new representation
the tragedy of Russia’s river fleet during the Revolution
Aleksei Ivanov’s new Siberian novel THE FIGHTING RIVERS shows Russia at the beginning of the 20th century as a rapidly developing country with a huge advanced river fleet, almost entirely in private hands. This entire complex economic massif was practically blown up by the tragedy of 1917. The main plot happens within one and a half years only, during the odyssey of the smuggler „Levshino“, who in the battles on the Kama River in 1918-1919 has enough time to fight for the Reds, the Whites, the Greens and for himself.
A novel about a seemingly distant war. But under the magnifying glass of Ivanov‘s prose we see a truth hidden deep within that extends to contemporary Russia.