Word and Deed

56 hrs. 49 min.

Language Russian

Author Valentin Pikul

Narrator Alexander Bordukov

Description

A famous novel chronicling Valentin Pikul’s “Word and Deed” consists of two volumes. It is a rather harsh work—like Russia itself during the reign of Empress Anna Ioannovna. The author immerses the reader in the struggle of the aristocracy for power, the world of palace intrigues and coups. The country, quite literally, was filled with and held in thrall by foreigners—Birons, Ostermans, and Lejbmans—who began to feel like masters and live in luxurious residences. Meanwhile the common people had to languish in poverty, fear, and complete powerlessness.

Against the backdrop of the tragic events described in the novel, the author reveals the destinies of his characters—Prince Mikhail Golitsyn, Natasha Sheremeteva, Potap Suryadov, and others. People whose fates became dreadful, broken, and twisted.

But still, “Word and Deed” does not leave a sense of hopelessness. In it, the voice of the Russian person thunders with powerful anger against foreigners and oppressors. The novel awakens pride in the Russian nation—its unshakable spirit and its faith in itself.

Valentin Savvich Pikul loved bringing to the surface untouched layers of Russian history—frozen and dormant ones— and that determined his choice of subject. The author believed that the mid-18th century had been unfairly neglected by our historians and novelists. Work on the chronicle-novel “Word and Deed” lasted about ten years.

“Veronika’s wife—to everything, everything…”—this dedication to his assistant and faithful companion, who passed away in 1980, Pikul wrote on the manuscript. The contract with Lenizdat for publishing the book was dated 1965, but after a long string of misfortunes the novel saw the light much later: the first volume came out in 1974, and the second in 1975. The novel traveled a thorny path of approvals, reviews, and consultations. In 1988, when the book had already become a bibliographic rarity, the publishing house “Sovremennik” released a run of 250,000 copies of the four-volume set that included “Word and Deed.”