The Tragedy of Idealism
This nonfiction book is based on the true but tragic event of a naval officer Valery Sablin. The date of the incident is November of 1975. The authors Young and Braden have accumulated many documents that were once classified, letters, and interviews of those involved. The book discuss about the current politics at the time, the politics of the past, and how this information was leaked to the western countries. It deals with hard ship of the Russian people and a comparison between the naval personnel of the USSR and the USA. The comparison will show the disparity and the similarity in the living conditions on board ship, on land for the dependants and the interaction between the crews. This book reads like a novel and not a dry book of facts.
The authors reveal the background of Valery Sablin from childhood through his appointment to the Russian guided missile ship Storozhevoy. Sablin?s physiological profile explains the actions taken, the friends he made, the choices made for his career, and the beliefs, which drove Sablin to the actions taken. It has been said that there is nothing more dangerous than a person who takes his beliefs seriously. This is never truer than with Valery Sablin. It is amazing how Dostoyevski?s main character Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment parallels with Sablin in many aspects. The major different is Raskolnikov?s punishment was for evil. Sablin?s punishment came because of the intended good that was supposed to come from the mutiny. The State perception in both cases is the acts are evil and just punishment was dispensed.
At the end of the book, the authors make a comparison between Sablin and the fictional character Marko Ramius created by Tom Clancy. The comparisons are between the action that transpires the development of the characters, and the ending of the stories.
This true-life drama is more gripping than the novel produced by Clancy only because the tragedy is real.
