The ‘Man-as-Gaze’ in Grigory Beloretsky’s Essays on the Russo Japanese War

This article examines Without an Idea, a book of essays by Ural writer Grigory Beloretsky (G. P. Larionov) written by the author under the impression of his participation in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 as a military doctor. Beloretsky’s book was published in 1906 and received positive reviews from critics, but was denounced, arrested and confiscated. This story had a profound effect on the writer’s mental state; he continued to serve in various military garrisons in Russia, and in 1913 he committed suicide. The futility and meaninglessness of the Russo-Japanese War is the leitmotif of Beloretsky’s book. From the first essays to the last, his emotional distress and inability to comprehend the situation, which is shared by many soldiers and officers, grows. Unlike the more analytical, rationally structured essays On the Japanese War by V. V. Veresaev, Beloretsky’s essays are emotional and at times openly subjective. He describes the horrors of war, including bloodshed and death, while also highlighting the beauty of the surrounding foreign world (Russian troops advancing through Manchuria). He identifies features that bring Russians and Chinese people closer together. The article emphasises Beloretsky’s unique perspective as an eyewitness and observer of events. The writer’s focus on visuality, which at times contradicts his humanistic position and his subtle and intense human sensitivity (close observations and descriptions of the wounded, executions of civilians, etc.), is analysed using the post-structuralist practices of M. Foucault, G. Bataille, and V. Podoroga. The author concludes that in Beloretsky’s book, the artist, a man of vision, becomes the bearer of the dominant disciplinary model of knowledge-power: he reveals what is hidden from the reader, forcing them to look and see, to be imbued with a gaze associated with pain and suffering, with his personal bewilderment at a world descending into absurdity.