This Anton Chekhov story contrasts the attitudes towards social injustice of two Russian soldiers returning home by ship after serving in the Far East. Both are dying of tuberculosis, and neither survives the voyage. One (Gusev) is an uneducated, superstitious peasant who passively accepts his lot. The other (Pavel Ivanovich) is a bitter, fallen intellectual who looks down on “lesser” men and claims to actively oppose the Russian social system. Themes include social class, passivity vs. activism, memory and imagination, loneliness and alienation, the inconsequence of human suffering and death in the context of the glory of nature.
Gusev Full Text / PDF (5,500 words)