I (Romance). Selected works

The edition includes the novella I (Romance), one of the most searing works about a person caught in the machinery of Bolshevik revolutionary violence. The protagonist is a fanatic of the “distant commune,” a Chekist who brutally destroys all those he considers enemies of the people, handing down death sentences without trial or investigation: «Six hundred, six thousand, six million — darkness lies upon my conscience.» Faith in the idea of a radiant communist future gradually turns into fanaticism, demanding a total renunciation of compassion and morality and leading to the destruction of everything in human life that ought to remain sacred.
And yet, at the critical moment, the hero’s soul is torn between his fanatical devotion to the revolutionary ideal and his love for his own mother — a figure of innocence, quiet sorrow, and boundless kindness, set against the cruelty of the world around him.