Nova skrižaljka
The New Crossword is a valuable testimony to Russian society in the turbulent post-revolutionary period – honest, sometimes critical, but always interesting and readable. Today it is appreciated as a fine example of Russian prose of the 1920s.
Panteleimon Romanov (1884–1938) was a popular Russian writer of the Soviet period, known for his realistic depictions of everyday life in post-revolutionary Russia. The New Crossword is one of his most widely read novels in Yugoslavia between the two wars.
The novel follows ordinary Soviet bourgeois life in the 1920s – the time of the NEP (New Economic Policy) and the beginning of Stalinist changes. The author openly and without idealization shows how the revolution changes relationships between people, especially in matters of love, marriage, family and sexual morality.
The novel deals with the conflict between old and new ethics: traditional values versus “free love”, collectivism and individual desires. “Crossword” (crossword) in the title has a biblical connotation — it alludes to the tablets of Moses (the Ten Commandments), i.e. to the “new commandments” or the new moral code in Soviet society.
Romanov writes in a simple, realistic style, with an emphasis on the psychology of the characters and everyday drama. The book aroused interest in its time because it showed the real problems of Soviet society – poverty, bureaucracy, changing gender relations and the difficulties of adapting to the new system – without excessive propaganda.
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