Day of the Oprichnik: A novel

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The tricky thing here is that on the one hand, Sorokin seems to work with many, many references to classic Russian literature that, let's not kid ourselves, I miss. This Russian-nationalist dream is not just Aleksandr Dugin’s; it’s shared by many rich and frustrated people in Putin’s circle. Sorokin has been vocal in expressing his dislike of not only Solzhenitsyn as a man, but also his writing style and his right-wing politics, so the reference is unlikely to be understood as a favorable tribute.

Komiaga’s day might not be a typical one but it’s full of executions, parties, meetings, oracles, and even the Czarina.Responding to protests that Ivan was one of the most bloodthirsty and autocratic rulers in recorded history, the regional governor is quoted in a Guardian report saying the fearsome tsar was a great monarch and preserver of the Orthodox faith, “a defender of our land, a tsar who expanded its frontiers” and who did not let other nations encroach on them. The oprichniks of the future ride through the Moscow traffic in their red Mercedovs in special lanes, their cars emitting a loud snarl to make traffic move over for them. Some argue that Dugin has no real public face in Russia, that he’s overhyped in the West and interviewed on television precisely because of his weird ideas.

The title of the book is a reference to the 1962 novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. He takes no prisoners, in other words—he knows what he’s up against, and he spits it in the eye—and Day of the Oprichnik works as an enduring caricature of Russian strong-man culture as envisioned by its latest Strong Man, who, if he keeps it up, will be remembered as the numbskull who set Russia back a few hundred years by removing it from the community of nations and sinking it under mountains of pointless war debt.The disembodied Tsar may, to some degree resemble Putin, but in many ways (wife, son-in-law, background) he definitely does not. Much of the style of the book is a satire of the Socialist Realist style as Komyaga has to perform a quest of sorts to uphold the power of the state and annihilate his own identity over the course of a 24-hour period.