The Endless Steppe

The context of The Endless Steppe is a world divided by class and racial barriers. Under the Communist regime, Esther and her family are labeled capitalists and class enemies. As Jewish people, the Rudomins also face anti-Semitism and grapple with the loss of their extended family to the Holocaust.

However, The Endless Steppe constantly undermines these divisions. Esther’s understanding of classes, and her own place among them, points out how illogical it is for a child to be exiled as a capitalist. Esther wonders what a capitalist is, and on the cattle cars, she studies the other passengers in an attempt to figure out “the secret of [her] own villainy” (23). She decides that, among the group at the mine, “the only genuine capitalist there, from a Soviet point of view, was [her] father” (45). When the deportees are later granted amnesty, Esther “[hopes] that all of us capitalists would be on our best behavior from now on” (75). This statement demonstrates Esther’s innocence and adds an almost comical note to the idea that the Rudomins should be exiled as criminals.

Similarly, Esther is bewildered by the anti-Semitism she encounters. She wonders why one of her teachers hates her so much, and upon her return to Poland, she is shocked and frightened by the hateful slurs screamed at the returning deportees. Early in their exile, when the Rudomins live with the Siberian couple Nina and Nikita, Nina’s expectations of Jewish people are guided by stereotypes. She asks Raya for a cross to wear; when Raya explains that they don’t wear crosses because they are Jews, Nina doesn’t believe her. Esther writes: “When Mother told her that we were Jews, Nina stubbornly insisted that that was impossible since all Jews had crooked noses and the men wore long beards” (91). The anecdote exposes the absurdity of generalizing people based on race.

Esther’s own prejudices are also dismantled. At the Siberian market, Esther is amazed to see that the children there are “just like the children in Vilna” (69). Raised in an upper-class home, Esther is horrified to learn that “Vanya the bum” has been assigned to share a hut with them. As she gets to know him, however, he transforms into his true identity, Ivan Petrovich. Esther recalls: “But as Ivan Petrovich came to regard himself differently, so did the villagers: he became much less a bum and much more just another human being cast off on the great Siberian steppe” (138). Esther, a supposed capitalist, sees Ivan as a fellow human begin rather than a beggar.

One of the most difficult hatreds Esther grapples with is her own hatred toward German prisoners of war, soldiers who may have even been involved in the massacre of her own family. The village people cheer when a boy injures a German soldier by throwing a stone, but Esther notes that “all the time, the boy was screaming, ‘You killed my father,’ over and over again” (224). This detail complicates the scene, highlighting the pain and grief that the boy’s hatred stems from and the suffering of war in general.

Throughout the book, common ground between people—despite racial or class divisions—is evident. For example, even though she is an exile in Siberia, Esther has experiences common to many teenagers. Writing as an adult, the author observes: “A young girl’s heart is indestructible. Perpetually hungry and cold, in the land of exile, I fell in in love for the first time” (214). Common ground is often expressed through beauty and small acts of kindness. Soon after arriving in Siberia, Esther sees flowers that remind her of her grandfather, who told her that “there is always some good in people who love flowers” (6). Esther writes:

Once, through the dust, I saw a patch of flowers next to a hut. I remembered what Grandfather Solomon had said about people who loved flowers, and I thought anyone who loved flowers enough to make them grow here must have more than a little good in him (41).

Signs of goodness in people are quickly evident in Siberia; for example, Siberian girls sneak a juicy watermelon to the Polish deportees at the gypsum mine, and Makrinin, the Soviet manager at the mine, treats the deportees with respect. Over and over again in The Endless Steppe, the divisions constructed between people and groups are undermined, and common threads of experience and compassion are strengthened.