Essay Questions

What is Rubashov’s state of mind in the novel?

Rubashov is disillusioned; he has spent his entire adult life working towards the vision of Utopia as “advertised” by the old Communist regime, only to realize that the vision is just that - it is never going to come to be. He is therefore beginning to realize that his life’s work and his passion has been an exercise in futility.

The friendships and connections he made do not help him; Ivanov is charged with the task of interrogating him, which he does with a civility and honor that ultimately gets him killed. Like all older generations, the Old Bolshevik think that the new generation are vulgar and without civility, but with this civility comes a brutality that Rubashov is also disillusioned with. He realizes that the destination is not what was promised by the journey and is resigned to a date he realizes he can do nothing about.

Why is Rubashov’s situation ironic? Should we pity him?

Rubashov is going to be executed. We should feel sorry for him, except that his situation seems more like karmic justice than a horrible miscarriage of justice. Rubashov has spent his career doing to others what is now being done to him; he interrogated, he tortured to exact false confessions, he used techniques like sleep deprivation. What is happening to Rubashov is exactly what he has done to others and it is difficult to pity him for this reason.

What do we learn about Koestler’s view of the Soviet government?

The first thing we learn about Koestler’s view of the Soviet government is that he still fears them; a fear of reprisal causes him to use code names and euphemisms for the regime and for Stalin himself. We also learn that he despises them, because of the way in which he uses the plot of the novel to show that the actions of the government do not change even if the characters running the government do. He believes that the Communist regime are not selling a vision of Utopia, but a Utopian pipe dream held like a carrot on a stick for their beaten down followers.

Another interesting factor about Koestler’s view that we discover is that he draws parallels between the Communists and the Nazi regime; on the face of it their ideologies could not be further apart but in reality their methods and the way in which they execute masses for no reason without trial is horribly similar.