Night of Stone: Death and Memory in Twentieth-Century Russia, by Catherine Merridale, is a journey through Russia's Soviet history and the tragedies faced by its people. Merridale seeks to both trace the changing practices of death rituals and to identify the coping mechanisms of Russia's Soviet citizens, who faced disease, war, purges, and natural disasters without adequate help from the government – or, indeed, often as a result of its choices.
Changing Death Rituals in the Soviet Union
Night of Stone traces how reaction to death, availability of resources, and public and private perceptions also changed funeral and burial rituals in the Soviet Union. Mass graves, the state war on religion, falsified reports about executed political prisoners, the level of inadequacy of cemeteries or crematoriums to deal with the number of dead, and personal beliefs of privately Orthodox Russian Soviets factored into how bodies were treated upon death, the process of burial, the memorial service, and even what items were brought to the grave site on anniversaries by relatives and friends.
Generation Gaps and Recognition of Tragedy
Changing political and religious landscapes created generational divides between war veterans from different eras - Russia's Great Patriotic War (WWII) and the Soviet Union's war in Afghanistan. Night of Stone explores the the theme of generation gaps and how personal and public tragedy has been recognized and dealt with by old and young. Elderly veterans of the Great Patriotic War have felt entitled to government welfare and public respect; veterans from the Soviet war in Afghanistan have felt themselves disenfranchised and mocked by older war veterans.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Russia?
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, is not widely or openly recognized as an official diagnosis by Russia's doctors. Merridale, in her research, encounters conflicting opinions about this problem with regards to atrocities witnessed by individuals who lived under Soviet rule. Though Merridale eventually comes to her own conclusions about the occurrence of PTSD in the majority of her interviewees, Night of Stone does touch upon this, and other psychological reactions, to murder, cannibalism, famine, and warfare. The book also explains how Soviet citizens privately dealt with pain, isolating it from their public lives.
Importance of Night of Stone
Night of Stone is a book that brings readers close to the horrors of living in Soviet Russia. The narrative is graphic, the words, memories, opinions, and emotions of the interviewees are real. While most history books give a sterile, fact-based survey of events, Night of Stone seeks to impress upon the reader the the miracle of survival that is exemplified in the relatives of those who perished during the decades of state terror and national scarcity during Soviet Rule.
Merridale, Catherine. Night of Stone: Death and Memory in Twentieth-Century Russia. New York: Viking, 2000.
Kerry Kubilius - A graduate of Ohio State University, Kerry has a BA in Russian and a BA in History of Art with a focus on Eastern European art. She also ...
