Pkhentz Dissidence Under The Viel of Christianity
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"I am a stranger on earthYou rebuke the arrogant who are cursed." (Psalm 119). This Christian biblical scripture represents Andrei Sinyavsky's view of himself while he lives in Communist Russia as a dissident writer suppressed from sharing wisdom with others through his writing. A recurring theme in Christian theology is the notion that this world is not a home, rather a place of temporary holding through which the only escape is an earthly death which leads man back to his maker and his home in heaven. Andrei Sinyavsky, in "Pkhentz", capitalizes upon this notion of someone good immersed in a world mostly full of bad people. Sinyavsky, a devout Russian Orthodox, spent seven years of his life in the Soviet prison system for composing a pamphlet that tended "to subvert or weaken the Soviet regime." (Sinyavsky 481) In "Pkhentz," this dissident writer tells a tale of an unearthly creature, named Andrei Kazimorovich, unable to return to his distant origin in space, who has made a home in Russia by posing as a hunchback. In an era of closely scrutinized literary work, Sinyavsky used complex stories, symbolism, and hidden themes in his stories to defy soviet authority without being caught. Sinyavsky uses symbolism, which exposes his own spiritual faith and self-perception, to criticize Soviet society through the presence of numerous Christian themes in "Pkhentz."
"Therefore, the prudent man keeps quiet in such times, for the times are evil...