I was today years old when I noticed how Daniil’s use of Latin enriches the reading of his character as jewish*. Relationships between Judaea and Roman Empire are somewhat evocative of relationships between the Steppe culture and Russian Empire. And you might not know, but it is a popular cultural narrative in Russia back then and to this day that we are the Heirs of Rome. The Third Rome, I’m serious. (are we the baddies?)
So Daniil being silent about his jewishness while openly embracing the culture of his historical colonizer speaks volumes about his values. He holds no loyalty to historical allegiances, has no attachment to his ethnic roots. He chooses the way that to him looks like ‘forward’, no matter the bloody cost it paid to appear so advanced. The same choice he expects Artemy to make. 💔
*He doesn’t look slavic, has jewish sounding surname, a persecuted doctor, an intellectual, an outsider, has aspirations of “repairing the world”, thematically associated with russian socialists, many of whom were non-religious jews.
