Motya

 Motya

“Adamova-Sliozberg has a moving story about meeting a girl called Motya, who was jailed in 1936 for leaving her place of banishment without permission to go to her native village, Svetlovidovo near Tarussa, two thousand kilometers on foot! Sportsmen are given medals for that sort of thing. She had been exiled with her parents in 1929 when she was a little schoolgirl, and deprived of schooling forever. Her teacher's pet name for her was, 'Motya, our little Edison': the child was not only an excellent pupil, but had an inventive turn of mind, had rigged up a sort of turbine worked by a stream, and invented other things for the school. After seven years she felt an urge just to look once more at the log walls of her unattainable school- and for that 'little Edison' went to gulag and then to camp.’”- (page 426)

We learn in the Gulag Archipelago that there were children and adolescents who decided to resist and fight against socialism keeping their faith in GOD Almighty. We learn that there were cases where the Soviet Bolsheviks had envy against children and adolescents seen in the stories of Zoya and Shurka. We learn that socialism does not look to help the elders, adults, and children and instead attempts to lead to the practice of sin and vices. We learn that Motya was another individual that was envied by the Soviet Bolsheviks.

In the story of Motya, we learn that the child's parents were exiled and because of their exile, Motya was prevented from going to school. We learn that Motya was able to learn in the village where they were exiled, and be an extraordinary child who was able to create innovations. The Soviet Bolsheviks had decided to prevent Motya from going to school due to the parent's exile. Amidst the obvious incongruency of socialism that states that it wants to “improve the lives of the working class”, we learn that it did not actually speak truth.

We learned that Motya was able to create a turbine and created other inventions. She was named by her teacher in the village, 'little Edison,’ after the well known inventor Thomas Alva Edison. We learn that Motya was able to keep learning in the village of exile. She decided to go to see the walls of the school of her village that she was not allowed to go to due to her parent's exile. She walked for more than two thousand kilometers on foot and reached the school. We learn that for choosing to go see the school, Motya was sent to gulag. This describes the envy that exists in socialism where Soviet Bolsheviks do not like the manner that individuals can improve themselves through learning, increasing virtues, and developing maturity.

The Soviet Bolshevik socialists had envy of Motya for being able to be inventive and quite extraordinary. She was able to persevere despite the attempts of Soviet Bolsheviks to prevent her from learning. We learn that this describes the discrepencies between the temporary lies that socialism states and the truth that describes how socialism does not help anyone. We are able to read about other stories where the Soviet Bolsheviks did not like competition and individuals improving themselves by building two story houses where there were rows of one story houses or brick houses where there were log houses. Essentially, there was no reason and no logic towards the envy of the socialists because it was all arbitrary, authoritarian, totalitarian, and due to negative emotions describing anger, hate, envy, and coveting. Christianity instructs on the need to remove and avoid such emotions that do not help anyone.