[In 1965] Yevgeny Yevtushenko published a long poem ["Bratsk Hydroelectric Station"]—at once summary and programmatic for his own art, and intended to communicate the experience of the modern age and to connect this with the experience of the past, with the history of Russia. The poem unfolds a panorama of varied human destinies and ordeals, of work and struggle. As the author states in his Foreword, the unifying principle is the dispute between two themes: "the theme of unbelief," comprised in the monologues of an Egyptian pyramid, and the "theme of faith," expressed in the monologues of a hydroelectric station and by figures, episodes, and lyrical meditations connected with its construction. Before us arise the outlines of a vast monumental scheme, and indeed in respect to its size Yevtushenko's poem clearly exceeds the customary scale of most modern poems, just as it outwardly wishes to match the structure...