The first Russian writer to win the Nobel Prize for literature, Ivan Búnin is the author of "Cursed Days", the diary that presents the terror installed in the streets of Moscow after the 1917 Revolution and the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks.

 

The book does much more than just an account of the chaos experienced by the Russian population, revealing a critical point of view on Bolshevism without abandoning its own literary style.

 

In "Cursed Days" Búnin's poetic writing gives way to records marked by urgency, structuring a mosaic of newspaper reports, witnessed facts and information that spreads from mouth to mouth. The tone is nonconformist and the rumors are terrifying, as they include looting, shootings, massacres of Jews, summary trials, food shortages, etc.

 

Faced with the civil war between the red and white armies and the presence of Germans and French in Russian territory, Búnin highlights the lives of peasants and workers. For the writer, what was happening in Russia was more serious than the post-French Revolution period of terror. Búnin's diary still execrates authors who embraced the new times, such as Vladimir Maiakovski, Aleksandr Blok and Maksim Gorki.

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Translation: Márcia Vinha

Cover: Bruna Keese

Cover image: Ana Calzavara (metal engraving)

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