Petrograd

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Yr hyn wnaeth fy nharo i gyntaf wrth ddarllen y gwaith hwn oedd fod gan yr awdur yr hyder i fynd i'r afael a'r fath destun. Nid yw'r nofel ond y gyntaf mewn trioleg ac mae rhywbeth mwy na'r teitl, y pwnc, a'r maint (541 tudalen) sy'n eich atgoffa o'r nofelau mawr Rwsiaidd. Mae rhywun yn synhwyro y byddai Tolstoi a Dostoevsky yn gwerthfawrogi'r gamp hon.

Cawsom ein herio o'r blaen gan nofelau blaengar William Owen Roberts gyda'u dogn helaeth o Farcsiaeth ac ol-foderniaeth. Mae hon, er hynny, yn nofel gwbwl realaidd, wrth iddi fynd i'r afael ag un o'r digwyddiadau hynny fyddai'n bwrw ei gysgod dros holl hanes yr ugeinfed ganrif, sef y Chwyldro Bolsieficaidd yn Rwsia.

Egyr y nofel yn haf 1916, ac er bod Rwsia yn ymladd am ei heinioes, digon pell, mewn gwirionedd, yw swn y Rhyfel Byd Cyntaf. Anfona Fyodor Mikhailovich Alexandrov ei wraig, ei deulu a rhai o'i weision a'i forynion i dreulio eu gwyliau yn y Crimea. Dyma, mewn gwirionedd, fydd yr ennyd olaf o normalrwydd yn eu bywydau. Pobl dda eu byd ydynt, yn perthyn i'r aristocratiaid ac yn gefnogol i'r Tsar. Byddwn yn dilyn hynt a helynt y teulu hwn, ac yn arbennig y bobl ifanc ? Alyosha a'i ddwy gyfnither, Larissa a Margarita ? nes daw'r nofel i ben ym Merlin yn 1924, yn fuan ar ol marwolaeth Lenin. Dyma drindod o gymeriadau hirben sy'n llwyddo i oroesi ac addasu ar waethaf popeth a deflir atynt. Nid felly gweddill y teulu, ac yn arbennig Inessa, mam Alyosha. Hi, efallai, sy'n cynrychioli orau rialtwch yr hen drefn gyda'i ddihidrwydd a'i ddiofalwch hedonistaidd.

Gyda dyfodiad 1917, buan y try bywydau'r bobl hyn wyneb i waered. Daw chwyldroadau'r flwyddyn honno, ac i ddilyn, y Rhyfel Cartref rhwng y Cochion a'r Gwynion. Gyda'r teulu hwn, oedd yn amlwg yn rhengoedd y Gwynion, y pery diddordeb yr awdur drwy'r cyfan. Eu hymateb hwy i'r hyn sy'n digwydd o'u cwmpas sydd yn bwysig ac os oes arwr i'r stori o gwbwl, Alyosha yw hwnnw.

A dweud y gwir, creaduriaid ymylol ac oeraidd yw cefnogwyr y Chwyldro. Prin ein bod yn dod i adnabod yr un ohonynt yn iawn, ac ni ddangosir llawer o gydymdeimlad a hwy chwaith. Cymeriadau digon brith sydd ar yr ochor arall hefyd, ond mae gennym ddiddordeb mewn gwybod beth sy'n digwydd iddyn nhw. Nid yr egwyddorion a'r syniadaeth wleidyddol sydd wrth wraidd y Chwyldro sy'n bwysig chwaith, ond ei effaith ar fywydau rhai pobol yn arbennig.

Mae'r teulu yn dianc o Petrograd i Berlin. Ond yno ni wna'r alltudion ond hiraethu am eu hen gartref. Credant na fydd eu harhosiad yn yr Almaen ond yn un byr. Mae'r hen do yn ei chael hi'n anodd newid tra bod yr ifanc yn addasu ac un, o leiaf, yn cael ei ddenu at Gomiwnyddiaeth. Ond nid oes dinas barhaol ym Merlin chwaith, gyda'r banciau'n mynd i'r wal a'r Comiwnyddion yn bygwth eto. Braidd yn frysiog yw'r diwedd, ond nid yw hynny ond nam bach ar waith gorchestol.

Mae awgrym cryf ar ddiwedd y nofel hon fod y prif gymeriadau a'u bryd ar fynd i Baris. Edrychwn ymlaen at eu dilyn yno gan wylio eu hynt a'u helynt drwy rai o'r degawdau mwyaf tywyll yn holl hanes Ewrop. -- Dafydd Morgan Lewis @ www.gwales.com Novelist Breaks New Ground
The Russian Revolution of 1917 is the background to Petrograd, a new Welsh-language novel by Wiliam Owen Roberts.

In contrast to his previous historical novels Paradwys (Paradise) and Y Pla (The Plague), which was translated into English and other languages, these events act merely as a backdrop to Petrograd. Instead, the novel concentrates on its rich, aristocratic characters, and on telling the story from the white army's perspective.

We follow Alyosha and her two cousins, Margarita and Larissa, as the cataclysmic events change their lives, and the lives of their families, in a way they could never have imagined. The characters are stretched to the limit as they face exile, the red army and the Cheka, and each of them is forced to sacrifice their values and their morality in order to survive.

Wiliam Owen Roberts said, "The novel's about how people's lives can change. People's lives are always up and down aren't they, but sometimes things happen, like a revolution, which genuinely change your life."

We are drawn into a world of monied luxury where it's possible to take everything for granted, and where the future seems so clear and comfortable. But as millions of Russians lose every sense of reality as they know it, so too do Alyosha, Margarita and Larissa, thus facing a very bleak future in a world that's out of control - exile or even death. "They represent the people on the losing side. As history has marched on, so too have these three," explains the author. "In the first part of the novel, you may think 'that their lives are going to pan out one way', and then very suddenly they find their lives are going to be totally different. Their fate, as such, is completely turned on its head."

The author has chosen to lead us on this uncertain path on purpose, he says, avoiding the communist side of the story and sticking to the side of the story which is possibly heard less often. "I was determined not to tell the story of the side that won. Probably because I'm a Welshman, writing from the point of view of people who have been conquered and meddled with by history is far more interesting than the ones who won. And the problems of people like that are so much worse. Because our situation is one of a lack of power, it offers so much more potential."

For that reason, according to the author, this novel stands out more than his previous work. Having made his mark as a postmodernist author, he believes he is breaking new ground with this novel: "This is a realistic novel, it's quite straight. That's a new thing for me. I did the postmodernist stuff about twenty-five years ago, and now I've moved to realism, whereas people usually start with realism and go on to postmodernism," he explains.

This wasn't entirely deliberate, according to the author, but rather a result of working in a different way from usual: "I planned this one differently. With other novels, I've constructed a plot, but this time I've gone after characters, and worked out the story through their life stories. I've concentrated on the experience of the individual, and avoided the big picture. You see a cataclysmic event such as the revolution, but it happens off-stage so to speak, and you see the affect it has on a group of characters."

Wiliam Owen Roberts has been interested in Russia and its complex history for many years. At university he studied Chekov and Gorky, and he has studied the work of Dostoyevsky extensively. He has also taken an interest in Marxist philosophy for many years, and has travelled to eastern Europe many times: "I've always had an interest in this part of the world, and that interest has grown over the years. I just wanted to get to grips with the history, since Russia has been through all that..."

And even though Petrograd is set many thousands of miles away, way back in the past, a very contemporary theme runs through the novel. "So many people cross borders in the world - people put their lives in danger; exile is a perpetual theme," explains the author. Little by little, we see how being separated from their beloved Russia affects the characters in the novel. "There are references throughout the novel to the state of being in exile, how having to up sticks and go effects someone, and how you come to terms with that." -- Cyhoeddwr: Cyhoeddiadau Barddas