More than sixty years after it has been written yet another novel about
Jesus and diabolical temptation in the Russian capital of the twenties
appeared in the journal Druzhba narodov. The history of the manuscript
that first was burnt by a friend of the author and after its restoration got
lost in the era of Stalinism is highly intriguing as is the biography of its
author Jakov Golosovker. Due to his preoccupation with the works of
Dostoevsky and the German philosophers, especially Kant, Golosovker
Alexsander Graf
Slavica tergestina 6 (1998)
144
in his novel gave the literary answer to the novel by Dostoevsky that had
the highest impact on him: the Brothers Karamazov. In three successive
nights in a Moscow clinic for mental illness a patient discusses with his
alter ego, an appearence of Jesus himself, the ways of Christianity and
the eternal questions of how Good could triumph in the world. The main
issue is the question to which extent modern man is in need of Jesus and
whether he needs him at all. The illustration of the philosophical
discussions are four scenes on the streets of Moscow where in a highly
sarcastic and ironic way judgement is pronounced on the state of mind
of Soviet citizens and the power of the Idea of socialism. At the same
time Golosovker reacts to various political statements of his fellow
writers and tries to explain how it come that Jesus finds out that he is not
needed anymore in a city widely subdued to a mistaken interpretation of
the Christian teachings.
