Russian Lit: Vladimir Sorokin’s Day of the Oprichnik

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]Hey everybody, welcome back. I recently just graduated from college, so I apologize for the lack of videos lately.

[00:00:06]It's been kind of a mess moving back and forth, but today I want to talk to you about a book I finished about a week and a half ago. I no longer have it with me because I had to return it to my school library. Uh, but it is called Day of the Opnik. Uh, I don't know if I'm saying that right. Day of the Operic by uh Vladimir Sroken who is a current Russian novelist. I will talk a little bit more about him, his background, his life towards the middle of the video, but like I said, I don't have the book. So, I'm going to be reading from the essay I wrote on this novel, which is not out yet. I will put the I'll put it out at the same time as the video, so you can go check it out on Substack if you'd rather read it. It's like 3,500ish words, so a little long to go all the way through in this video, but all my favorite quotes are in it. uh I have some sort of points I want to bring up.

[00:00:54]So, it'll be a little bit of a different video, but this was a book I really enjoyed and have been wanting to talk about and uh hopefully this format lets me cover sort of everything I want to touch on. So, yeah, let's just start with the opening of the book. So, the main character is Andre Denilovich Kiyaga. When I first started this channel, I was reading a ton of Russian lit, mostly for school, and I haven't in the past year, year and a half. So, I got to get back used to these names, right? The three names. And sometimes you refer to them by the first two and sometimes the last. And so I was losing track of characters at the very beginning. But uh I'm I'm sort of back in that mode now. Um so when we first meet Andre Dilovich Kiyaga, he is dreaming. Always the same dream. I'm walking across an endless field, a Russian field. Ahead beyond the receding horizon. I spy a white stallion. I walk toward him. I sense that this stallion is unique. The stallion of all stallions. Dazzling. A sorcerer.

[00:01:49]Fleefooted, I make haste, but cannot overtake him. I quicken my pace, shout, call to him, and realize suddenly this stallion contains all my life, my entire destiny, my good fortune, that I need him like the very air. And I run, run, run after him. But he receded with ever measured pace, heeding no one or thing.

[00:02:12]He is leaving me, leaving forever more, everlastingly, irrevocably, leaving, leaving, leaving. So, this is a dream that Comeya has every night, he says.

[00:02:25]And the book actually ends with this dream again. So, it's kind of one of those uh circular kind of books, which is a point I'll touch on in a little bit. But he gets awakened and he's awakened by the ringtone of his cell phone, which is the sound of men being whipped to death. This is a sound that comes up numerous times cuz he's always getting phone calls, but it's a hell of a way to start your day. Uh, and it's sort of a hell of a way to answer calls all throughout the day. So Kyiaga is a member of the Opportacina which is a call back to Ivan the terrible secret police force uh which was active in the late 16th century in the day of the opportunic by Vladimir Siroken which is a sort of futuristic novel. It takes place in 2027 or early 2028 but was written in 2006. So it's it's 20 years in the future as it was written. This police force has been sort of resurrected right the same structure and everything. So there's a monarch in charge and he has a very small group of followers which are mainly his secret police force and he's sort of slowly uh establishing a new order a new society sort of wiping away the past and he's doing so by bloodshed by extreme force all of those things and Kiyaga is a central part of that police force the opportunics um so day the opportun title gestures toward one day in the life of Ivan Denisvich which was a 1962 novel by Alexander Scholes Nitson. It's a book that I read in some of those Russian lit classes I took probably like late freshman, early sophomore year. I don't think I was really absorbing the books I was reading like I would want to back then, but I do remember really liking it and it's a fascinating book. It portrays a prisoner of those mid 20th century Soviet uh goologs and uh he also wrote the goolog archipelago which was also all about that. Soljen did and it focuses on one day in this prisoner Ivan Denisvich's life much like this focuses on one day in Kiyaga's life although he is a perpetrator of state violence and Ivan Denisvich is a victim of it.

[00:04:36]Denisvich is a really interesting book because it was banned by the Soviet Union obviously when it came out but then through part of Soviet rule when they were trying to do like anti-S Stalinism or sort of blame everything bad that happened on Stalin they like brought the book back under probably Nikita Crush Cruchesev um I don't really know what happened then it got banned again and I don't know what the deal is in in Russia now but Sroken is an interesting case in relation to that because he began his career under Soviet rule in the Soviet underground and has sort of continued throughout his his sort of prolific output throughout Putin's Russia and he's been in exile since the invas invasion of Ukraine. His works are highly censored. They're attacked by every different sort of group. He's been banned, I think, under the Soviets and by Putin. So, it's sort of like, you know, he's he's sort of got a wide scale of of people he's critiquing and he's obviously censored by all of them. He first rose to prominence in Soviet Russia by writing the short stories that he calls binary bombs, which are like stories that begin in a very Soviet realist like acceptable tradition. The kind of stories that the rulers in the Soviet Union would have liked to see exist and then they sort of dissolve into like violent graphic scenes, just like absurdly violent and graphic. And so this ability to shift between modes and styles is really important to pay attention to with Sroken because he not only obviously does that within those stories, but he does that within his career. So Day of the Opereneck is actually a major shift in his career in terms of the stuff he was writing about, the style he he was writing in. And obviously there's a lot of shifts within the actual book itself.

[00:06:19]will move from like very simple, almost boring writing to linguistically very complex and even like incomprehensible scenes like that. And so you really have to be on your guard while reading this novel despite how how short it is. I think it was like 200 pages, maybe a little bit less. And I read a book on Sroken by uh Professor Durkman and he says that Day of the Operick is is in contrast to almost all of Sroken's previous novels. before 2006 because it's a piece of psychological literature, right? Uncovering the thoughts and opinions of the perpetrator as opposed to the victim in in Ivan Denisvich. And it the whole thing is really psychological. That's that's what's sort of important to keep in mind because he is constantly justifying to himself what he's doing throughout the day. And it's a super like languageheavy novel. The language is so so important.

[00:07:14]You can maybe see a glimpse of that in that first passage I read. But the way that he's justifying everything to himself is sort of using cliches. So like their their first task of the day is to take out this noble man who they tried to plant like treasonous literature on the day before. Didn't work. So now they're just going to kill him without any reason. And the way he sort of justifies it to himself is he says, you know, when you've lost your head, you don't fret about your your hair. In for a penny, out for a pound.

[00:07:41]If you raise the axe, let it fall. like he just says these things over and over again that don't really mean anything but are just telling him to go through with what he's going to do and that's sort of the way it is. And similarly, he's able to boil down things and this is not Kiyaga specifically, but this is everybody because this is the way they refer to things. He's able to boil things down into small words, small phrases, able to condense time and deflect responsibility through that. So here is is where he's driving through the countryside right here. The trees are even higher than ours. ancient century old furs. They have seen much in their time. They remember they remember the red troubles. They remember the white troubles. They remember the gray troubles. They remember the rebirth of roots. They remember the transformation as well. Will be ash and fly off to other worlds. But the glorious furs of the Moscow region will stand straight, their dignified branches swaying. Right?

[00:08:34]So when he says the white troubles or he says the transformation, which is what they're doing right now, he doesn't really have to acknowledge what that means. And it's very interesting because it's similar I think to how we use certain words just daytoday uh not just in the US but across the world whether they be sort of like words like freedom and democracy and liberty and and these sorts of things that we throw around that have just become meaningless. I mean same thing with all forms of government when we say socialism communism all these different things like so many people just don't know what these things mean and we just use them to encapsulate things. And obviously that's not exactly what Kyiaga is doing.

[00:09:08]He's trying to like stifle everything down because deep down he knows it's bad and we can see he knows what he's doing is awful. And but but his lack of acknowledgement for meaning or his dismissal of meaning or his use of language to mask things or to make something unpush backable, you know what I mean? Like irrefutable. Like you can't you can't argue with somebody who is using words that don't mean anything to them. And that's that's really interesting to me. And same thing like he's driving through the countryside, right? Ah, how I love the snow. It covers the earth's shame. Well, what the hell is the earth's shame? And and why does the earth have the shame? Like you just gave the earth the shame. Like whatever you're doing, like it's it's all it's fascinating. Um and and certain things you see as well. Like the folk music he listens to, the the sort of art he's interested in is all he takes it in a very specific way and he uses it to just sort of be blissfully unaware. But you can never quite be blissfully unaware. At a certain level, you are aware that you're making yourself unaware. And that's where the tension in this novel, I think, really lies. Now, a big part of of stifling that is looking at yourself as inservice to something else, right? I mean, I think back to the to the Nerburgg trials, which is probably the most famous example where sort of all those people just said, well, I was following orders. That's very much how Kiyaga is is thinking about it. There's a there's a tendency to serve. You are always in service to something. Whether it be the his majesty who he says towards the beginning of the novel, "His majesty looks at us with his expressive sincere intent and penetrating blue gray eyes. His look is ineit ineimitable. You'll never confuse him with anyone else. And I am ready without hesitation to give my life for this look." Right? Does that mean he believes so deeply in this movement that he will die for it? Probably not. So what does it mean that he is willing to die for this look? It means there is he's sort of removed all value or maybe removed all self and he is so deeply in service to this thing and his inability or his ability to not not really exist as a whole being but exists only in service of something and something evil is something he has to do to sort of reckon with what he's doing. Right? So this tendency to serve can be seen in sort of everyone he works with.

[00:11:25]answering his second phone call the day after the first one wakes him up. Kiyaga here is on the other end of the line.

[00:11:31]One of his co-workers is says says, "Working word, we live to serve." And they always are saying this to each other again with these sort of like cliches and overused phrases that mean nothing. But then at the end of their conversation, the coworker says, "Thank the Lord." And because they get to kill this nobleman or whatever. And then Kiyaga says, "The Lord has nothing to do with it. Thank his majesty." So there is no God. we live to serve his majesty.

[00:11:55]But that's actually not true because throughout the novel a number of times Kiyaga says, "Thank God. Thank the Lord." And then at other times he'll say, "That's sort of blasphemy to thank God." Or it'll be or it'll be blasphemy to thank like there's no consistency to how he approaches the topic of uh divinity or religion or whatever. And it's very clear that it's nothing but a tool. And the fact that it can be manipulated so easily and the fact that we can switch switch positions so easily is actually the point. And so when we end with a saliloquy from Batya, it doesn't not the end of the novel but you know 10 pages before the end. And he's the sort of first in command. He was like the first part the first link is how Kiyaga describes him of the Apertina the Apertnik. And a lot of times when people say in this novel, thank the Lord or thank God, they're saying it in reference to Batya, almost as if Batya is God, not even his majesty, not even the king. So the final saliloquy, and this is kind of long, but it's all very important. Uh comes from Batia. And he says, "Now you, my dear Enochs, you're wondering why was the wall built? Why are we fenced off? Why did we burn our foreign passports? Why are there different classes? Why were intelligent machines changed to cerillic? To increase profits, to maintain order, for entertainment, for home and health, to create the big and beautiful, for fancy houses, for Moroccan leather boots, so everyone could tap their heels and clap.

[00:13:26]For all that's good and true and well-made, so that there'd be plenty all around. To make the state as mighty as a pole from heavenly from a heavenly tamarind tree, so that it supports the heavenly vault and the stars, godamn it, so that the stars and moon would shine.

[00:13:40]You sniveling scarecrow wolves. So that the warm wind would blow, not stop blowing on your asses. Is that it? So your asses would stay nice and warm in your velvet pants. So your heads would feel cozy under their staple hats. So you sniveling wolves wouldn't live by lies. So you'd run in herds fast, straight, close together, most holy, obedient, so you'd harvest the grain on time, feed your brother, love your wives and children. Is that it? Batia pauses, inhaling a good snort of white coke.

[00:14:10]These guys are all cokeheads, by the way. Uh, and washes it down with vodka.

[00:14:14]We do the same thing. Now, you see, my dearest Enochs, and the Enoch thing is is an interesting reference cuz it's probably referencing like the prophet in the Bible who like walked with God and was taken to heaven without experiencing death. And that is very much how these people see themselves. There's no concept of of death or I I that passage I read earlier where Kiyaga refers to just being brought to another world.

[00:14:40]It's as if they're they they feel as though they're like walking with God.

[00:14:43]But again, the contradictions are almost laughable um if they weren't so true to how uh certain governments uh speak today about God and religion and sort of everything in this book. Uh now you see, my dearest Enoch, that's not what it was for. It was so the Christian faith would be preserved like a chase treasure. You get it? For only we, the Orthodox, have preserved the church as Christ's body on earth. A single church, sacred, consiliar, apostolic, and infallible.

[00:15:14]Isn't that right? We have rejected everything sacriiggious, manachanism, and monotheitism and monoicism. Right?

[00:15:22]For whomsoever the church is not mother, God is not the father. Right? For God by his nature is just beyond understanding.

[00:15:28]Right? For all true believing Orthodox priests are hairs of Peter, right? For there is no purgatory, only hell and heaven. Right? For man is born mortal and therefore he sins. Right? For God is the light. Right? For our savior became human so that you and I sniveling wolves could become gods. Right? That's why his majesty built this magnificent wall in order to cut us off from the stench and unbelievers. from the damn cyberpunks from sodommites, Catholics, melancholics, from Buddhists, sat satists, satanists, and Marxists from mega fascist, fascists, pluralists, and atheists, right? So, this stuff is just insane. And that point, right, man is born mortal, therefore he sins. Our savior became human so that you and I could become gods. That's the crux of the novel, right? I mean, they they want you to believe in the church, not God. They want you to believe in the state, not the land. It's it's creating these things that stand in and strip you of any ability to make a decision of your own, to have any, you know, true beliefs, to have any private revelation, to have anything about yourself that you can define. His majesty's father, the late Nikolai Platonovich, had a good idea. Liquidate all of the foreign supermarkets and replace them with Russian kiosks and put two types of each thing at every kiosk so that people have a choice. A wise decision, profound because our god-bearing people should choose from two things, not from three or 33. Choosing from one of two creates spiritual calm. People are imbued with certainty in the future. Superfluous fuss and bother is avoided and consequently everyone is satisfied.

[00:17:09]So, and at the end of the day, this is really a novel about the censorship of art because one of Kiyaga's main duties is to like watch plays before they're put on and decide whether or not, you know, they can actually be put on.

[00:17:22]There's one very interesting painting that I've included in the Substack called Boyerina Morzova by Vi Surikov because at one point Kiyaga is talking about how stupid these underground artistic movements are and how nobody's talented nowadays. And this is obviously sort of Sroken poking fun. He was a part of an underground movement that we very much imagine as as Kiyaga describes these conceptualist movements. We very much imagine that's what Siroken was a part of. And Kiyaga says, "All this contemporary art isn't worth one brushstroke of our great artist Surikov," referencing that painting.

[00:18:00]Now, that painting is not Ivan the Terrible, but Sar Alexi Malovich's authorities that his secret police force are are pulling this woman away who's protesting. And it was probably created in opposition to the authorities at the time, much like these conceptualist contemporary works are. So on one hand, Sroka's undercutting Kiyaga because he's saying like you are the reason for the art today. You vet all of it, right?

[00:18:29]Your stifling of art is what makes it probably very poor. Now as to these underground movements, you like the kind of stuff they create just many years later. And he looks at this painting and he doesn't understand it. He says, "Russia explodes from the wall so intensely that you'll forget about the meaningless bustle of the world. Your lungs inhale Russian air. That's all you need. And thank God. And there's some snow and some buildings and stuff, but mostly it's this, you know, secret police taking this old woman away in a sled in the middle of winter with a mob around her. And he doesn't even see any of that at all. So, it's just it's absolutely fascinating. And I and I picked this book out because I was interested in Sroen. There are a couple novels that I will read of his for sure.

[00:19:13]Turia, Blue Lard, I know is insane. And I think that one has like a sex scene between Stalin and Crudevev or their clones or something like that. And Siroken is pretty notorious for that book. Um, which is again a totally different style. I think it's more like pulpy fiction. Uh, Turia is almost kind of like short stories. He's got a number of kind of novels and stories if you will. But this felt like just reading the plot in this book felt, you know, very applicable to try and understand a lot of what's happening right now. I know Siroken said I talk about this at the end of the essay. He said in a 2024 interview that was translated by Max Laden so didn't say it directly but you know he hasn't read fiction since Putin's invasion of Ukraine. He feels like now is not the time for fiction. He reads you know political reports by political scientists and experts and things like that. Now I I wouldn't disagree with him on that but uh at least in his case but I would say that reading stuff like this is is fundamentally very important. um the kind of stuff that you know Sroken obviously doesn't need to be reading because he can write it like he sort of is literature. He is uh an artist with one of the greatest outputs probably just in terms of sort of numbers. But he's obviously a fantastic artist as well and he's been doing this for a long time. But yeah, this is the kind of stuff that I think is super important to read and uh I I love this book. I thought it was wonderful. I thought it was written wonderfully. I thought um there are a number of scenes sort of the last thing I want to touch on is and I'm not going to read them but they are in the essay at least one of them one of the less graphic ones if you can believe or not less graphic cuz they really aren't graphic which I find very interesting but after the secret police the opera chick the opera uh kill a man usually they steal the kid and they sexually assault they rape the wife um or the man's the man's widow they've just killed the man, then they raped the wife. And the thing about something like that, the thing about all the sex in this book, which is usually non-consensual and and it turns into like there's even like an orgy between the opport, you know, insane. But the thing about it is Sroken's portraying this like sort of new kind of eroticism which is fully psychological. It's all about power.

[00:21:38]It's all about like sexual experience and all these things. It's all psychological, right? I mentioned that the book itself is a psychological exploration. But so obviously obviously romance is not a primary motive for sex, but neither is physicality.

[00:21:54]It's completely the psychological power that one has over someone else. And uh yeah, it's it's pretty it's pretty brutal um to read, but it's also fascinating what he's doing there. And um the stuff is very twisted, but I think it says a lot about Yeah. I don't know. I mean, where we've been certainly where we're headed. uh I guess just humanity in general and and a lot of these sort of terror forces and why people feel the need to control others and sort of control an entire society and just sort of enact this kind of stuff. Anyway, just, you know, not to end on that note, not that any of this was a good note, but some of it is certainly funnier than other parts. Um this was an excellent book. I will be reading more Sroen in the future. If you've read any of his stuff, uh let me know what you think. I know a lot of his stuff is is getting translated now has been translated in the last five or six years. This was one of the earlier translations. I think it came out in 2011 in the US. Was written in 2006, but a lot of his stuff has been translated between 2018 all the way up till last year. And there's some new stuff coming out as well. Most of that's being done by uh Max Laden. But yeah, so I will post this essay. I'll link that below if you're interested in reading it on my Substack. Um happy to be back with you all. Thank you all for watching. If you watch the whole thing, I hope you all are having a great week, weekend, whenever you're watching this. And I will have a number of new videos coming soon, interviews, new books I've finished. Um, uh, some sort of like I'm going to do like a summer TBR. I'm going to do some little travel vlogs, some life updates, some different stuff. But, uh, thank you all as always. Peace.