The universality of Russian literature, its accurate diagnosis of the human condition, the psychotic dark side of human nature, and the jostling between faith, reason, and rationality have no parallel. 

While this is not a statement of a political nature or “side-taking,” the universality and brilliance of Russian literature have been occluded by the soft power dominance of Western print and visual media, or the dominance of the airwaves. 

Indeed, while Dostoyevsky sits atop Russian classical literature and bestrides it like a colossus, there are others who, if not equal to this great Russian, certainly are brilliance incarnate. 

One of these was Nikolai Gogol. 

An author of fantastic novels and short stories of great brilliance, one of his stories, “The Overcoat,” with a universal theme embedded in it, has a searing resonance for Kashmir.

The main character, or protagonist of the Gogol’s “Overcoat,” Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin, is a “petty” clerk and copyist in the Russian government of the time. A point to note here is the meaning of the man’s name: Akaky, in Russian, can mean “no evil” or “harmless,” and Bashmachkin means “shoe.”

Metaphorically, it means being always under someone’s thumb. 

Akaky, the character, is a self-abasing man who loves his work, copying, never complains about it, and is never given credit or recognition for it by his peers. Always wearing a long overcoat, which becomes tattered and torn through overuse, Akaky yearns for a new one. But he cannot afford it.

Saving and scrimping money, and in the meantime being taunted and mocked by his colleagues, Akaky buys a reasonably stylish new overcoat. An introverted figure, he finds himself the odd man out at parties and other social settings. He observes that while people are noticing him now, it is the overcoat that is the center of attention. 

After a midnight party,........

© Kashmir Observer