The “Psalm” of Gorenstein in summary


The novel consists of five parts – each tells of one of the plagues of the Lord that struck the earth, as the prophet Ezekiel prophesied.

Part one – “The Parable of the Lost Brother” – tells of the second execution – the famine. The scene of action is hungry Ukraine at the time of collectivization; 1933 In a village tea-house, Mary, a beggar girl, tries to get something out of Christ for the sake of, but no one gives it to her – except for a Jewish boy who shares with her the unclean bread of exile. The village people are outraged by the stranger’s act; bread from the girl is selected. The boy who gave his bread is Dan, the Aspid, the Antichrist, the brother of Christ the Messiah. Through the revelations of the prophets, he communicates with the Lord, who sent him to the land, to Russia, as this people lied to the Lord, refused him – and thus replaced the yoke of the wooden with the yoke of iron.

The girl Maria together

with her younger brother Vasya return to their starving village. Mother decides to divide the family – to throw some of the children out of someone else, just leave somebody; she leaves to work in another city. Before leaving, she leads Maria and Vasya to the city; hungry children the stranger again gives bread, but the mother throws out “not our, not Orthodox” piece. Later, in the city, children will once again ask for money from the Antichrist, but this time they will be stopped by a policeman – begging is prohibited.

The children abandoned by the mother are taken to the receiver. They are given a guide so that they can return home with his help. On the way the conductor rapes Maria and escapes. The children again fall into the shelter; at night the watchman tells them a fairy tale about the “God’s Child” “Jesus Christ”, tortured by the Jews. Maria is taken somewhere out of town. The girl runs away; being alone in a snowy field, she wanders over it, weeping God’s weeping, from which the heart is enlightened. Maria is looking for her older sister Xenia,

she has been living with her for about a year. Once she becomes an unnecessary witness of family scenes, and she is sent back to the village. Nobody is glad to see her there either; crying from injustice, Maria again wanders around the field; there she meets Dan, the Antichrist. When asked about the reason for tears, the girl answers: “Because,

Maria goes to Kerch, to her mother. After a while, the mother dies, Maria becomes a port prostitute. Once, hungry, she meets Dan again, he gives her unclean bread. Maria pays him with her love. The Antichrist goes further; the earth and the people for a lie on the Lord is destined the second punishment – the sword. Maria, convicted of prostitution and vagrancy, gives birth in the prison from Dan’s son – Vasya. In 1936 she died.

The second part begins with an argument about imitating the Lord – instinctively or through the mind. The author defends the idea that Jews are not better or worse than others; But this people is remarkable for their prophets who could listen to the Lord. In the “Parable of the wickedness of the wicked” it is told about the girl Annushka. She lives in Rzhev with her mother and two brothers; one of them is killed by the sister. One day, thieves come to Annushka; during the investigation the girl points to an innocent person – they put him in jail. Mothers give a new apartment. One day Dan comes to Annushka, the Antichrist. Considering the murals on the walls, he reflects on the fact that the churchmen replaced the churchmen with an idol, emaciated by the Alexandrian monk; now, in the spring of 1941, this monk, in turn, was replaced by the “Assyrian bath-house” – Stalin. Above the Rzhev barracks Antichrist is the vision of the sword – the words of the Lord come true: “Woe to the city of blood, and I will lay a great fire.” The war begins. Annushka’s mother is dying; the girl enters the orphanage. Annushka, during the occupation had time to talk with the Germans, she learned to hate Jews. The child-child of Sulamith irritates her. Envying that during the evacuation of the Jewess came to a good foster mother, Annushka informs the Germans that Sulamith is non-Russian. The Jew is killed, Annushka is sent to Germany, to work. Before her departure, Dan comes to the train and asks the girl to read aloud a sheet of paper in Germany, which he hands her. Antichrist must curse the Germans, as the Lord once through Jeremiah cursed Babylon. The prophet himself can not enter the wicked land. Woe to the city of blood, and I will lay out a large fire. “The war begins, Annushka’s mother dies, the girl gets into the orphanage.” Annushka, who had time to talk to the Germans during the occupation, learned to hate the Jews. “The child’s girl, Sulamith, annoys her, envying the evacuation to a good foster mother, Annushka informs the Germans that Sulamith is non-Russian, she is killed by the Jew, Annushka is sent to Germany, to work. “Before her departure, Dan comes to the train and asks the girl to read aloud the sheet of paper in Germany t. The Antichrist must curse the Germans, as the Lord once through Jeremiah cursed Babylon. The Prophet himself can not come into unholy land. Woe to the city of blood, and I will lay out a large fire. “The war begins, Annushka’s mother dies, the girl gets into the orphanage.” Annushka, who had time to talk to the Germans during the occupation, learned to hate the Jews. “The child’s girl, Sulamith, annoys her, envying the evacuation to a good foster mother, Annushka informs the Germans that Sulamith is non-Russian, she is killed by the Jew, Annushka is sent to Germany, to work. “Before her departure, Dan comes to the train and asks the girl to read aloud the sheet of paper in Germany t. The Antichrist must curse the Germans, as the Lord once through Jeremiah cursed Babylon. The Prophet himself can not come into unholy land. has learned to hate Jews. The child-child of Sulamith irritates her. Envying that during the evacuation of the Jewess came to a good foster mother, Annushka informs the Germans that Sulamith is non-Russian. The Jew is killed, Annushka is sent to Germany, to work. Before her departure, Dan comes to the train and asks the girl to read aloud a sheet of paper in Germany, which he hands her. Antichrist must curse the Germans, as the Lord once through Jeremiah cursed Babylon. The prophet himself can not enter the wicked land. has learned to hate Jews. The child-child of Sulamith irritates her. Envying that during the evacuation of the Jewess came to a good foster mother, Annushka informs the Germans that Sulamith is non-Russian. The Jew is killed, Annushka is sent to Germany, to work. Before her departure, Dan comes to the train and asks the girl to read aloud a sheet of paper in Germany, which he hands her. Antichrist must curse the Germans, as the Lord once through Jeremiah cursed Babylon. The prophet himself can not enter the wicked land. so that in Germany she read aloud a sheet of paper, which he hands her. Antichrist must curse the Germans, as the Lord once through Jeremiah cursed Babylon. The prophet himself can not enter the wicked land. so that in Germany she read aloud a sheet of paper, which he hands her. Antichrist must curse the Germans, as the Lord once through Jeremiah cursed Babylon. The prophet himself can not enter the wicked land.

One of the women, stolen with Annushka in slavery, asks Dan to take her child, the girl Pelageya. The Germans, who noticed a Jew, try to kill him, but Antichrist can not be killed.

Annushka fulfills Dan’s mission – the wicked Germany, who hates God and the people he loves, is cursed. Anna herself soon dies of fever.

The action “Proverbs about adultery”, which tells of the third execution – lust, occurs in 1948. In the Volga town of Bor there lives the family Kolosov – front-line soldier Andrey, his wife Vera and two daughters – Tasia and Ustya. Nearby lives a strange Jewish family – Dan Yakovlevich and his daughter Rufina, a Jewess completely unlike. Vera Koposova, whose relationship with her husband is very difficult, having met Dan, falls in love with him. Realizing that she can not directly seduce a Jew, she takes her daughter Tasya with him. She also falls in love with Dana, they meet. About these visits the father learns. Together with the informer Pavlov they try to kill the Antichrist, but this is impossible. Faith is to Dana and offers his intercession in exchange for the fact that he will sleep with her. Antichrist, a loving daughter, is forced to commit adultery with his mother. Rufina accidentally witnessed their meeting, and Tasia sees everything and talks about the mother’s sin to her father. He first tries to kill his wife, then on the same day dies of grief. Rufina, meanwhile, escapes into the forest; there she is nearly raped by the lascivious anti-Semite Pavlov; the girl is rescued only by the appearance of two bears. After the experience, Ruth realizes that she is a prophetess, and reconciles with her father, a curse cleansed from her sin.

Part four, the basis of which is “The Parable of the Disease of the Spirit”, tells about the persecution of Jews in the early 50’s. The parable is prefaced with the introduction – the author’s meditation on Russian anti-Semitism. For this spiritual illness, God sends a fourth execution – a disease, a pestilence.

In Moscow, in the Ivolgin family, consisting of a Jewish art critic, his Russian wife Claudia and their son Saveliy, two children come – Nina and Misha, from Vitebsk. They are the nephews of Claudia; their parents were arrested on charges of Belarusian nationalism. Ivolgins, people who are afraid of everything, hide their Jewishness in every way, refuse to give birth to children. Behind the family of the Ivolgins, two of their neighbors in the apartment are silently watching – the janitor-Jew Dan Yakovlevich and his daughter. In the country at this time there are mass exposures of Jews-cosmopolitans. The cowardly Ivolgin, who is trying to protect himself from arrest by participating in the persecution of his people, was also soon arrested. At the first interrogation, the investigator kills him.

After 1953, a new admirer appeared at the widowed Claudia – the old man Ilovaisky, a reasonable anti-Semite. He leads with Dan a long debate about Russian Christianity. As an example, the old man breaks the cup: it’s whole, it’s simple; broken, becomes complicated. Dan, the Antichrist, feels that it is impossible to argue Ilovaisky – Christianity is too distorted in the Greek and medieval interpretation. The word spoken of by the Gospel of John and Ilovaisky, in fact, only degrades the meaning.

The preface to the fifth part – “The Parable of the Broken Chalice” – is the author’s argument about the relationship of Judaism and Christianity. The heroes of the fifth part are the children of Antichrist from different mothers: Andrei Koposov, son of Vera, Vasily Korobkov, son of Mary, and Pelageya-Ruth, prophetess, adopted daughter of Dan. Vasily, Andrey and Saveliy Ivolgin study at the Literary Institute. Andrew himself comes to the Bible, comprehending its meaning – the opposite of the Christian. Once young people converge on a fashion show in the Tretyakov Gallery; Pelagia learns in the militant anti-Semite of Basil’s son of his father. He, cursing the “Jews”, makes a scandal. Convinced of the similarity with his father – “Jew”, Basil hung.

His mother, Vera Koposova, comes to Andrei. She informs him that he is the son of Dan. Andrew, “good seed”, meets his father; The assembled family quietly celebrates the Jewish religious holiday.

Being in a half-madness from unquenched lust, Saveliy creates in the alchemical bulb of two “philosophical little men.” In conversations with them, he will learn the answers to the most important questions – about the ways to God, about truth, good and evil, about the rational justification of faith in God. He finally falls into insanity, and he is taken to a mental hospital.

Pelageya, a virgin living, feels that it’s time to become a woman. Following the example of Lot’s daughters, she seduces her father, the Antichrist. He, feeling that the design of the Lord is being realized, rapes her in intoxication. The prophetess Pelageya conceives a son from the Antichrist. He who has accomplished all that is destined for him on earth dies. Before he dies, he instructs Andrei’s son, who goes to God in the most difficult way – through the mind, through doubt.

The son of Pelagia and the Antichrist, also Dan, listens to the mother’s recitation of the prophet Veneraiai, long before Christ expressed the same ideas.

Andrei, Pelageya and his son, and Saveliy, who was cured, go to the woods outside the city. Looking at the harsh winter nature, they comprehend the essence of the antagonism of Christ and Antichrist: the first – the defender of sinners and persecutors, the second – protects the victims of the persecuted. The payment for persecution is approaching, the most terrible penalty is the fifth – thirst for the word of the Lord, from which Christ will not save.


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The “Psalm” of Gorenstein in summary