Story of Phkentz

The Story of an Outsider
Russian 207

Andrei Kazimirovich Sushinksy is the protagonist and the narrator in the Sci-Fi thriller “Pkhentz.” He is revealed as an alien that has crash-landed on earth, and is believed to be the only one from his planet to survive. In the story Andrei is very conscious of his appearance and talks extensively about reality and appearances. Much like the writers during the Russian Revolution who had to be very aware of the way they appeared to act, they had to disguise their true thoughts and writings. Tertz is essentially portraying how he felt like Andrei, because he was a writer and was forced to not act himself. Andrei, talks a lot how his body is changing and has to keep his human form at all costs. Like the writers during the Russian Revolution it was the utmost importance to keep conforming for the fear of getting punished, deported or even killed. Tertz is representing a conformist getting censored that cannot write freely through Andrei. Only way Tertz thought he could write in Russia about what he truly felt and not get persecuted was through stories like an alien narrative. Andrei’s surroundings are very foreign to him, and he calls them out as being weird. If Tertz were to call out flaws within the new system he would surely be punished, he was smart enough to use stories like Pkhentz to disguise his distaste of the system through Andrei. Again through Andrei, Tertz shows the pride of his character even though he has to portray something he is not. In the end he cannot remember things simple things like his language and how he used to live, much like what happens under censorship, you forget how you did things before, all you know is what you are told to do and how you are supposed to live now . Tertz is able to use Andrei’s interactions with humans as a metaphor of highlighting soviet writer’s censorship as a result of the Russian revolution.

Andrei knows in order to survive he must disguise himself as a human; because he does this he feels deep emotional pain. Like Andrei, Tertz knew he would only survive in Russia if he disguised his true thoughts in his writings. Andrei manages to disguise himself as a hunchback, the lowliest appearance of a human. A women who lives in the same apartment as him named Veronica, takes a liking to him, but he rejects her for the fears of revealing his true identity. Andrei finds his human body repulsive and yearns for contact and association with his own kind. This is evident when he gets excited when he comes into contact with another hunchback Leopold, whom he thinks is an alien. Andrei uses the code word “Pkhentz” a sacred name which he remembers. Leopold immediately fails to understand this word, and we can see through Andrei’s persistency to get him to recognize this word, that Andrei really misses contact with other aliens. Through Andrei, Tertz is showing how it was hard for authors to find other authors that were willing to speak out post Revolution.

Pkhentz can be read as a satirical allegory on the disastrous consequences of the Russian Revolution, also as a commentary from Tertz on the difficulty of creative artists in during the time. Andrei’s mistaken crash-landing can be seen as similar to the Bolshevik seizure of power. In the story the ship took seven months to land which was approximately the same amount of time between the Russian revolution in February 1917, and the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917. Like the Russian Revolution, the crash landing by Andrei’s ship was unplanned. Andrei being the sole survivor of the crash must adapt to this new hostile environment he has found himself in. He explains “the air was wrong, the light was wrong, and all the gravities and pressures were strange.” Like authors felt post Russian Revolution, the censorship made them feel strange and out of place, like Andrei they would feel out of place. Tertz then draw comparisons between Andrei’s hostile environments to the hostile political environment writers faced after the revolution.

The author personally identifies himself with the alien by giving him the name Andrei, signifying the story is likely based on himself. The alien assumes the identity of being Half-Russian and half-polish which Tertz is. In the story Andrei loses his eye in 1934, which is significant because in 1934 convention, delegates approved a party resolution establishing a doctrine of socialist realism as the sole standard of writing. This doctrine essentially killed all creative works from authors as well as put the pressure on writer to conform to if for the fear of being punished if they did not. Tertz did not agree with this doctrine and objected it through his works which he ended up being punished for and sent to prison. We can see the hardships authors faced simply by identifying that Tertz is Andrei Sinyavskys fake “pen name.” His fake pen name was eventually deemed illegal and was sent to prison.

Throughout the story, Tertz associate the position of the alien as an outsider and nonconformist with that of the writer in the Soviet Union. Near the end of the story if where we see Tertz suggesting the need to overcome the cultural isolation that Russian writers have experienced, by being separated by their Western European neighbours. Andrei starts to apostrophize his lost native language, which he vaguely remembers, and uses two western European words, bonjour (French), and gutenabend (German). This essentially is Tertz appeal to re-establish the relationship between the Soviet literature and a lost linguistic and cultural tradition represented by both the pre-evolutionary Russian literature, and the literature of Western Europe. We also see through the end of the story that Andrei determines to wait until the first frost and then ignite himself with a match. This is his proudness showing in that he does not want the humans to examine him after he dies. In the meantime, he wants to gaze at the heavens, attempting to distinguish the star from which he came, and longs for his native land. This can be read as Tertz displaying the difficulty under censorship to remember ones original views, but at the same time still longing for society previously experienced.

By using Andrei as the narrator Tertz is able to compel the reader to view the world through the eyes of an alien. This technique presents the reader with unusual perspective on human habits and customs. The simplest elements of human life become very complex, such as his distaste in human clothing. Andrei’s character is one that is proud and has high self-worth. Tertz satiric method is at its best when Andrei is contemplating his fate, if his true identity were to be revealed. He says academics would rush to examine him, question him, and interrogate him in indifferent of his feelings and wishes. He says he would have been commercially exploited through films and poetry. He goes even further to claim that “ladies would wear green lipstick, and have their hate made to look like cacti. Children and streets would be named after him, and he would become as famous as one of the most famous in the word like Hercules and Gulliver.” By associating Andrei with Hercules, it reinforces the fact that the alien is the protagonist and hero of the story. Like Andrei, Gulliver has made fantastic voyages around the world and views his surroundings from perspective of an outsider. Tertz thus reaffirms the value of parody and make-believe as a helpful understanding to the shortcomings of human beings, their imperfections, and their shared agreements.

The story Pkhentz is one that makes the readers think of what life would be like from the outside. Andrei being an alien gives us this insight and through him Tertz is able to give the insight into what creative writers faced post Revolution. Andrei feels an emotional pain not being able to show his true self. This is what writers must have faced because they could not reveal their true thoughts because of the creative doctrine. This story conveys the realities writers felt as a result of the Russian Revolution. Through Andrei, Tertz tells us an emotional tale of an alien that must endure this pain in order to not attract attention to himself. This hostile environment is one that is parallel to one writers faced. Andrei longs for contact with other like him but does not find it. The apostrophizing at the end is the climax of the story and the main suggestion Tertz leaves us with. It is essentially a suggestion to re-establish the relationship between the Soviet literature and a lost linguistic and cultural tradition represented by both the pre-evolutionary Russian literature, and the literature of Western Europe. Tertz is able to use Andrei’s interactions with humans in the story as a metaphor of highlighting soviet writer’s censorship as a result of the Russian revolution.

--------------------------------------------
[ 1 ]. Brown , Deming. "Slavic Review." Art of Andrei Siniavsky. 29.4 (1970): 663-681.
[ 2 ]. Brown , Deming. "Slavic Review." Art of Andrei Siniavsky. 29.4 (1970): 663-681.
[ 3 ]. Brown , Deming. "Slavic Review." Art of Andrei Siniavsky. 29.4 (1970): 663-681.