found their life in

[ilhancan]

Hi,

The following passage is from John Gray's The New Leviathans. In bold part the people in question are already Russian. Why is this expression used? Thanks.

"He [Rozanov] hated the Bolshevik revolution because it destroyed the familiar world. A generation of the intelligentsia found their life in Russia had come to a close. In September and October 1922, in a scheme devised by Lenin, over 200 of them were deported from Russia on a pair of steamships.32 If they stayed, their safety was not guaranteed. Many Russian thinkers left, along with historians, linguists, musicians and cultural figures. Later, others exited the country by train."

 

[emsr2d2]

Hi.

The following passage is from John Gray's "The New Leviathans". In the bold part, the people in question are already Russian. Why is this expression used? Thanks.

"He [Rozanov] hated the Bolshevik revolution because it destroyed the familiar world. A generation of the intelligentsia found their life in Russia had come to a close. In September and October 1922, in a scheme devised by Lenin, over 200 of them were deported from Russia on a pair of steamships. 32 If they stayed, their safety was not guaranteed. Many Russian thinkers left, along with historians, linguists, musicians and cultural figures. Later, others exited the country by train."

I don't know why their nationality has made you question the use of the bold phrase. All the people Lenin expelled were Russian. A whole generation of the intelligentsia found that they were no longer welcome to continue living in Russia.

 

[Tarheel]

The relevant phrase:

[They] found their life in Russia had come to a close.

It (their life in Russia) was over. They were no longer welcome there.

The context should have been helpful. They left Russia. Where did they go? They went to places where they would be more welcome.

 

[emsr2d2]

They left Russia. Where did they go? They went to places where they would be more welcome.

They did, but not by choice!

 

[Tarheel]

Of course!

 

[ilhancan]

I don't know why their nationality has made you question the use of the bold phrase. All the people Lenin expelled were Russian. A whole generation of the intelligentsia found that they were no longer welcome to continue living in Russia.

Because I parsed the sentence wrongly. Like "They found their life in Russia". Now I understand it right.

 

[Tarheel]

@ilhancan I would not have understood it either if I thought "They found their life in Russia" means something by itself somehow. It doesn't. Did you read post #3?

 

[ilhancan]

@ilhancan I would not have understood it either if I thought "They found their life in Russia" means something by itself somehow. It doesn't. Did you read post #3?

I read it like "They found their life in Russia," and "They had come to a close." (If it were like this it would be a tense disagreement, I think.) Then I asked myself "How did they find their life in Russia, they are already Russians?" This is how it all went wrong Thank you for your answer.

 

[Tarheel]

You need to get out of the habit of taking a phrase out of a sentence and trying to make sense out of it. If "They found themselves in Russia" was a sentence it would mean they wound up in Russia somehow. We know that's not the case. More importantly, it's not the whole sentence. If we don't take that phrase out of the sentence but read the sentence as a whole it makes perfect sense. They found themselves in a situation in which they were no longer able to stay in Russia. (They might wind up in a gulag or worse (if there is anything worse).)

 

[stevemarkovick]

It is easy to see how confusion can happen when parsing complex sentences, especially when phrases can seem to make sense on their own but actually rely heavily on the larger structure. I appreciate how everyone here took the time to break it down clearly. It is a great reminder that understanding the full sentence context is key when dealing with nuanced English expressions.