A BOOK REVIEW
By Rey McGehee © 2002
I first became aware of the book The
Dogs by Ivan Nazhivin, while reading Lorraine Groshans’ book The Complete
Borzoi. In her book Ms. Groshans says that she feels the book The Dogs
“… is valuable reading for all Borzoi enthusiasts.”
The Dogs was published, in English, in 1931
by J.B. Lippincott Co. It is a novel about life in Russia just before,
during and after World War I and the Russian Revolution. The story is told
mostly from the point of view of dogs. Some of the dogs in the book are
the two pointers, the stately Dobrynia and the beautiful Svietlana, both
living with the Prince. One of the main characters is the mixed breed Siedoi
who starts the book as a wood yard guard dog. When Siedoi’s adventures
begin, he gets lost and wonders the country with little to eat until he
finds his way home. Then he goes off to the war (World War I) with his
human friend Fedka. They are both captured by the Germans and sent to Germany
as prisoners. Both human and dog escape and walk back to Russian only to
get caught up in the revolution. Through all this Mr. Nazhivin gives us
insight into the lives of the Russian people, both upper class and peasants.
Borzoi play a small role in the book, but the parts pertaining to them
are eye-opening and sometimes horrifying. They are certainly not forgettable.
There is a wolf hunt in the book involving the Borzoi of a Grand Duke Nikilai
Vsevolodovitch. The description of the hunt gives us an idea of what a
wolf hunt would have been like in those days, from the pomp and extravagance
to the dogs working the wolf.
The most interesting thing in the book,
for a Borzoi fancier, may be the descriptions of the fictional Grand Duke.
Ms. Groshans wonders if this fictitious Grand Duke is patterned after the
Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaievich and she wrote, “I would hope that this
was not the case since if it were it would seem to topple the Grand Duke
of Perchino from the pedestal on which Borzoi fanciers of this century
have placed him.” Consider the Grand Duke toppled. Every description of
the Grand Duke Nikilai Vsevolodovitch in the book proves that he was indeed
fashioned after the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaievich (Nicholas). The fictional
Grand Duke was referred to as Nikita, the real life Grand Duke was referred
to as Nikolasha. In his first description of the fictional Grand Duke Mr.
Nazhivin wrote, “Nikita, a man tall (in fact, very tall, quite a head above
the rest), and as lean and dry as a hop pole, had a swarthy face, hollow
cheeks, a morsel of grizzled beard, and cold, ‘dead’ blue eyes with the
expression which it was not easy to describe.” The real Grand Duke was
very tall, 6 foot 6 inches. He was often described as the tallest man in
all Russia. He was also very thin as can be seen in the included photo
and he had blue eyes. Mr. Nazhivin goes on to say about his Grand Duke,
“…he had been made commander of all the cavalry in the Russian army.” The
real Grand Duke was the Inspector General of the Russian cavalry from 1895
until 1905. In the book at the out break of World War I Mr. Nazhivin wrote,
“… the Tsar had appointed Nikita Commander-in-Chief of all Russia’s armies.”
In real life the Tsar appointed Nikolasha (the Grand Duke Nicholas) Commander-in-Chief
of all the Russian armies at the beginning of World War I. Later in the
book the fictional Grand Duke was removed as Commander-in-Chief by the
Tsar. This also in reality occurred with the Grand Duke Nicholas. In the
book it is said of the fictional Grand Duke, “For no apparent reason he
always carried a short, hooked stick in his right hand,…”. I have several
photos of the real Grand Duke with just such a stick in his hand when he
does not have his saber.
From these and other statements in the book it can be seen that the Grand Duke Nikilai Vsevolodovitch is patterned after the real Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaievich. The Grand Duke in the book is not a benign person, and he does some terrible things to his Borzoi. He is a poor loser, to say the least, whose punishments of his dogs if they fail to excel are almost beyond the imagination. The real Grand Duke was said to be quick tempered, egocentric and as Count Witte called him "quite unstable". During the failed 1905 revolution the Tsar was faced with two choices, to stop the revolution. One was to appoint the Grand Duke Nicholas Dictator and then have him crush the revolution with force. The other choice was to sign the so called October Manifesto that would take some of the Tsar’s power away and give it to the Duma. The Grand Duke did not want to be Dictator so he walk into a room with the Tsar and pulled his pistol. He then held the pistol to his head and threatened to shoot himself right in front of the Tsar if the Tsar did not sign the Manifesto. Needless to say the Tsar signed. The real Grand Duke was called the “Dread Uncle” or the “Terrible Uncle”, by members of the royal family. From all I have read about the real Grand Duke Nicholas, he too was the opposite of a kindly, benign, stable person. Did the terrible events described in the book really take place? Maybe or maybe not, but even if they did not occur exactly as described they do point to the character of the man.
.
Mr. Nazhivin must have been familiar
with Borzoi hunting. One line in the book is my favorite. The Grand Duke
is interviewing a young woman who has accused one of the Grand Duke’s soldiers
of raping her. During the interview the Grand Duke hears the woman’s accent
and, thinking she is a Jew, “Nikita became as a borzoi when it has sighted
a hare.” He also gives this wonderful description of the Borzoi, “… but
in the case of the borzoi, what most impressed the observer was the dogs’
wild gracefulness, their distinctive beauty which seemed to belong to prehistoric
times on the steppes, and their complete absence of mentality—they made
one at once feel that a mentality in a body which resembled the body of
a legendary griffin would have been out of place where the prime requisites
were steely legs capable of propelling forward the lean, barrel-like body
with gigantic strides, and a long tail capable of directing the galloping
movement…”.
Mr. Nazhivin lived through the Russian
revolution and his book The Dogs give us all an idea of what it was like
for both humans and animals to live in such terrible times. The book is
well written and I recommend it to anyone that wants to know more about
Russia and it’s people.