Lyudmila Petrushevskaya: Bravely Exposing the Depths of Human Suffering During the Soviet Union and Beyond

Abstract

Lyudmila has played an important role in Soviet and post-Soviet literature, as a voice speaking out for change in censorship. Despite her work being repeatedly banned, she continued to write extensively, and it was not until glasnost and perestroika that her realistic portrayal of all parts of life for the urban Russian citizen, which often was dark and dismal, was unbanned and released for public acknowledgment. Gaining widespread and even international popularity during perestroika, some would say Petrushevskaya was ahead of her time when compared with other women’s prose writers, as well as practitioners of chernukha, a gloomy Russian literary style. After thoroughly researching Petrushevskaya’s writing, five observed common themes of her writing are defined; human suffering and examining the human psyche, unfiltered honesty and implementation taboo physical phenomena, prominent female characters, representing the ordinary person, and family and relationship dysfunction. Within this thesis is included a translation of one of Petrushevskaya’s short stories named “That Kind of Girl” (“Такая девочка” 1988), along with a literary analysis of the piece. This thesis aims to show readers how Lyudmila Petrushevskaya influenced Soviet readers before and after the fall of glasnost, as well as how the author was influenced by events in her own life. Additionally, it intends to give English-speaking audiences a deeper glimpse into the realities of Russians during communist times, examining how Lyudmila Petrushevskaya utilized her voice to portray the inner sufferings of humans in a raw, unfiltered manner, despite active efforts to censor the talented writer.