Die Suche nach der letzten Zahl.

Mozur, Joseph P., Jr.

Set in a small Chukchi hamlet on the rugged Arctic coast of Russian Chukotka, Yuri Rytkheu's novel Die Suche nach der letzten Zahl (The Search for the Last Number) portrays the clash of three cultures. The central event in the novel is the arrival in 1918 of Roald Amundsen's expedition to the North Pole. When the Danish research vessel becomes frozen in the ice, Amundsen is forced to spend the harsh polar winter with the natives. The epitome of European enlightenment, hard work, and discipline, Amundsen marvels at the lives of the primitive Arctic natives, yet is convinced that the inertia of their centuries-old ways makes them impossible to civilize. His attitude of "live and let live," however, earns him the respect of the Chukchi.

In the same year Alexei Pershin, a young Bolshevik filled with enthusiasm for Lenin's grandiose ideas, arrives at the hamlet to bring Soviet ways to Chukotka. Pershin seeks to enlighten all in the spirit of class warfare and constantly speaks of the brave new future dawning for the Chukchi. His promises, however, ring hollow for a people whose chief concerns center on survival on a day-by-day basis. The young Bolshevik teaches the natives Russian and eventually marries his best student, Umkeneu, who humorously becomes more Bolshevik than her instructor. Ironically, her father, the village blind man Gaimissin, sees through the Bolshevik dreams, yet readily believes Pershin's assurances that a Russian doctor would come someday and cure him of his blindness.

The central Chukchi hero in the novel is Kagot, a runaway shaman who flees from his tribal duties. Kagot's brief experience working on an American schooner brings him to the attention of Amundsen, who hires him as cook and cabin boy. Amundsen personally supervises Kagot's instruction and is pleased with the initial results. On board the research vessel, the shaman learns personal hygiene - for centuries the Chukchi never bathed, the layers of dirt helping to protect them from the arctic cold - and even masters the art of baking breakfast rolls in the best European tradition. Amundsen's experiment goes awry, however, when Kagot is taught mathematics. The concept of infinity is beyond him, and the shaman soon exhausts himself trying to find the "last number," which he presumes will have magical power. The world of the Chukchi is one of finites; everything, even the stars in the sky, can be counted if only one has the persistence. Kagot begins to write number after number in the notebooks given him by Amundsen's crew. When the no-nonsense Amundsen realizes that Kagot's fanatical quest for the "last number" is causing him to neglect his duties and hygiene, he fires the shaman.

Of course, Kagot's fanaticism is no less than that of Amundsen, who eventually perishes in his attempts to reach the elusive North Pole, or that of Pershin and the Bolsheviks, whose own "finite" worldview leads to the Gulag and "cult of the personality." In Die Suche nach der letzten Zahl Rytkheu shows how defenseless Chukchi culture was in maintaining its integrity against the onslaught of "science." As in all his works, the author brings to life his ancestors' distant culture by integrating into the plot a wealth of ethnographic information (albeit somewhat romanticized), and the reader readily identifies himself with the plight of the small nation. It is not the destruction of paradise Rytkheu depicts, but of a way of life that enabled a people to survive in the world's harshest climate - a remarkable testimony to humankind's tenacity and spirit. Unfortunately, in urban Russia today the primitive Chukchi are often a favorite topic for ethnic jokes. In his prose Rytkheu seeks to give his readers a view of his people that is more enduring.

Yuri Rytkheu (b. 1930) is redefining himself as a writer. Much of his pre-glasnost' work can be qualified as "socialist realist," with anti-Western asides, hollow positive heroes, and the requisite praise of Soviet achievements (see e.g. WLT 58:4, p. 623, and 61:4, p. 648). Now the author is seeking to distance himself from that past and in Die Suche nach der letzten Zahl has created a balanced portrayal of the complexities of Chukchi life during the dawn of Bolshevik rule in Chukotka. Rytkheu certainly has much to tell about his native people, and his recent work will continue to satisfy readers thirsting for the exotic. Charlotte and Leonard Kossuth have done an admirable job in rendering Rytkheu's prose into German.

Joseph P. Mozur Jr. University of South Alabama