They Should Have Bought the Cow

I've noticed that many critics say that this is more so the memoir of Osip Mandelstam written by his wife. For instance, Harrison E. Salisbury's blurb on the back of the book: "No work on Russia which I have recently read has given me so sensitive and searing insight into the hellhouse which Russia became under Stalin as this dedicated and brilliant work on poet Mandelstam by his devoted wife." But I do not believe this view is right, in any sense of the word. Of course she wanted to preserve her husband's work; she loved him,  so obviously she would work to preserve his life's work and his good name. But this is her story, her memoir, recounting the life she lived, and her marriage to the famous poet doesn't diminish her life.

In the book, it is no coincidence that she talks about tough women right after the chapter 64, "Cow or Poetry Reading?" M.'s poetry plan went nowhere, and could have basically backfired on them entirely if it turned out to be a trap. Nadezhda explains that M. "wanted to attract attention to himself," but this neither seems like the right time or place, an idea that she touches upon elsewhere in the book. Had they bought the cow (they always seem to fall into money, one way or another, as seen in the very same chapter when M. finds 300 roubles in his pocket), they would've had a change to regroup, recover, and regain their strength, which could only serve them well in the long run.

In the very next chapter, Nadezhda writes that they are now beggars. M.'s words are telling in that he sees this as the only step available and therefore takes announces it with a hint of resigned humor: "'We are beggars now,' M. declared, and he proposed we make a trip to Leningrad." The very next paragraph states: "It was noteworthy that in this last year M. and I no longer conversed as we had always done earlier, when I had often remembered things he said and the exact words he used. Now we exchanged inarticulate phrases or short interjections..." Again, had they found a way to provide for their basic sustenance, surely their words would not have become so listless.

It may be subtle on her part, but I believe that by juxtaposing these ideas, Nadezhda makes a point that her story and her actions are equally as important as her husband's. She even states that "At the beginning it was the women who were affected most, but in the long run they were the tougher and the more likely to survive." Where would M. be without Nadezhda? Not only would there be no memory of his work, but he probably would have died after jumping out of that window.

So while one can say that she is devoted to her husband, this certainly doesn't define her life or her memoir.