SOURCE: “A Note on Pilnyak's Tale of the Unextinguished Moon,” in Soviet Studies, Vol. 24, No. 4, April, 1973, pp. 550–53.

In the following essay, Frankel elucidates the moral of Pilnyak's Tale of the Unextinguished Moon.

Boris Pilnyak's Tale of the Unextinguished Moon is usually summed up, briefly or in some detail, simply as a story which relates in fictional form the death of Frunze. Pilnyak's Gavrilov, like Frunze, is a famous general who is ordered by a high political figure (in Frunze's case it was said to be Stalin) to undergo an operation which medical advisers deemed unnecessary. In both cases the general died. Pilnyak is described as being either politically naive or personally courageous in depicting this event. His introduction disclaiming a connection between the death of Frunze and his own fictional tale is noted with a smile, as this is understood to be a feeble attempt to escape blame...