleverly sidestepped Derman's complaint and, instead, linked Sokolovich's statements to his character. In other words, Bunin did not wish to dissociate himself from Sokolovich's thoughts so much as from his hero's subsequent actions as a murderer and nihilist. For the text of Bunin's letter to Derman, see I. Gazer, ed., “Pis'ma L. Andreeva i 1. Bunina, ” Voprosy lileratury, 13, no. 7 (July 1969) : 193.

36. E. Koltonovskaia, “Garmoniia kontrastov. Noveishaia proizvedeniia I. A. Bunina, ” Russkaia mysl', 1917, no. 3, p. 99.

37. From Bunin's story “A Night Conversation, ” published in 1911. In this work, Bunin parodies Turgenev's “Bezhin Meadow” by having peasants grouped around a campfire at night divulge their crimes. See Bunin, SS, 3 : 255-57.

38. Ibid., 4 : 390.

39. Ibid.

40. Cf. such “travel poems” as “Istanbul” ( “S/amitt/” )(ibid., 1 : 216), “The Flood” ( “/'o/op” )(ibid., pp. 218-19), and “El'brus” (ibid., p. 219).

41. Ibid., 4 : 391. Bunin similarly rejects divine assistance in The Village (ibid., 3 : 38)and Dry Valley (ibid., p. 179).

42. Ibid., 4 : 388. Interestingly, in a poem entitled “The Son of Man” ( “Syn chelovecheskii” ), written in 1903-6, Bunin poeticized the Apocalyptic relevations of Saint John (ibid., 1 : 250).

43. Ibid., 4 : 389.

44. Kucherovskii writes that “the portrayal of the atavistic degeneration of man is one of the crucial facets of Bunin's aesthetic conception of life” (Kucherovskii, “Esteticheskaia sushchnost', ” p. 76). Concerning Bunin's view on atavism, see D. Richards, “Bunin's Conception of the Meaning of Life, ” Slavonic and East European Review, 50, no. 119 (April 1972) : 153-72.

45. Bunin, SS, 4 : 397.

46. Ibid., p. 389.

47. Critics have received Sokolovich's views differently. For instance, Koltonovskaia has asserted that, in Sokolovich, Bunin expresses the quintessence of contemporary life (Koltonovskaia, “Garmoniia kontrastov, ” p. 96). Iu. Aikhenval'd, however, has challenged the credibility of both Sokolovich and his ideas (see Aikhenval'd, Iu., “Ivan Bunin,” Siluety russkikh pisatelei, 3 vols. [Berlin, 1906-23] : 196 Google Scholar). Bunin, in fact, based “Loopy Ears” on an incident in real life : the murder of a prostitute, Mar'ia Butoshnikova, by a former sailor, Nikolai Radkevich. According to newspaper accounts, Radkevich insisted that he was sane and that, as a “product of his time, ” he was a criminal by instinct (see Betskii, K, “Delo Vadima Krovianika,” Rech, March 11 and 13, 1912 Google Scholar).

48. Bunin, SS, 4 : 389-90.

49. See, for instance, A. Volkov, Proza Ivana Bunina (Moscow, 1969), pp. 247-50.

50. Bunin, SS, 4 : 393.

51. Ibid., p. 394. Bunin also perverts the motif of sokol by casting Sokolovich and Korol'kova as grotesque flying objects.

52. Ibid., pp. 395, 396.

53. Ibid., p. 395.

54. Ibid.

55. Ibid., p. 396.

56. Ibid., p. 397.

57. The phrase is from a variant of the work (see Gorelov, “Ivan Bunin, ” p. 332). Unpublished drafts of “Loopy Ears” reveal that Bunin intended his short story to be part of a larger work, “a subject for a small novel.” For instance, Korol'kova was initially seen as a contemporary Eve who, like the first mother, gives birth to sinful mankind. Moreover, Sokolovich is captured and convicted, though he asserts only “pleasant weariness” ( “priatnaia ustalost” ) concerning his wrongdoing. In those variants, Bunin adhered closely to the newspaper accounts of a real murder and in particular to the gory details of the crime. One sketch of “Loopy Ears” recalls Dostoevskii's Netochka Nezvanova. Here, Sokolovich's plight is seen as arising from a perverse family, religious hallucinations, sexual passion, and epilepsy. Bunin, however, discarded such details in the final draft apparently believing that they would becloud Sokolovich's argument and amorality. For the history and text of these variants, see Bunin, Sobranie 1956, 3 : 381-83; Bunin, SS, 4 : 492-94; and Krutikova, “V mire khudozhestvennykhiskanii, ” pp. 111-12.

58. Bunin, SS, 4 : 392, 393.

59. Concerning St. Petersburg, Bunin remarked : “Despite the fact that the city is splendid, it is impossible to live there; it is no wonder that there Dostoevskii conceived of such nightmares” (see A. Baboreko, “Bunin na Kapri [Po neopublikovannym materialam], ” in N. Antonov, ed., Vbol'shoi sem'e [Smolensk, 1960], p. 240).

60. Bunin, SS, 4 : 393.

61. Bunin's love of Suzdalian icons was a common motif of his early poetry. See, for instance, “The Wasteland” ('Pustosh' “) (ibid., 1 : 284) and “The Inheritance” ( “Nasledstvo” ) (ibid., p. 287).

62. Ibid., 4 : 393.

63. Ibid., pp. 392-93. M. Aldanov states that Bunin's description of Nevskii Prospekt in “Loopy Ears” is one of the best in Russian literature (see Aldanov, M, “Ivan Bunin. Zhizn’ Arsen'eva,” Sovremennye zapiski, 42 [1930] : 524 Google Scholar). The research for this article, conducted largely in Paris at the Centre d'Etudes sur l'URSS et l'Europe orientale during the summer of 1977, was supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the University of New Orleans Graduate Research Council. A draft was read at the nineteenth annual meeting of the Southern Conference on Slavic Studies, College Park, Maryland, September 18-20, 1980. In the pages that follow, attention will focus solely on the Volga Tatars to the exclusion of those Tatars whose homeland was the Crimean Peninsula before their deportation in 1944. For discussions of the recent history of the latter group, the reader is referred to Fisher, Alan W., The Crimean Tatars (Stanford : Hoover Institution Press, 1978 Google Scholar, especially chaps. 14 and 15 and Fisher, Alan W., “The Crimean Tatars, the USSR, and Turkey,” in Soviet Asian Ethnic Frontiers, ed. W. O. McCagg, Jr. and B. D. Silver (New York : Pergamon Press, 1979, pp. 1–24.Google Scholar