Midday darkness

Author: Arthur Koestler
Publisher:
Publication Date: 1999-10-01
Features: Not just questioning the soul. Midday Shadow is a powerful work set against the backdrop of the Soviet Communist Party's Great Purge of the 1930s. Because of its "anti-communist" content, it shook the world upon its release in 1941 and was therefore banned in socialist countries. In other parts of the world, it was repeatedly reprinted, translated into multiple languages, and became a bestseller favored by readers. Rubashov, a former Central Committee member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and a People's Commissar, was an old Bolshevik who had engaged in secret revolutionary leadership activities in capitalist countries in Europe, achieving great accomplishments for the revolution. After Stalin began the, Rubashov began to doubt the abnormal phenomena within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, particularly due to the contradiction between the goals and methods of the revolution. His revolutionary conscience felt deep unease and self-reproach, which led to Stalin's suspicion, resulting in his arrest and imprisonment. After enduring a brutal interrogation in prison, he eventually broke down mentally and confessed to trumped-up charges, later being executed.