Within The Whirlwind

Human drama

Eagle Entertainment

R4 DVD

Evgenia Ginzburg, a Professor of Literature, wrote a book on her experiences in Stalinist Russia just after the Revolution. She was one of the casualties as Stalin ruthlessly purged the party of “intellectuals” – which meant anyone who might be a challenger to his power. This was a time when Stalin was paranoid about the various versions of Communism and any threat to his personal power. Lenin had the good sense to die before he fell victim to Stalin. Chekov, Trotsky and others were preaching a different kind of Communism and it was an offence punishable by death to be a Chekovist or to fail to denounce a suspect person. The charges were laughable – “conspiracy with a revolutionary group to overthrow the Peoples’ Party “ and similar nonsense. It was simply an excuse to purge the Party. The lucky ones were shot, the unlucky ones faced a prison sentence in a work camp in Siberia. Even if they did not have their sentence extended they would still never be allowed back into Russia.

Evgenia fell foul of the Party when one of her students fell under suspicion and was imprisoned as a Chekovist. She was also found guilty of failure to adequately supervise him, suspect him and denounce him. She was sentenced to ten years in a gulag in Siberia.

The cold, brutality and semi-starvation soon told on the prisoners. There were women who showed their worst side in the struggle to survive and others who were too weak to hold up for long. One of these, Lena, became Evgenia’s close friend and depended on her support. As the years dragged on Evgenia gradually lost the will to live. The thought that she would be released after ten years was gradually replaced by the conviction that her sentence, like so many others’, would simply be extended. The final blow was when a letter arrived telling her that her husband had been arrested and had died in the cells and her daughter had been sent to an orphanage in Leningrad where she had died in a German attack. Evgenia completely lost the will to live.

She was saved by the camp doctor, a German prisoner. He managed to lift her spirits again and convinced her to look forward to her release – after all, her “crime” was such a mild one and couldn’t justify an extended sentence. Unfortunately there were others who were not as lucky and Evgenia once again found herself supporting the weak ones, but now she herself had support from the doctor.

Although there are some elements of a love story this film is not another Doctor Zhivago. It is a story of survival under the inhuman conditions of the gulag. The film has been shot in subdued colour, creating a gloomy atmosphere for the grim prison life. Emily Watson as Evgenia is a strong actress and carries the story well. She is by no means glamorous, which is a nice change from traditional depiction of heroines. Her depiction shows that Evgenia’s survival is entirely due to her internal strength and has nothing to do with any belief in a deity. Thankfully there seems to be no careful sanitising of the nasty bits either. This makes the film far more realistic than most offerings of this type. It is well worth watching.

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