For The Good of The Cause

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For The Good of The Cause

• A novel by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

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Summary

• The novel is set at the beginning of the school
  year at a small technical school in a provincial
  Russian town, around the time of the
  post-Stalinist thaw. During the previous
  summer, the students and teachers from the
  technical school got together to work on building
  a new school complex.
• During the summer, they only got to finish one
  of the school buildings and had just begun
  working on the second. However, once the school
  year was about to begin, the Town committee
  decided to use the new building for a new
  research institute for the town, rather than the
  school it was supposed to be.
• The story then focuses on the battle being
  fought between the teachers and students and the
  town council for the use of the building.

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Themes

• The main focus of the novel is on moral, rather
  than political themes.
• A major theme of this novel is the clash between
  right and wrong.
• A smaller theme in the novel is a focus on
  Solzhenitsyns opinion that, although Stalin was
  already long dead at the time of publication,
  little Stalin's perpetuate Stalinism

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Quotations

• It was Knorozovs boast that he never went
  back on his word. As it had been once in Moscow
  with Stalins word, so it was still today with
  Knorozovs word It was never changed and never
  taken back. And although Stalin was long dead,
  Knorozov was still here. He was a leading
  proponent of the strong willed school of
  leadership, and he saw in this his greatest
  virtue. He could not imagine any other way of
  running things. -Page 83

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Quotations (continued)

• Grachikov was neither convinced nor crushed by
  Knorozovs words, which fell like steel girders,
  and he felt he was coming to one of those
  critical moments in his life when his legs were
  rooted to the spot and he had to stand his
  ground. Because once again it was a clash or
  right and wrong. -page 85

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Quotations (Continued)

• And only when his task was done did he turn to
  Fydor to say
• Thats the way it has to be, dear Comrade.
• Why does it have to be? Fydor asked angrily,
  with a shake of his head. For the good of the
  cause, I suppose. Is that it? Well just you
  wait! And he clenched his fists. But he could no
  longer speak. He turned away and strode off
  quickly towards the road, muttering to himself
• Just wait, you pig! Just wait, you swine!
• (page 94)

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Works Cited

• Solzhenitsyn, Alexander. For The Good of The
  Cause. New York Praeger Publishers, 1964.
• Ericson, Edward E. Solzhenitsyn- The Moral
  Vision. Grand Rapids, Michigan. William B.
  Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1980.