Mikhail Zoschenko

Any good writer documents the social situation of their time and helps to project the future of their society, whether through political essays, poems, or short stories. Mikhail Zoschenko’s short stories proved to be radical in nature, leading many Soviet authorities to criticize his writings as “anti-Soviet.” However, his writings are not so much critical of the Soviet government as they are satirical and reflective. The stories critically examine the structure of the Soviet society and give light to the social and political condition that causes revolution.

One such story, “The Adventures of an Ape,” makes a strong statement about Zoschenko’s Soviet life. The satirical language creates a simple scene where an ape escapes from the zoo following an explosion from an air attack. The story then follows the ape through the streets of town on his adventures. The ape in the story could easily represent the people, or should represent man. The ape begins in the story under the restrictions of the cage. This could be likened to life under a Communist or Socialist regime. Life with heavy governmental authority over all aspects of life equate

From there, naturally, it could leap on your head. But the main thing

And to drink tea out of a glass. As far as jumping is concerned, I

“I guarantee that the monkey won’t eat anything more of yours.

I will train it like a person. I will teach it to eat with a teaspoon.

The boy’s Grandma has the only conflict with keeping the ape in the house. She dislikes the monkey because he is different, because she is not used to his ways. On page 179, “It will frighten me with its inhuman face.” She assumes the ape will do harm to her and her belongings, because she refuses to adapt or even to try and understand the ape. She refers to either of them leaving the apartment. “I absolutely refuse to live in the same apartment with an ape…Can it be that I should move straight over to the zoo?” (180). This could mean that either she will stick to the strict form of government that she knows, that the zoo represents, or she will force the monkey back into that same structure of government. Either way, the zoo represents a kind of peace to her, as a constant, and something that is not threatened.

Zoschenko was not an anti-Soviet writer, but rather one who stood up for his country but who realized that the people are an important factor in a government system. By examining the social condition and sharing it through his writings, he brought light to the ineffective governing of his fascist leaders. He was very much a Soviet, who held fast to the ideals of the society, who wanted the best for his people, and who was strong enough to stand up to the government and tell them what they were doing wrong. By writing in this satirical style, Zoschenko brings life and resilience to the poor and desolate social and political system that was Russia. In the end of the story, “The Adventures of and Ape,” the monkey is returned to the boy and they live happily into the future. The last line of the story serves as the underlying moral that Zoschenko sought to express. “I’ve educated him like a man, and now all children and even some grown-ups can take him as an example” (183). By looking to adapt governmental ideas, and embracing change, a society can achieve contentment and live to understand each other and learn from each other to serve the future generations of a nation.

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