Neglected Works — Bill Broder

Neglected Works; Volume Two contains two plays: The Sphynx of Kiev and Tolstoy's Wife. Both plays reveal how the small battles of hearth, friendship, and love shape history and underlie the effort to remain human in times bedeviled by a brutal destiny.The Sphynx of Kiev narrates the sequence of political events leading to the first Russian revolution of 1905. During this time the leading revolutionary party broke into a hard line faction, the Bolsheviks, and a more moderate faction, the Mensheviks. The play dramatizes the importance of Lenin's personal relationships, the death of his brother, his marriage, and the break-up with his close comrade Martov as he pursues a radical politics. At the core of this play is the drama of the warm friendship between a young man, who had led protests in Russia, and his adored mentor, Lenin. The shocking breakdown of this relationship when the youth attempts to differ from his mentor on theoretical matters leads to the climax of the play. Lenin's behavior in this obscure event foretells precisely the ruthless course of Lenin's political career and the violence of the 1917 Revolution.Tolstoy's Wife depicts Sonya Tolstoy's struggle for the love of her husband, Leo Tolstoy-a struggle intimately shaped by her belief in the values that shaped his great novels. She contends with Tolstoy's fear of death and his longing for salvation that leads him to abandon fiction for a form of prophetic Christianity. In the course of this struggle, Tolstoy enlists their daughter in his mission, thus destroying the possibility of romance and marriage in her life.