Hello Gentle Reader
What is weak shall be taken. What is inferior shall falter. These are words – simple words, but words nonetheless, which hold power. One must never underestimate the potential in which everyday individuals can be swept up into the fervor of the greater good or more accurately speaking: “what is good,” for the cause. History has shown how easy it is for individuals to lose their individuality in a cloud of poetic propaganda and the call to action. When one is asked to put their rights on hold, one should never just comply like an obedient dog, to the demands of its master, on the promise of a treat, or a pat on the head with the following words: “good boy,” – rather one must (as is their civil duty) ask why they must put their rights on hold, do away with democratic process, and to fall into line like an obedient dog on the promise of a treat, or under the threat of a “well-deserved,” thrashing. It is almost human instinct, to do whatever it is to be done, to survive. Desperate times call for drastic actions. Being required to abandon rights and freedoms is still a call that should never be called, and should never be obliged with. As history has shown when nations – and people; hit their lowest points, they are open to the greatest change; a change which wavers between positive and negative. Sofi Oksanen is a Finnish-Estonian writer, who has made the communist period of Estonia the scenery for her literary output. In this landscape she is able to see how the soul resists in periods of exhaustion and desperation. How the individual consciousness becomes less paramount in a landscape squandered by a lack of moral integrity. Yet with an unflinching eye Oksanen shows, the blind devotion to do what is right – sometimes for the greater good, and at times for personal gain. Yet it is the dissection of opposing ideologies that often showcases the greater understanding for the conflict of the times.
“When The Doves Disappeared,” is about Estonia during the double occupation with two occupying forces. After twenty-two years of independence, Estonia once again found itself occupied by Soviet forces. Eventually Nazi Germany had infiltrated the country and had expelled what many saw as the oppressive Bolsheviks. However the dreams and perceptions of Nazi Germany being seen as a liberator are quickly dispelled. Life is not any better with occupation of Nazi’s. Their Aryan superiority propaganda are spread throughout city landscapes, and their laws that require open visual discrimination of Jewish populace from the Estonian public, are quickly enacted. However the populace accepts these changes. They are contrasted against the atrocities of the Bolsheviks and their own systematic purge of the country. Fathers and sons disappeared. Families left wondering of the unknown fates of their now missing family members. The German soldiers and their Reichsadler are a refreshing sight, compared to the soviets red stars, and the confiscations and rations, that had left once again the Estonia people: sweeping up the rubble, shrapnel, and charred remains of the fighters, who had despoiled their country and died on it, oh so far from home.
The changing landscapes of “When The Doves Disappeared,” quickly show the ground gained by freedom fighters, Nazi soldiers and the Soviet Red Army. Estonia itself finds itself being tossed between one ideology and then another. After independence it had fallen under the stewardship of the Bolsheviks, and the reigning political ideology was that of communism, which had in the end purged both the land and the populace. Not a scrap of meat for a rat, or a crumb of bread for a mouse; nor a carrot for the working horse, which one must substitute carrots and sugar with hay, and other feed. Even the populace itself had to deal with a lack of food and nourishment. As most of it had gone to those who had required it more, then them. Foreign occupiers required the fruits of others labours, to feed their own, and let the rabble themselves starve or be done away with; for this was war, and war requires desperate actions, and subservient measures to ensure that the ‘right side,’ is victorious. From this the “Forest Brothers,” had formed to fight the occupying forces, and to instate once again an independent nation free from the ruby start communism, and the silver SS lightning bolts of the new Nazi German occupiers.
“When The Doves Disappeared,” is not as successful as Oksanen’s first English publication “Purge.” On a superficial level “When The Doves Disappeared,” fails on length. The novel could benefit from more length, offering more room to full fledge the characters. Roland, in the beginning is seen as the protagonist. The freedom fighter that is not, motivated by ideology or doing the greater good, or dreams of being a war hero. Roland wishes to expel the foreign occupiers from his country, so his country may once again enter a time of peace, and independence and be left to move along, without the intervention of international politics, to impede upon domestic policies. Roland’s desires to fight against the Bolsheviks appears to be motivated by the purges, and the continual expectation that his country is once again open up to the capricious whims of occupying forces, and their commands which in turn, they demand of the populace. Roland fights for the Estonians. No longer will they be required to pick up the brooms, to sweep the dust of war off the streets; clear up the rubble, and dispose of the charred remains of fallen soldiers on their soil. However, as the political climate changes, Roland is suspicious of a new country coming into his home, and over staying its welcome as well.
The antonym of Roland’s courage and devotion to his country and fighting for its freedom, so once again the cows maybe milked routinely, and farm work may commence; is Edgar, a chameleon of a personality and identity who is combat shy, and gun leery. Despite his lack of talents for firing a gun, killing another man, and is at the end of the day completely out of place and useless on the battlefield, Edgar has his own talents. He is well aware of how to save his own hide, via his mouth and information. He knows how to forge documents, not to mention spin and weave a lie in order to save his own neck when necessary. He is charming and an eloquent speaker; and has a particular talent of becoming an obedient dog to a new master, under the understanding of safety, and reward.
Juudit is Edgar’s morose wife, and finds her loveless and sexless marriage with Edgar concerning and trying. During the Bolshevik occupation of Estonia, Juudit preoccupies herself, with vernacular thoughts and mundane concerns. The tedium and monotony of a once boring life, now offers solace in times of war and crisis. With the devastation of war, forever leaving scars, scabs and loss on every wall, and in every home, it would seem that the thoughts of milking cows and such whimsical inventions that may assist in the daily chores of daily existence allow sanity to fall over the turbulent insanity that has wrapped the country in its folds. However Juudit herself is not without her own desires, which require her to place morality on hold.
The three characters (Roland, Edgar, and Juudit) makeup the entirety of the book. However the length of the novel does away with any substantial assessment of their characters. Roland appears like a righteous freedom fighter, and eventual smuggler, whose motivations after a while become more ambiguous and opaque. Edgar a parasite of power, continually finds a new master to offer his own information to, and change his identity and character, to fully serve the new regime – be it Soviet or Nazi. Juudit an unhappy with a dissatisfying life, has the chance for a better life of glitz and glamour – how she ended up there, at the end of the day remains completely left in the ambiguity of history; and her own eventual issues. With “When The Doves Disappeared,” Oksanen offers more of a dissertation or an explanation of how such totalitarian regimes succeed in their oppressive dominance over other nations. Oksanen offers glimmers of hope through freedom fighters. However these freedom fighters only dream of the women they will return to as heroes, rather than the actual battles that await them, and the drudgery that their cause will endorse; their lack of understanding of the brutality of war and the understanding of their cause, hope is quickly diminished by the ideological machines that are overtaking their countries. The true subject of her scorn however is that of surveillance and cowardice, via those who offer their informational services, and secrets they have learned to better themselves. In this case, Oksanen prosecutes and judges the apathy and the opportunistic behaviour of some, to showcase how their compliance with alien ideologies and governments, destroy their own nations, simply so they can have a better life, or protect their own skin and hide. At the end of the novel however, the book has the appearance of biting off far too much, without truly assessing and grasping what it is that it is attempting to discuss. With a lack of perception and new dimension to her characters, the book itself falls flat on its face, and does not begin to compare to that of Oksanen’s more well known work, and to showcase her truly talent as a writer: “Purge.”
All authors make mistakes, and often at times do not judge their work correctly and the material in which they deal with. “When The Doves Disappeared,” it requires more length, perception, depth, and dimensions for the entire story to have a much better understanding of the historical situation of Estonia at the time. That being said as a writer Oksanen is an admirable writer, as the subject matter in which she chooses to write about, is one which is quickly overlooked into the fogs of historical amnesia. Praise is then well deserved to Oksanen for showcasing that what happened in Estonia is not some other countries problems across the sea, or too far away from here. What she has discussed is the compliance or apathy (present day towards the historical) means: if we ourselves do not understand or at least not aware of the changing political situations, than we ourselves are at risk of suffering similar fates, and others will only sit back, as our nations are consumed by wolves.
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
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M. Mary
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