An Arsenal of Good Will: Concerning Vladimir Dudinstev's Novel White Robes and Related Matters

Abstract

"More thought goes into a deed than into a thought." This is roughly what Vladimir Dmitrievich Dudintsev said to me in a conversation about his novel White Robes [Belye odezhdy]. A philosophical treatise is written to develop a pure thought. A novel, on the other hand, is written in order to investigate deeds as bundles of thoughts. A large novel is a large deed (and sometimes is accused of being a misdeed). Dudintsev turned out to be a prophetic individual for my generation. Essentially, my entire conscious creative life has passed between then and now: his novel Not by Bread Alone [Ne khlebom edinym] came out in 1956; now, thirty years later, he's established another landmark.