For the Good of the Cause

To begin, this is a great work with a good long (about 20 pgs or so) introduction. Along with that is an appendix that includes some of the public responses to the controversial work. Set in a post-Stalin period, this work takes place at a technical school that is relatively young with not a whole lot of money to spend. There is little equipment and even less room. So, instead of waiting for some kind of handout (which they would never get anyways), the students (about fourteen or fifteen) take matters into their own hands and decide to build themselves a new dormitory. The students and faculty represent a kind of idealistic work ethic and fervor where each does their part for the benefit of everyone and the job gets done in good time and quality. Now, after it's just about finished, instead of being able to move in, a certain self-centered bureaucrat (Knorozov) decides to take it for himself and transform it into a "research institute" in the hopes that he will become its new director, but it will deny the students a new place to live. While doing it, he makes sure he can take as much of the property around it as he can. The principle (Fyodor Mikheyevich) tries to get a straight answer from those taking the new building away, but the only answer he ever gets back is "it's for the good of the cause." The unanswered question that must be asked is: what is the good of the cause? Of course, it is quite clear that the cause is anything but good. Solzhenitsyn goes out of his way to disparage these bureaucrats, like Knorozov, as he depicts them as self-serving, egotistical, underhanded, and even perverted. The point of this extremely controversial work is that even though Stalin is dead and his reign over, there are still bureaucrats and government officials who take advantage of the good will of good people. These government officials are aptly called "little Stalin's." An excellent read.

This was the first Solzhenitsyn I read and it is unbelievable if you can find it. It's more of a long short story than a short novel and just gives you a short, but good idea of what Solzhenitsyn is about. Solzhenitsyn, in my opinion, is the greatest mind in the twentieth century and this hidden gem showcases him well. For starters with Solzhenitsyn 'One Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich' is also a great read. The subject topics are quite different and both are well worth the read.