ANDREI VOZNESENSKY DIES AT 77
Russian / Soviet poet Andrei Voznesensky died at his dacha in the writers colony of Peredelkino on 1 June 2010.
Renowned as one of the most talented and popular of the "Sixties Poets", Voznesensky was born in Moscow on
12 May 1933. At the precocious age of 14, Voznesensky dared to send some of his poetry to Boris Pasternak, who
wrote back to the boy, "Your entry into literature is sudden and stormy. I am glad that I have lived to
see it."
Voznesensky graduated from the Moscow Architecture Institute in 1957 and began publishing serious poetry
in 1958. His works were characterized by an extravagance of simile and metaphor as well as a complicated
rhythmic structure. His first two collections, "Parabola" and "Mosaic", published in 1960 were critically
acclaimed both in the Soviet Union and abroad. But by 1963, Voznesensky had fallen out of favor with Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev, who harangued the poet at a Party literature conference. His uneasy relationship with
authorities continued throughout the years; he received numerous warnings but also the State Prize for
literature in 1978.
(Click here to read bilingual version of one of Voznesesky's best known poems,
"Goya")
A SovAnecdote
YURI OLESHA CAUGHT IN GAMBLING STING!
Leaves Wife Destitute - Hussar Involvement Denied
Soviet author Yuri Olesha, poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, and some friends were playing cards at the apartment of Nikolai Aseev. Olesha sat down at the table and plopped down a big stack of money.
Mayakovsky reacted: '"Oh-ho! Where'd you get such riches?"
Olesha answered: "I got a commission and took an advance."
"If you got a commission, why do you need an advance?"
Olesha explained: "My wife is at a resort and asked me to send her some more money."
Mayakovsky sternly retorted: "Then how dare you sit down to gamble with it?"
Olesha kept silent.
Mayakovsky continued in the same tone: "I'm warning you, I'm going to win it all from you, and will show no pity."
Olesha replied: "You never know how the game will come out beforehand."
They played, and Mayakovsky was phenomenally lucky. As he picked up each pot he told Olesha: "It's just what you deserve! This will teach you a lesson."
In the end, Mayakovsky in fact won all of Olesha's money.
In the morning, Mayakovsky phoned Olesha and asked to meet him at the Komsomolskaya Pravda editorial offices at noon. When Olesha got there, Mayakovsky took him into a corridor, then pulled out the money and extended it to him.
"Here, Olesha. Take back what you lost."
Olesha stepped back: "What are you talking about, Vladimir Vladimirovich?! Who would ever take back their losses?!"
But Mayakovsky was firm: "Don't you dare argue with me! We're not hussars, thank God. Go to the telegraph office right this instant and send the money to your wife."
Yuri Olesha's
Speech to the 1st Writers Union Congress
(1934)
In his speech to the first Congress of Soviet Writers in August 1934, Yuri Olesha noted, "When you depict a negative hero, you yourself become negative." Perhaps
because of this, Olesha took it personally when some critics damned the hero of his novel Envy as
vulgar and worthless. Olesha also confessed that he does not understand the worker or revolutionary
hero and
cannot properly portray them in literature. Nonetheless, Olseha feels that there is much in his dreams that
places him on the same level as a worker or Komsomol member, and that his presentation of Soviet youth is a
worthy fulfillment of the writer's historic task as teacher and nurturer.
(Click here to read the entire text of Yuri Olesha's Speech to the
First Writers Congress)
"Writing Screenplays About the Earth"
by Aleksandr Dovzhenko
(1953)
The last silent film in the history of Soviet cinema was Aleksandr Dovzhenko's 1930 classic
Earth. It tells of peasants uniting in a collective to purchase a tractor and fighting off an
evil kulak's attempt to sabotage the plan. Over twenty years later, in 1953, Dovzhenko was still attracted by the
theme of the earth and the men and women who till the soil and feed the nation. In this address to the
Secretariate of the Soviet Writers Union, Dovzhenko tells of his plans for a new triolgy on the development of the
collective farms as well as the debt owed by writers to the kolkhoz workers.
(Click here to read the entire text of "Writing Screenplays
About the Earth")
ON RESTRUCTURING LITERARY-ARTISTIC ORGANIZATIONS
Central Committee Decree
23 April 1932
Seeing the continued existence of numerous independent literary organizations as
impeding the development of serious artistic creation, on 23 April 1932 the
Central Committee published a decree liquidating all independent literary
organizations and calling for the creation of the
Union of Soviet Writers
(Click here to read the decree.)
RIMMA KAZAKOVA
1932 - 2008
"Homeland, work, and love -
It is for this we must be born
The three pines among which to get lost
And, finding yourself, get lost again."
Rimma Kazakova, one of the Russian-Soviet women poets who rose to prominence in
the early 1960s, passed away on 19 May 2008 in Moscow, at approximately 1:00 P.M. local time. Arterial thrombosis has
been given as the cause of death.
Kazakova was born on 27 January 1932 in Sevastopol into a military, revolutionarily
dedicated family. At birth her given name was not "Rimma", but "Remo", an acronym derived by
her parents from the Russian words for "Revolution, Electrification, World-Wide October." As a youth, however, Remo
found the name embarrassing and changed it to Rimma.
Kazakova spent her childhood in Belorussia, then received a history degree from Leningrad State
University. Following graduation, she was sent to Khabarovsk in the Far East where she worked as a teacher, lecturer,
at a newspaper, and as an editor at a film studio. It was here that she began writing poetry, and her first
work was published in 1955. Her first collection of poems, "We'll Meet in the East", wa published in 1958. She was
accepted into the Writers Union in 1959 and soon moved to Moscow.
At a poetry discussion in Leningrad in 1959, a colleague claimed that he saw the influence of
Marina Tsetaeva in Kazakova's poetry. Kazakova, however, disputed this, claiming that she had never before heard
of Tsvetaeva: "I was living in Khabarovsk and Marina had only begun being published. I could not
have known her. How she could influence me was a mystery....Perhaps some of my poems were similar to Evetushenko.
However, this was not imitation...merely a very similar attitude to what we were describing."
Kazakova served as a secretary of the Writers Union between 1976 and 1981. She also organized
the first Pushkin Poetry Holidays. She was an editor of the journal Yunost' and was awarded the orders of the
Workers Red Banner and the Friendship of Peoples. In total, she published over 20 poetry collections, and many of her poems
were set to music and because popular songs.
In later years, when asked to comment on the point of life, Kazakova quoted one of her verses: "We breathe
as much as we can breathe, and we live because we live." She then added: "One must simply live. Serve your calling.
And fame and love...they will find you...if you deserve them."
(Click here to read some of Rimma Kazakova's poetry - in Russian.)
(Click here for an MP3 of Kazakova's Nenaglyadnii moi set to music.)
"In The War" and Other Stories by Vasily
Grossman
Just published by SovLit.com Books, this newly translated collection of stories clearly
demonstrates that Soviet author Vasily Grossman was not merely a "war" writer, but a true universalist in the
great Russian tradition. The stories in the collection, spanning nearly 30 years of the author's career, include:
"A Tale About Happiness", "A Small Life", "In the War", "In the Country", "The Resident", "Dog", "From
the Window of a Bus", and "An Autumn Storm". Also included is an afterword by translator Andrew Glikin-Gusinky,
winner of Columbia University's Pushkin Prize for Translation.
Click here to order "In the War" and Other Stories by Vasily
Grossman.
Boris Pasternak:
A Tale of Two Telegrams
On 23 October 1958, Boris Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize "for his
important achievement both in contemporary lyrical poetry and in the field of the great Russia epic
tradition."
Pasternak was pleased and proud to accept the award; others in Soviet society, however,
did not see him as deserving of such an honor, calling him instead a traitor, philistine, and slanderer.
To read how this Nobel Prize was both accepted and rejected in telegrams,
Click Here.
DETAILED SUMMARIES
The Forty-First by
Lavrenyov, Boris
(1924).
A female sniper with Red partisans misses her 41st vicitim (a White officer), then winds up stranded with him on a desert island, where they fall in love. However, the White's essentially selfish, bourgeois nature becomes apparent and she shoots him, fulfilling her mission and her class destiny
.... (more)
------
Alone by Aleshin, Samuil
(1956).
An adulterous relationship breaks up two happy marriages.
The adandoned spouses struggle to hold onto their wayward partners. The adulterers try to quash their impulses, but in the end they must be honest to themselves and to others by admitting their love. The Party tries to intervene, but is rebuffed. Who is to blame? Is it right to live a lie in order to preserve social propriety? Is it right to tell the truth when it only does harm to the blameless? What to do when duty is the same as misery? Is it ever too late for happiness? No black-and-white answers are offered to these questions--an ambiguity made possible by the conditions of The Thaw. But the author makes it clear that an honest woman, thus abandoned, bears no shame and should continue to hold her head high. Every human being retains his or her individual worth. Science teaches us, "In life, in man, everything is individual."
(more)
Volokolamsk Highway
by
Bek, Aleksandr (1944). One batallion's battle against the Nazis as well as their own fears in the early stages of the Defense of Moscow. Initially terrified by the seemingly unstoppable enemy, the ranks are plagued with cowardice and desertion. A few executions help restore discipline, and a few well-planned sneak attacks teach the men that the Germans bleed and die, too. In the end, the troops fight bravely, the commanders strategize creatively, and the Red Army wins valuable time.(more)
Hot Snow
by
Bondarev, Yuri(1969) An artillery battery at Stalingrad fights against cold, hunger, and encirclement. Some soldiers are heros, others come unglued; all are in some way flawed. "Friendly fire" takes a toll. Counterintelligence unjustly suspects a competent general of harboring traitorous intentions. Suggestions are made that Stalin is less than perfect. And through it all, the men fight among themselves to win the love of the alluring medical instructor Zoya! (more)
Immortality by Bubennov, Mikhail (1940). The Whites operate a "death barge", full of prisoners--Bolsheviks and ordinary peasants--who are hauled out one by one to be shot or hung. The captives attempt a rebellion, partisans attempt a rescue, and everyone nearly drowns in a storm. After capturing Kazan, the Red Army finally shows up to liberate the barge.(more)
Locusts by
Budantsev, Sergei (1927). A remote area of southern Azerbaijan is threatened with an attack of ravenous locusts. Swindlers and saboteurs--both in and out of official positions--defraud the government, leaving the region without resources or equipment with which to battle the locusts. Natural disaster ensues, followed by arrests and trials. (more)
White Guard by Bulgakov, Mikhail (1924). A family of White Guardists and their friends are forced to accept defeat as their side loses to Petlyura's Ukrainian nationalists in Kiev in December 1918. (more)
Not By Bread Alone by Dudintsev, Vladimir (1956). An inventor struggles against the invisible empire of bureaucracy and self-servers in a courageous attempt to advance the Soviet pipe industry. (more)
The Thaw by Ehrenburg, Ilya (1954). The novel which gave its name to an entire era of Soviet history, consisting mainly of interior monologues of a wide range of characters who are living inner personal lives at odds with their outer, public lives. Others struggle to keep love out of their souls because it conflicts with their duties to the factory and to the Party. A talented artist squanders his talent for the sake of glory and material success. But as winter passes and the spring thaw comes, a change is beginning--loves and childlike exuberances are blossoming out into the open. (more)
The Rout by Fadeev, Aleksandr (1927). Red Army partisans flee from Cossacks and Japanese interventionists in Russia's Far East. (more)
Young Guard by
Fadeev, Aleksandr
(1947). In Nazi-occupied Ukraine, a group of teenagers forms a secret underground organization. They engage in sabotage, arson and various forms of wrecking. They engineer a prison break and murder a filthy collaborator. The Nazis finally catch them just weeks before liberation by Soviet troops. They are brutally tortured and murdered. Based on real people and real events. Winner of the Stalin Prize. (more)
Cities and Years by Fedin, Konstantin (1924). A spineless Russian intellectual is interred in Germany at the start of World War I. After the war, he fails to find his place in Revolutionary society. He betrays his love and helps a counterrevolutionary escape Soviet justice.... (more)
Chapaev by Furmanov, Dmitri (1923). The charismatic Red Army commander Chapaev, along with his faithful political commisar, Klichkov, fights a never-ending battle against Kolchak, Cossacks, and other enemies of Communism. But in the end, he gets caught with his pants down. .... (more)
Cement by Gladkov, Fyodor (1924). True Communists fight White Guards, bandits, lust and corruption as they struggle
to bring a cement factory and the Soviet economy back to life in post-Civil War days. .... (more)
Fat-Faced Passions
by Gorky, Maksim (1917). A kvas-seller meets an abused young woman and her 12-year-old crippled son, who have been driven into grinding poverty. Despite the hopelessness of their situation and the alcoholism of his mother, the boy--who keeps a menagarie of cockroaches and other bugs--holds onto his dreams of a brighter future.... (more)
Those Who Seek by Granin, Daniil (1955). A scientist with a new idea, struggles to invent a device which will be of great benefit to the Soviet electrical industry.
Bureaucrats and established scientists at first try to steal the invention. When this fails, feeling their position and privilege threatened, they begin falsifying their own data and whip up a 1930s-style slander campaign against the young scientist, including charges of deviation from Marxism-Leninism. They attempt to manipulate Party meetings and stifle open discussion in order to advance their own careers. However, the falsity is eventually revealed, the rank-and-file demand the truth, and the neer-do-wells receive their comeuppance. In another Thaw-era touch, unconventional love is rehabilitated, i.e., the young scientist has an adulterous relationship and lives to tell about it. (more)
THE EMBEZZLERS
by
Kataev, Valentin (1926) The accidental embezzlement of 12,000 rubles leads to a
merry romp through the excesses of NEP-era Moscow, Leningrad, and the provinces. Champange, vodka,
and dancing Germans abound. The pleasant company of former princesses and countesses is
sought out--
and can be had for 100 rubles. The deceased emperor Nikolai II makes a comeback, but soon regrets it as
he gets involved in a brawl and has a third of his beard ripped out.
(more)
Son of the Regiment
by
Kataev, Valentin P.
(1946). An orphan boy is picked up by a Soviet front-line artillery unit. He becomes one of them, going on a secret mission behind German lines and taking part in a fierce and bloody battle. Stalin Prize winner, 1946. (more)
The Tanker Derbent by
Krymov, Yuri S.
(1938).
The undisciplined and uncaring crew of an oil tanker gets swept up in the excitement of the Stakhanovite movement and completely transform themselves. A daring rescue on the high seas is featured, and the sanctity of marriage is upheld.... (more)
The Forty-First by
Lavrenyov, Boris
(1924).
A female sniper with Red partisans misses her 41st vicitim (a White officer), then winds up stranded with him on a desert island, where they fall in love. However, the White's essentially selfish, bourgeois nature becomes apparent and she shoots him, fulfilling her mission and her class destiny
.... (more)
The Week by
Libedinsky, Yuri
(1922). A peasant revolt rips through a remote town in the Urals. It is eventually put down, but not before the leading local Communists are brutally murdered. Frank portrayal of the hostility of the peasants to Soviet power and of many of the Party's failings
.... (more)
Siberia by
Markov, Georgi
(1973).
A sweeping epic of love, revolution, and nature set in snow-swept Siberia. Bolsheviks, kulaks, Social Revolutionaries, honest hard-working peasants, and giant fish-creatures of legend all clash as tsarism crumbles.
.... (more)
The Bedbug by
Mayakovsky, Vladimir
(1929).
A philistine from the NEP era gets frozen and is revived fifty years later in 1979. The moderns at first mistake him for an honest worker, but then correctly identify him as a bourgeoisus vulgaris, a blood-sucking insect similar to, but more dangerous than, the bedbug. He is put on display in a cage equipped with special filters to trap all the dirty words.
.... (more)
I Want To Go Home by
Mikhalkov, Sergei
(1948).
In post-war Germany, the evil, murdering British keep displaced Soviet children captive, planning to turn them into wage slaves and spies. Honest Germans, driven into poverty and despair by the bullying, land-grabbing, greedy Americans, flee to freedom in the Soviet sector.
.... (more)
Marya the Bolshevik by
Neverov, Aleksandr
(1926).
Women's liberation comes to a post-revolutionary Russian village.
.... (more)
TASHKENT, CITY OF BREAD
by
Neverov, Aleksandr (1923) A young boy sets out on a harrowing journey from his remote village to Tashkent, hoping to find grain for his starving family. Along the way he faces death and despair. But amid the cruelty he also finds friendship and kindness. He eventually returns home to the sad news that most of his family is dead. He is able to look past the tragedy, however, and confidently pledges to build everything anew. (more)
Envy by
Olesha, Yuri
(1927). A successful Soviet food industry wizard gives shelter to an aimless drifter. The drifter comes to envy his host and, with the aid of his host's brother, plots a "conspiracy of feelings" against the new era. The plotters plan on using an "Ophelia machine" to annihilate their enemies. (more)
Three Fat Men by
Olesha, Yuri
(1924).
A fantastic fairy tale of revolution. A tightrope walker, balloons, very large pastries and a brave little girl help topple the dictatorship of three very fat men. (more)
Snow by
Paustovsky, Konstantin. During the Great Patriotic War, a soldier on leave returns to his childhood home, only to find that his father has died and a strange young woman is now living in his house. Out of kindness and a feeling of responsibility, the woman tries to make the home seem familiar for the soldier. The soldier is grateful and touched. He is certain that they have met before in the Crimea and that fate has now reunited them. Actually, the woman has never been to the Crimea--but does it really matter? (more)
Happiness by
Pavlenko, Pyotr
(1947). A war veteran comes to the devastated Crimea, hoping for a quiet and peaceful life. Instead, he finds happiness working to rebuild the smashed economy. He also plays a part in the Yalta Conference. Churchill is a fat, drunken pig. U.S. Army officers are more interested in selling soap than in defeating the enemy. Stalin Prize winner, 1947. (more)
The Volga Falls To The Caspian Sea by
Pilnyak, Boris
(1931). Sabotage and betrayal on the construction site as true communists struggle to alter nature and establish a new morality. (more)
FOUNDATION PIT
by
Platonov, Andrei (1930) A worker, fired for thinking too much on the job, sets off on a nightmarish, almost surreal quest for truth and meaning. He ends up on a crew digging the foundation pit for a gigantic proletarian edifice. Some workers are then sent to the countryside to assist in the collectivization campaign. Workers are murdered; peasants slaughter and gorge themselves on their livestock to keep it from being collectivized; kulak and sub-kulak forces are liquidated; a proletarian bear, adept at sniffing out kulaks, keeps everyone awake with his noisy hammering; and the fate of the tvordii znak (hard sign) is in doubt.(more)
"He stopped a bullet with his mind."
The Seventh Man
by
Platonov, Andrei To save on ammunition, the Nazis try executing seven prisoners with a single bullet. One partisan miraculously survives the ordeal and escapes. However, driven to despair by the loss of his family, he returns to the same prison camp and again is the seventh man in the execution line. He finally achieves the death he so greatly desires. An eighth man, however, longing to live, feigns death to cheat death. (more)
Petrarch's Sonnet by Pogodin, Nikolai (1956). A solid, reliable, middle-aged man (Sukhodolov) develops a pure (Petrarchic) love for a young woman and starts writing her letters (his "sonnets"). Those still in the thrawl of the "bourgeois morality" of the Stalinst past get in a tizzy over this supposed violation of socialist morality (even though the lovers never actually do anything physically). An official investigation is launched, but Sukhodolov refuses to cooperate, saying that there are some reaches of the human heart and human emotion which are none of the Party's business.
(more)
Callow Youth by
Rekemchuk, Aleksandr
(1962). In Siberia, a young worker named Nikolai is dispatched to a nearby town to demand bricks for his construction team. He quickly succeeds and also helps convert the brick factory to new technology. A friend narrowly avoids involvement in a shady money-making scheme; Nikolai gets a kiss; repressed Old Bolsheviks live happily ever after; and, inspired by Yuri Gagarin, practically everyone volunteers to go to the moon. (more)
Iron Flood by
Serafimovich, Aleksandr
(1924). A squabbling, undisciplined, and disorganized rabble of Red fighters and refugees attempt to flee from some pursing Cossacks and join up with the main Red Army units. They escape annihilation only by finally uniting and submitting to the iron will of their newly elected commander, who promises death as punishment for the slightest insubordination. (more)
Two Deaths by
Serafimovich, Aleksandr
(1926). Street fighting rages on in Moscow. A young woman volunteers to spy on the Whites and has to pay the ultimate price. (more)
Mess Mend, or a Yankee in Petrograd by Shaginyan, Marietta (1923 - 1924). Amusing spy thriller, comedy, and science fiction novel all rolled into one. Western capitalists and members of the deposed nobility plot to assassinate Lenin and the entire Soviet government. But they are foiled by a secret American workers organization, the Soviet government, and nature itself, which afflicts the deposed princes, capitalists, etc., with a bizarre degenerative disease, literally turning them into beasts.(more)
FATE OF A MAN
by
Sholokhov, Mikhail (1957) A Soviet soldier is captured and consigned to the Nazi concentration camps. He suffers hunger, torture, and humiliation before finally managing to escape and return to the Red Army. However, his wife and children all die during the war. When peace and demobilization come, he sinks into drepression and drunkenness, until he finds an orphan boy to care for, giving him a renewed reason to live.(more)
Snowball Berry Red by
Shukshin, Vasily
(1973). An ex-con moves to the countryside, hoping to start a new life. He gets side-tracked with a bit of debauchery, but eventually settles down as a tractor driver. Unfortunately, his old gang, unhappy about being abandoned, catch up with him for a final, fatal confrontation. (more)
Days and Nights by
Simonov, Konstantin
(1944). A batallion commander and his troops defend three apartment buildings (or rather the rubble of three buildings) for seventy days during the Battle of Stalingrad. They suffer incredible casualties, demonstrate incredible bravery, and get lots of medals. And during it all, the hero even finds time to fall in love, get married, and have a bachelor party. (more)
Chocolate by
Tarasov-Rodionov, Aleksandr
(1922). A local Cheka chief is falsely accused of bribery and corruption. Revolutionary justice demands that he be shot, despite his innocence.
(more)
AELITA by
Tolstoy, Aleksei (1923). A Soviet engineer and his adventurer-companion blast
off for Mars in a home-made spaceship. There they discover an ancient civilization and its
strange connection to the lost continent of Atlantis. While the engineer falls in love with the mysterious
Aelita, the adventurer dallies with a servant girl (even though he has a wife back in Petrograd). Martian society is
on the brink of revolution. The government, suspicious of the Earthlings, plots to kill them.
The Soviet
Earthlings, however, experienced at this sort of thing, take charge of the
workers' uprising. The Martian government strikes back and crushes the rebellion. The Soviets escape from the
planet in the nick of time as millions of gigantic, hate-filled spiders surge up from the bowels of the
planet.
(more)
Azure Cities by
Tolstoy, Aleksei N.
(1925). Utopian socialism clashes with everyday reality, leading to murder. "A passionate tale of a tormenting, impatient, and feverish imagination."
(more)
House on the Embankment by Trifonov, Yuri (1976). Revolves around life in a famous Moscow apartment house which served as the home of many of the Soviet elite.... (more)
Sisters by
Veresaev, Vikenty
(1933). One of two Komsomol sisters is ruthless in rooting out kulaks and forcing peasants into the kolkhozes. The other sister defies Party orders and works instead for "voluntary" collectivization. She is about to be purged but is saved when Stalin publishes his "Giddy From Success" article denouncing the excesses of forced collectivization. (more)
The Life and Amazing Adventures of the Soldier Ivan Chonkin by
Voinovich, Vladimir. At the beginning of World War II, a not-too-bright Red Army soldier, abandoned and forgotten by his superiors, bravely defends a Soviet airplane, gets a girlfriend, arrests the entire local apparatus of the secret police, and beats back the attack of an entire regiment...all by accident. (more)
From the Point of View of Eternity by
Zagrebelny, Pavlo
(1971). Given the task of creating special pipes for a secret project, a young Ukrainian worker and his team battle a stagnation-bent careerist and defy official orders to develop a fundamentally new pipe-rolling technique. The breakthrough comes following a literal and figurative marriage of brains and brawn. (more)
Guests by Zorin, Leonid (1954).
Intergenerational conflict centered around an honest Old Bolshevik and his adult son, who has become an arrogant,
corrupt, materialistic bigwig, interested only in his position and comfort. The bigwig engages in an arbitrary injustice and plots to ruin the career of an innocent man. The Old Bolshevik uncovers the plot and banishes his son. Even the bigwig's own son--a representative of the younger generation--promises to wage tireless war on his father and all like him. Published in Feb 1954, it is one of the first Thaw-era work.(more)
The Struggle in Space by
Beliayev, Aleksandr (1928). Rocket-airships, radio-controlled tanks, and Death Rays. Evil Americans try to destroy the socialist
paradise of the future, but the Soviets counterattack and win. Remnant capitalists flee to an underground base near Antartica, planning to escape into outer space. Socialism on one planet! (more)
Abduction Of The Sorcerer by
Bulychev, Kir
(1981). Time travelers from the future stop off in the present on their way to the past to kidnap a 13th-century sorcerer. (more)
Losing Bet by
Chernyonok, Mikhail
(1979). In Novosibirsk, militia detective Anton Biriukov unravels a web of fraud, illegal book speculation, icon forgery and murder. (more)
Hunting For The Past by
Prozorovsky, Lev
(1985). Chasing a CIA spy with links to the Nazi past through Latvia and Estonia. (more)
Seventeen Moments of Spring by
Semyonov, Julian.
Soviet super-spy Stirlitz, working undercover in the Nazi SS, defeats an attempt by the U.S. and Britain to conclude a separate peace with Nazi Germany and open a joint front against the Soviet Union
(more)
Mess Mend, or a Yankee in Petrograd by Shaginyan, Marietta (1923 - 1924). Amusing spy thriller, comedy, and science fiction novel all rolled into one. Western capitalists and members of the deposed nobility plot to assassinate Lenin and the entire Soviet government. But they are foiled by a secret American workers organization, the Soviet government, and nature itself, which afflicts the deposed princes, capitalists, etc., with a bizarre degenerative disease, literally turning them into beasts.(more)
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The Stormy Life of
Ilya Ehrenburg
August 31, 2010, marks the 43rd anniversary of one of the Soviet Union's most celebrated authors, Ilya Ehrenburg.
Journalist, poet, and novelist, Ehrenburg edited revolutionary journals and erected barricades with Bakhunin,
argued about art with
Trotsky, had private dinner conversation with Lenin, and hob-nobbed with the likes of Picasso, Apollinarie,
and Chagall. At times he worked in support of the Bolsheviks, at other times he dismissed them,
calling Lenin the "chief janitor" in charge of a "drunken orgy". He was arrested by the tsarist regime as well
as
the Reds--and the Whites were looking for him, too. Soviet critics praised him as a genius, and denounced
him for producing "literary vomit". But when his nation needed him the most, following the Nazi attack of
June 1941, Ehrenburg was there, released as a ferocious literary weapon of war, with the full support
of Stalin. Later, after Stalin's death, Ehrenburg published a novel that was to give its name to an entire
era of Soviet history: The Thaw.
According to the logic of his times, Ehrenburg should have been purged or "disappeared" at
least three or four times. But, as Evgeny Evtushenko said, Ehrenburg "taught us all how to survive."
In tribute to this great author, SovLit.com is pleased to present
a Tribute to Ehrenburg
penned by poet and Novy Mir editor Aleksandr Tvardovsky shortly after Ehrenburg's death. We
also offer
an excerpt from The Storm, Ehrenburg's 1948 novel abaout World War II, with action set both
in the Soviet Union and in France. We also remind you about
our Ehrenburg biography for a more
complete overview of this amazing life.
(Click here to read the text of "Tvardovsky's Tribute to Ehrenburg")
(Click here to read an excerpt from Ehrenburg's "The Storm")
(Click here to read a short biogrpahy of
Ilya Ehrenburg)
Soviet
Sexual
Stereotype?
In the still infant Soviet Union of 1930, young adults were caught up in a whirlwind of studies, party meetings,
social work, practical labor and numerous other demands. In such an atmosphere, was there time for inter-gender
relationships, sex, and--gasp!--pregnancy? In the short story "Marina's Illness", author Vikenty
Veresaev focuses on one couple attempting to cope with these questions. Soviet women of course had the
right to choose. But does that mean that they always made the right choice? And is there a conflict between
family values and Party values?
Is "Marina's Illness" an affirmation of the value of maternal labor in the socialist society?
Or just another sexist stereotype of female behavior? Read and decide for yourself.
(Click here to read the entire text of Vikenty Veresaev's
"Marina's Illness")
Conversations with
VASSILY AKSYONOV
After getting kicked out of the Soviet Union in 1980, novelist and short story writer Vassily Aksyonov, came to
teach at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, USA. As his teaching career at GMU wound down in 2003,
Akysonov sat down with his friend and former student John Pohlmann for a
series of wide-ranging conversations on his life and times. As these conversations show, the history of
the Soviet Union was mirrored in Aksyonov's life.
In 1937, when Vassily Aksyonov was five years old, his parents were arrested and shipped off to the camps, and
Aksyonov himself was placed in a special orphanage for offspring of enemies of the people.
In his conversations with Pohlmann, Aksyonov recounts these events, as well as his time in medical school, his
wild, beatniklike youth, and his sudden rise to stardom following the publication of Colleagues in
1960. But as the Thaw started to freeze over again, there were public dressings-down by Khrushchev and pressures
to reform and recant.
Another crisis arose in Aksyonov's life when he and several other authors went wildcat
and produced the independent literary almanac METROPOL. Aksyonov and the other editors claimed the almanac was
providing shelter for "homeless" literature, which could find no place in official publications. Offical critics,
however, labeled the project "pornography of the soul" or, less delicately, "a hunk of sh*t".
John Pohlmann's Conversations with
Vassily Aksyonov, now appearing on the pages of SovLit.com, will surely become a valuable resource
those
studying not only Aksyonov's life and work, but the life of the Soviet Union as well.
(Click here to read the entire text of "Conversations
with Aksyonov")
In 1923, Boris Pilnyak was riding high
on the wave of critical acclaim occasioned by his collage-novel The Naked Year, but he was also constantly
pestered by an inconvenient question: "Are you for or against the Communists?" That same year, Leon Trotsky was still perceived as Lenin's heir-apparent, but the Politburo cabal against him, spearheaded by
Stalin, Zinoviev, and Kamenev, was gathering strength. In the midst of it all, the political leader took out time
to pen his thoughts on the literary leader.
Trotsky saw Pilnyak as a realist, an excellent observer with a fresh eye and a good ear.
He praised Pilnyak for his sharp and accurate portrayal of the fragmented daily life of the time, for catching the
howling of revolutionary poetry. Nonetheless, despite the literary merits, Trotsky finds that Pilnyak's
work lacks the essential axis around which modern life revolves--the Revolution. Trostky is troubled by
Pilnyak's provincialism, his retrograde historical philosophy, and by the fact that for Pilnyak the Red Army does
not even exist! The pernicious influence of Andrei Bely is another feature that Trotsky hopes Pilnyak will
jettison.
In the end, Trotsky has hope for Pilnyak's further development. True, Pilnyak's technique is
unstable and he sometimes elicits bewilderment; but, Trotsky concludes, "Pilnyak is talented....One can only
wish him success."
(Click here to read the entire text of "On Boris Pilnyak" by Leon
Trotsky)
"Honest Citizen"
(letter to the militia)
by
Mikhail Zoshchenko
Denunciations have never been so funny as in this short piece by skaz master Mikhail
Zoshchenko. Skaz, of course, is a narrative technique which reproduces an "oral" speech that deviates
markedly from normal literary language and is often intended to portray the confusing, convoluted speech
of an uneducated or otherwise non-standard individual. The narrator of Honest Citizen, his speech somewhat
impaired by drink, attempts an official-sounding denunciation of moonshiners...not
because they're producing an illegal product, but because they won't let him have any on credit. In the course
of the denunciation we perhaps learn more about the pecadillos of the narrator than of the objects of his wrath.
To misquote the narrator: "In line with official policy, we inform you that Honest Citizen
is suspicious in terms of hilarity and you are required to read it immediately!"
(Click here to read the entire text of "Honest Citizen")
MetrOpol Madness!
An independent journal explained and condemned
(with exaggerations!)
"Trash, not literature!"
In 1979, Vassily AKSYONOV, Andrei BITOV, Viktor YEROFEEV, Fazil ISKANDER, and Evgeny POPOV edited and
issued METROPOL, an independent literary almanac providing shelter for "homeless" Soviet literature,
which was shunned by offical organs. The lack of censorship and the wildcat nature of this venture
provoked a firestorm of criticism from official sources.
SovLit.com now offers:
Introduction to Metropol, wherein the almanac's
editors explain their motivation and goals;
Metropol Minutes, minutes of a Writers Union meeting
wherein the editors are hauled in and raked over the coals; and
Pornography of the Soul, a selection of official Soviet
criticism of Metropol and its editors.
Uncivil Literary War:
The Smithy vs. RAPP
In the mid-1920s, Moscow literary society was seething. The numerous separate literary organizations
were engaged in heated battles with one another. Youthful fervor and revolutionary zeal were often combined
with intolerance, abuse, and the merciless "working over" of literary opponents. Chief among the bully-boys
was RAPP, the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers, which was keen on seizing literary hegemony for itself.
In the spring of 1925, rumors swirled that the Communist Party was on the verge of issuing a decree calling for
a more tolerant and solicitious attitude toward "fellow-travelers", peasant-writers, and other literary groups.
In a direct swipe at the RAPP, the decree was also to call for an end to Communist arrogance and the tone
of command in literary criticism. Foreseeing an extended period of peaceful competition among literary trends and styles, the
decree declared that literary hegemony was not to be bestowed upon any one particular group, but was to be earned.
Frightened by these rumors, the RAPP tried one last, desperate attempt to liquidate all rival
literary organizations before the Party could act. In particular they were eager to get rid of their chief
nemesis: The Smithy,
headed by Fyodor Gladkov. Uncivil War: Fyodor Gladkov & The Smithy vs. RAPP is an account of a stormy meeting in which RAPP tried to manipulate The Smithy out of existence and
of how Gladkov, Serafimovich, and other Smiths fought back.
In addition, SovLit.com also presents an English translation of the Party decree which
provoked RAPP's underhanded attempt: On the Party's Policy in the Sphere of Artistic Literature, 1 July 1925.
"Bard" Poetry & Prose
"Hey, Driver" &
"Rafts" by
Vladimir Vysotsky
Vladimir Vysotsky, everyone's favorite bard, produced over 600 songs and fewer prose works. He was beloved by all strata of society--
taxi drivers, Party officials, and criminals. There is even a report that Cosmonauts took a Vysotsky tape
along on one of their space journeys. Despite his immense popularity, not a single one of his songs was
officially published in the Soviet Union during his life time. Some of his works did appear in "Metropol", an
independent literary almanac which Vassily Aksyonov put together in 1979. But this highly
unorthodox compilation was rejected immediately by the Writers Union and condemned as "pornography of the soul."
Vysotsky himself jokingly referred to the project as "making conterfeit money."
Nowadays, of course, Vysotsky's work is available everywhere, including here at SovLit.com.
We are pleased to begin our Vystosky offerings with: (1) a bilingual Russian-English edition of his song-poem,
"Hey, Driver", in which the narrator attempts a nostalgic tour of his favorite Soviet prisons; and (2)
a translation of "Rafts", a short prose work wherein Vysotsky rails against tugboat men and drunkenness.
("Hey, Driver") and ("Rafts")
Smithy Theory
ON THE TASKS OF THE WRITER-WORKER
by Nikolai Lyashko
In 1920, the proletariat was looking for its own artists and writers, close to them not only in ideology, but
also in their feeling for life. As these new worker-writers arose, they at first felt that it was sufficent
to proclaim slogans and present the demands, beliefs, anguish, and hatreds of their class. Nikolai
Lyashko, the unofficial leader of the non-Party members of the Smithy, however, cautioned these writers that they
had to move beyond general concepts and words and create a genuine artistic image. Only in this way, he
believed, could they connect with the soul of labor and could they differentiate themselves from the
hypocrites who were never associated with iron but now sing that they are "in iron and of iron."
Lyashko
also warned that the worker-writer must not be seduced by the lure of laurels from rootless contemporary
poets with all their affectation, phrase-mongering, contentlessness, crudity, and eroticism. Moreover,
Lyashko wrote, writer-workers must fight against a tendency to exaggerate in their descriptions of the
proletarian future.
(Click here to read the entire text of N. Lyashko's essay
"On the Tasks of the Writer Worker".)
LEF AND MARXISM
In 1923, a public debate was held between supporters and opponents of LEF, a literary
movement and journal established by poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. Marxist opponents accused LEF of
idiocy, of
demonstrating sexual, bourgeois mannerisms, and of being incomprehensible and unnecessary to the
proletariat. LEF supporters took umbrage at what they saw as unfounded, bombastic assertions, which,
they claimed, smacked of good old-fashioned narodnik metaphysics. LEF, they claimed, was striving
for the organized production of literary works which serve reality. Supporters saw LEF as a factory of
langugage and explained its flirtations with contentlessness and zaum ("trans-sense") as a type
of word-testing laboratory experiment.
The moderator of the debate, A.V. Lunacharsky, sided with LEF on the question of
establishing a distinctly proletarian culture. But he warned the youth not to get carried away with LEF.
For example, while he found a certain degree of artistic honesty in the work of Mayakovsky, Lunacharsky was
dismayed by the extreme affectation of form, which, he contended, could lead one to think that there is
no depth of feeling behind it.
A complete review of this debate was published in the fourth issue of LEF. To read this
review, CLICK HERE.
MAYAKOVSKY ON FUTURISM &
THE LEF PROGRAM
In 1922, Vladimir Mayakovsky wrote a short letter
On Futurism, in which he described Futurism
not as an aesthetic stylization, but as a tradecraft in words able to solve in words any contemporary
problem. According to Mayakovsky, Futurists made no distinction between the different
genres of poetry. For Futurists, love poetry and the call for a struggle against typhoid are merely different
sides of the same literary process...a process with the goal of presenting life not as it it, but as it
undoubtedly will be and should be.
In 1923 Mayakovsky then founded a movement and journal entitled LEF (The Left Front
of Art). Three essays by Mayakovsky and his collaborators, appearing in the inaugural issue of the journal,
laid out The LEF Program.
The lead essay, "What is LEF Fighting For?",
traces the history of Futurism and describes its current tasks: to agitate the masses and to create a united Left Front of art for the
destruction of the old culture. Proletarian writers are by in large dismissed as
reactionaries regarding form. The experiments of Pilnyak and The Serapions are seen merely as weak attempts
to adapt and dilute the devices of the Futurists.
The second essay, "Whom Does LEF Tear Into?", identifies LEF's enemies: those with the
evil intention of an ideological restoration; those who preach a classless, universal art; and those who drag the
metaphysics of prophecy and priesthood into art. Certain politicians are also told to keep their grubby hands
out of art.
"Whom Does LEF Warn?" boasts that members of LEF are the "best workers in contemporary art".
But it also warns Futurists, Constructivist, Productivists and others of complacency, cautioning that they cannot
live off the interest of yesterday's revolutionality.
(Click here for "Mayakovsky on Futurism".)
--
(Click here for "The LEF Program".)
50 Years Ago
FADEEV KILLS SELF!
Blames "Ignoramuses"
KGB Calls Him a "Drunk"
On 13 May 1956, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich FADEEV, author of the critically acclaimed
novels The Rout
and Young Guard, committed suicide by
putting a bullet in his heart.
He left behind a note which was a blistering, insulting
attack on the leadership of the Soviet government and the Soviet literary bureaucracy. In this,
his final statement, Fadeev said things which, perhaps, could only be said by a dead man.
In its investigation of the matter, the KGB attributed the death simply to
Fadeev's alcohol problem.
(Click here to read Fadeev's suicide note and two
KGB reports on his death.)
Andrei Platonov's
FOURTEEN
LITTLE RED HUTS
A New Translation !
In 1932, in the midst of a food crisis and famine, Andrei Platonov produced one of his finest plays, Fourteen Little Red Huts. The play touches on the trauma, hunger, and death which accompanied Stalin's rapid collectivization of agriculture. It also lampoons Western intellectuals, such as George Bernard Shaw, who visited the Soviet Union in 1931 and confidently reported that there was no famine or hunger.
SovLit.com is proud to present the text of Fourteen Little Red Huts in a new translation by Gennadi V. Alexeyev and Dmitri G. Alexeyev.
(Click here to read Act One of Fourteen Little Red Huts.) (Click here for Act Two.)
(Click here for Act Three.) (Click here for Act Four.)
3 ZOSHCHENKOS
by 1 Zoshchenko
Writer Mikhail Zoshchenko once claimed, "I know very little about myself." But that didn't stop him from penning at least five autobiographical sketches, three of which SovLit.com now has the pleasure to present. The sketches are from 1922, 1927, and the glooimer 1953, after Zoshchenko had been vilified in the Soviet press and expelled from the Writers Union. In these sketches Zoshchenko touches upon his many pre-writing professions (from shoemaker to police detective), how he became a doctor without attending medical school, and his beer-swilling with Esenin. (Click here to read Three ZoshchenkoS.)
FEATURES & TEXTS
A SovLit.com Festival !
100 YEARS OF SHOLOKHOV
On 25 May 2005, SovLit.com held a celebration in honor of the 100th birthday of
Mikhail Sholokhov, author of the epic novels The Quiet Don and Virgin Soil Upturned, and the only Soviet writer to accept the Nobel Prize for literature. Materials from the SovLit.com celebration held in honor of this anniversary include:
Biography of Mikhail Sholokov. A cradle-to-grave summary of the writer's life.
"Birthmark" (1924) Sholokhov's very first short story, about the clash of a young Red commander and the wizened old leader of an anti-Soviet band of marauding Cossack brigands. The complete text in English.
"Fate of a Man" (1957) Detailed summary of Sholokhov's tale about a Soviet soldier who is captured by the Nazis during the war. He loses his entire family and his will to live. After the war he slips into drunkenness and depression until a young boy gives him a new reason for living.
Speech to the 2nd Congress of Soviet Writers (1954) Text of Sholokhov's speech to the 2nd Congress of Soviet Writers, in which he gives a lukewarm endorsement to the Thaw, calling most post-war literature dull and boring, but avoiding discussion of calls for more openness, honesty, and "sincerity" in Soviet literature.
Speech to the 20th Congress of The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1956) Text of Sholokhov's speech to the de-Stalinizing 20th Party Congress. He blasts Soviet writers, calling most of them "dead souls".
About Little Boy Harry and Big Mister Salisbury (1960) An article in which Sholokov attacks American journalist Harrison Salisbury for the meanness and stupidity of his articles on Sholovkhov's Virgin Soil Upturned. Sholokhov accuses Salisbury of metaphoric murder and urges that he be publicly flogged
Sholokhov Slams Solzhenitsyn! (1967) In a letter to the Union of Writers, Sholokhov demands that dissident writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn be excluded from the Union. The reason: Solzhenitsyn is either insane or a dangerous anti-Soviet; either way, says Sholokhov, "the man cannot be trusted with a pen." Further, Sholokhov calls Solzhenitsyn's writing "feeble and foolish" and lumps him in with the Vlasovites, those Soviets who betrayed their motherland and joined the Nazis to fight against the USSR during the Great Patriotic War.
Introducing Sholokhov by Aleksandr Serafimovich. The short introduction to Tales of the Don (1926), Sholokhov's first collection of stories, written by veteran Soviet-Cossack writer A. Serafimovich. "Comrade Sholokhov's stories stand out like a steppeland flower."
About Sholokhov by Konstantin Fedin. "He has never side-stepped the contradictions inherent in life....Sholokhov omits nothing, he writes the whole truth."
M.A. Sholokhov by C.P. Snow. "The Quiet Don is a great novel...but a mysterious and difficult one. It speaks of the bafflement of ordinary men...but under the surface there is a subjective, passionate sense of life. A tragic sense of life."
An Artist Who Has Enriched The World by Yuri Bondarev. "Sholokhov never follows a straight corridor carpeted with comfortable truths. On the contrary, his target is the all-absorbing truth that is won through struggle and suffering, a truth that is rugged and unkempt and baptized in blood."
The Making of "The Fate of a Soldier" by Vladimir Monakhov.. Sholokhov gives advice to filmmakers on adapting his story for the screen. "If you want to make a film out of my
story...make it a bit on
the boring side."
A Sholokhov Photo Gallery. Photos from the life of Mikhail Sholokhov. Includes some embarrassing baby pictures.
Official Sholokhov Centenary Souvenir Brochure. Information by and about Sholokhov from the SovLit.com celebration in honor of the author's centenary.
Soviet Writers
at War!
Reports, articles, sketches, propaganda, stories, and more from the period of the Great Patriotic War, 1941- 1945. Includes:
Vasili Tyorkin: A Book About a Soldier. by Aleksandr Tvardovsky. The most popular piece of literature about the war read by soldiers during the war. It presented a new soldier folk hero who was clever, witty, inventive, thoughtful, resourceful, dependable, courageous, and fun-loving. Vasili Tyorkin fought Nazis hand-to-hand, was wounded several times, slogged through marshes, swam a freezing river to rescue his comrades, shot down a plane with his rifle, settled arguments, made with the wisecracks and could play a mean accordion.
In the War by Vasili Grossman. Short story about a
loner tank-driver who slowly comes to bond with his fellow tank-crew member and learn the strength and value
of comradeship and love.
June-December by Konstantin Simonov. Report on the changes in the psychology of Soviet troops after the first six months of war. "Our army has learnt how to conquer the Germans."
In Berlin's Neighborhoods by Boris Gorbatov. In Berlin with the conquering Red Army, Gorbatov gloats and taunts Berliners. "Hitler's citadel of obscurantism and piracy is at its end."
In the Name of Kirov by Aleksandr Fadeev. Report on workers in Leningrad during the blockade. Fadeev conducts a literary evening amid exploding shells.
Volga - Mississippi by Konstantin Fedin. A war-time appeal to Americans, comparing the two great rivers.
Freedom or Death by Ilya Ehrenburg. (Agitational essay from first weeks of war.)
In The Main Line of Attack by Vasili Grossman. (Report on Siberian troops in Stalingrad.)
The Last Wish by Pyotr Pavlenko. (A dying marine gets recorded on film.) (more)
Center for Thaw Studies
A compendium of resources related to the Thaw in Soviet literature. Includes:
THAW-ERA NEWS:
TVARDOVSKY AXED !
(How and why Aleksandr Tvardovsky was fired as chief editor of Novy Mir.)
Ehrenburg Blasts Conservatives!
(Ehrenburg's speech at 2nd Congress of Soviet Writers [1954] in defense of the Thaw and against untruthfulness and distortion in Soviet literature.)
Sholokhov Gives Tepid Endorsement to Thaw; Blasts Ehrenburg! (1954) Text of Sholokhov's speech to the 2nd Congress of Soviet Writers, in which he gives a lukewarm endorsement to the Thaw, calling most post-war literature dull and boring, but avoiding discussion of calls for more openness, honesty, and "sincerity" in Soviet literature. Attempting to appear even-handed, Sholokhov criticizes both Simonov (anti-Thaw) and Ehrenburg (pro-Thaw).
Konstantin Fedin on the State of Soviet Literature, 1957. Short excerpt from an interview in which Fedin comments on the "invigoration"
of Soviet literature and its renewed willingness to present the conflicts and ugliness of life.
THAW-ERA TEXTS:
Light in the Window by Yuri Nagibin (1956) Blasts the wasteful, pointless, and just plain unfair privilege enjoyed by the elite.
Trip Home by Nikolai Zhdanov (1956). Dares to ask the question: "Have the Party and goverment been just in their dealings with the people?"
On Sincerity in Literature
by Vladimir Pomerantsev. Appearing in the December 1953 issue of the journal Novy Mir, this essay attacked insincerity and the varnishing of reality in socialist realism. It provoked a firestorm of controversy and marked the beginning of The Thaw in Soviet literature. "Just say NO to tractors!"
Levers by A. Yashin (1956).
The blockbuster story that shocked a nation, lambasting Party officials as duplicitous, bureaucratic, and pedantic, treating people as mere levers to be manipulated, not as human beings.
The Resident by Vasily Grossman (1960).
Story which asks the question: "Rehabilitation...does anyone really care?"
On the Mistakes of Novy Mir. (1954). Article from Literaturnaya Gazeta castigating Novy Mir and its editor, Aleksandr Tvardovsky, for the journal's pro-Thaw writings. (part of the "Tvardovsky Axed" feature.)
Also, Detailed Summaries of the novels and plays: Guests by Leonid Zorin, The Thaw by Ilya Ehrenburg, Those Who Seek by Daniil Granin, Alone by Samuil Aleshin, Not By Bread Alone by Vladimir Dudintsev, and Petrarch's Sonnet by Nikolai Pogodin.
Soviet Satire
Conversation of a Rest Home Deputy Director with Guests on the Day of Their Arrival
by Mikhail Zadornov (1983)
"Comrades! Our new, comfortable rest home was completed on the memorable 47th anniversary of the beginning of its construction!" Thus begins this humorous take-off on bureaucracy, sloth, shoddy construction, and the ever-so-fun Soviet vacation experience. This piece forever dispells those unfounded rumors that all Soviets are dour and humorless. Hey, if Leonid Brezhnev wasn't comfortable and spacious, I don't know who was! (Click here for the full satire in English.)
Young Soviet Writers About Themselves (1962)
Vasili AKSYONOV, Vasili BYKOV, Andrei VOZNESENSKY, Ivan DRATCH, Yevgeni YEVTUSHENKO, Yuri KAZAKOV, Justinas MARCINKEVICIUS, and Anatoli PRISTAVKIN respond to a questionnaire circulated in 1962 by the journal Voprosi Literaturi (Problems of Literature).
Daniil Granin on the Difference Between Soviet and Western Literature
Comments by Granin at a 1971 round-table discussion on the character of Soviet art.
Honoring the centennial of Ostrovsky's birth
"Remebering Nikolai Ostrovsky"
by Anna Karavaeva
The editor who helped Ostrovsky prepare his proletarian masterpiece How the Steel Was Tempered recalls her first meeting with the writer, his struggle with illness, his fierce determination, love of life, and the great plans left unfulfilled by his death.
Bard Music & Poetry
Words & Music of
Bulat Okudzhava
"Singers detested me. Guitarists were terrfied by me."
Library of Siberian Novels
Review of a 20-volume collection of Soviet Siberian novels. "Before the Revolution, it was mainly Central Russia that was reflected in Russian literature....Siberia remained virtually outside the old literature's field of vision. The new Soviet literature began by firmly wiping out "frontier posts" in literary geography." (1971)
Mayakovsky and Nekrasov by Kornei Chukovsky
Analysis of the thematic and stylistic similarities of the two poets. (1952)
Konstantin Fedin Comments on Ilya Ehrenburg
"...His genre is words that act...."
From the Notebooks of Andrei Platonov
Material which Platonov himself wanted suppresssed, liberated in 1973 by his widow and offered up for the world to read.
Mikhail Bulgakov Remembers Gudok
Excerpt from an unfinished manuscript by Bulgakov in which he recalls his work at the newspaper Gudok. He calls the work there "odious" and "a nightmare"; the sketches he wrote for the paper
he describes as full of "stereotypes" and "coarseness".
I Remember Mayakovsky.
Lydia Seifullina recalls her first sighting of Mayakovsky.
TRUE Propaganda
Soviet Literature Quiz Game
Q. In Zoshchenko's "Bathhouse", what should you remember if you drop your soap?
(Click here to play)
|
Featured Selection:
THE TRAMP by Leonid Leonov
(1928). Story of a peasant, who,
as Soviet power wins sway in the villages, feels betrayed by his wife. He snaps mentally and permanantly abandons
the world. Soviet authorities attempt to track him down, but like a wild bear he returns alone to the woods.
(Click here to read entire story text.)
---------------
VICTORY by Aksyonov, Vassily. (1965).
Strangers on a train--one of them, a chess grandmaster; the other one, looking to bring
him down a peg. With resignation, the grandmaster accepts the challenge. Faced with a throng of kabalistic
symbols from his opponent, the grandmaster attempts to escape among decaying columns on a secluded terrace and
to sail away along the diagonals of a suburban Moscow pond. But soon he finds himself hooded and on a gallows
awaiting the fate he long expected. Victory comes to one of the players...but what is the real prize?
(Complete text in English)
Death of Dolgushov by Babel,
Isaac (1924). Cowardly, bespectacled intellectual (just like Babel) refuses to put a fatally wounded
Red Army soldier out of his misery, preferring to keep his hands clean no matter the cost.
(Complete text in English)
Flying Carpet by Beliyaev, Aleksandr A scientist is convinced that fleas are superior to humans--at least in terms of leaping ability. He sets out to right this injustice of nature and nearly ends up stranded in the stratosphere. Science-fiction comedy. (Complete Text in English)
Three Kopecks by Bulgakov, Mikhail
The story of the little man, a railroad
employee, coming up against bureaucracy and the taxman. And--reader beware: this story contains nudity.
(Complete Text in English)
Mad Boy by
Dudintsev, Vladimir
(1958).
A cruel boy taunts a friendly dog and gets bitten. The boy's intellectual, Volga-owning father complains to authorities, but the neighbors defend the dog. The boy gets his comeuppance in the form of painful rabies shots. (Beshenii Mal'chishka) (Complete Text in Russian)
Blood Knot by Dumbadze, Nodar (c. 1984) An old man and an old woman battle each other to win the custody of their less-than-perfect grandson. (Georgian) (Complete text in English)
Tale of the Military Secret by Gaidar, Arkady (1935). The peaceful Soviet motherland is subjected to a perfidious sneak attack by bourgeois forces. As the Soviet fathers and older brothers are killed, little children have to join the battle. One such child is the Malchik-Kilbachish. He is captured and tortured, but remains true to his word and does not reveal the great military secret of what makes the motherland and the workers of the world so strong. His bravery gives the Red Army the time it needs to ride to the rescue. (Complete text in both English and Russian)
Marcelle by Gerasimov, Mikhail
(1920)
A young female French Communist secretly boards a French warship to agitate among the sailors, who are
hugry for word on the revolution in Russia. The sea itself gets involved in the revolutionary struggle,
heaving and seething in an attempt to cast off the warships and their weapons of death. Gerasimov was a member
of the "Smithy" proletarian writers group.
(Click here to read entire story text.)
In The Country by Grossman, Vasily (1960).
The story of terror and a man alone. Snow, an axe, a bluebird, and blood combine to create
an allegorical mystery, with the reader left to determine the meaning. Is the terror real, or is it
just paranoia?
(Click here to read entire story.)
IN THE WAR by Vasili Grossman
(1942). A positive, inspirational story of a loner tank-driver,
who, during the course of the war, slowly comes to develop bonds of friendship with his fellow
tank crew members. When he is wounded and sent to the rear, he comes to recognize the strength of this
comradeship and he realizes, for the first time in his life, the power and value of love.
(Click here to read entire story text.)
A Tale About Happiness by Grossman, Vasily (1934-1935).
What is happiness? For some, it's found in traipsing off to a distant construction site, living in a barracks while
leaving the wife and kids behind. Others find it in a bauble, a golden ring, a piece of scented soap.
And some never find it at all; or if they do, they can't recognize it. In the mid-1930s, Vasily Grossman addressed
this deceptively simple dilemma in
a deceptively simple and short story, presented here in a new translation.
(Click here to read entire story.)
The Resident by Grossman, Vasily (1960).
Story which asks the question: "Rehabilitation...does anyone really care?"
(Click here to read entire story.)
Conversations at Tea by Ilf, Ilya &
Petrov, Evgeny (1934).
Satiric story which touches on a generation gap between an Old Bolshevik
and his 12-year-old son, arising from the excessively "revolutionary" education the boy is receiving at
school. Fortunately, the Central Committee steps in just in time with a back-to-basics decree, thereby saving
a hapless 8-year-old from being worked over politically. The story also takes a swipe at
politically correct but inane poetry as was often celebrated by super-orthodox literary goups such as RAPP.
(Complete text in English)
Interplanetary Chess Congress by Ilf, Ilya & Petrov, Evgeny In an excerpt from "The 12 Chairs", con man Ostap Bender transforms a backwaters Volga River town into the chess capital of the universe. (Complete text in English)
Pushkin and Gogol by Kharms, Daniil Pushkin and Gogol are falling all over each other. A short play. (Complete text in English)
Ivan Ivanych Samovar by Kharms, Daniil. A friendly samovar dispenses tea. Late risers, however, are in for a surprise. (Complete text in English)
THE TRAMP by Leonid Leonov
(1928). Story of a peasant, who,
as Soviet power wins sway in the villages, feels betrayed by his wife. He snaps mentally and permanantly abandons
the world. Soviet authorities attempt to track him down, but like a wild bear he returns alone to the woods.
(Click here to read entire story text.)
IRON SILENCE by Nikolai Lyashko
(1924). A story dealing with the painful scab of stagnation which has come to cover a
factory...a factory where workers once suffered under the
whip...a factory which crucified workers on its spinning metal gears in ghastly industrial accidents...a
factory which gave workers shelter as they studied the revolutionary truth and fought battles with strike-breaking
Cossacks. Now the factory lies abandoned and crumbling, dismantled piece by piece by pilferers and
looters. Workers long to take up the hammer again, but Party officials get nothing done.
(Click here to read entire story text.)
My First and Most Beloved Friend by Nagibin, Yuri. Two boys develop a deep and lasting relationship which carries them through the usual boyhood and adolescent experiences, adventures, and the search for identity. They are separated only by war, when one of them dies. Years later, an accidental visit by the surviving friend to the battlefield where the other died brings back memories as well as feelings of guilt for not also dying. (Complete Text in English)
Cherry Seed by Olesha, Yuri (1929). A dreamer, who spends most of his time in the invisible world of his imagination, plants a cherry tree in honor of his unrequited love, without first asking the permission of the Five Year Plan. (Complete text in English)
The Alcoholic's Brother by Panteleev,
Aleksei (1960). Short story illustrating that you can't believe every denunciation that you hear. (Complete text in English)
The Coward by Panteleev, Aleksei
(1941). Very short story showing that cowardice equals greed and collectivism equals courage. (Complete text in English)
I Want To Live by Shukshin, Vasily (1966) An escaped convict tries to make it out of the Siberian taiga in winter. Luckily for him, he comes across an old hunter, who shares his remote cabin and his wisdom. The convict repays this kindness with brutality. (Complete text in English)
A Midsummer Day's Game by Soloukhin, Vladimir. A grandfather teaches his granddaughter a game from his youth. The girl enjoys the game, then updates it to modern conditions and modern technology. (Complete text in English)
A Political Battle by Veresaev, Vikenty (1933). In an excerpt from the novel Sisiters, two teams of factory workers engage in a type of "Trivial Pursuit" to see who knows the most about the Five Year Plan. They answer burning questions such as: "What is the fundamental idea of the Five Year Plan?" and "What will happen to the kulaks when the collective farms have taken over the whole agricultural domain?" (Complete text in English)
Rafts by Vysotsky, Vladimir (1968).
A short prose work wherein Vysotsky rails against tugboat men and drunkenness. (Complete text in English)
The Lion by Zamyatin, Evgeny (1935). The great king of the jungle, the lion, is dead drunk. In order to win the love of Leningrad's first policewoman, a fire fighter from Ryazan offers to take the lion's place. (Complete text in English)
Pictures by Zamyatin, Evgeny
The narrator tests and taunt's a child's perception of reality. (Complete text in English)
STORY OF AK AND HUMANITY by Efim Zozulya
(1925)
"All citizens must immediately provide proof of
their right to exist. Those found to be unnecessary and a hindrance to progress
will be given 24 hours to leave this life." This, in essence, is the beginning of Efim
Zozulya's "Story of
Ak and Humanity". The citizens in this imaginary state happily
surrender absolute authority to their government, which has promised a better
life. The people, then, have no one but themselves to blame when this
government hits on a simple solution: liquidate the unnecessary. Naturally,
panic grips the city as commissions go from door to door, searching for
human rubbish. A work as relevant today as it was when written
over eighty years ago. (Warrentless wiretaps, anyone?)
(Click here to read entire story text.)
Two Soviet Winter Tales
For the Soviets, fairy tales weren't just kid stuff. Some of the most prominent Soviet authors worked in the genre. SovLit.com presents translations of two tales with a winter theme:
"Steel Ring" by Konstantin Paustovsky
"Snow House" by Aleksei N. Tolstoy
Encyclopedia of Soviet Authors.
Short biographies of 60+ Soviet authors.
Mini-Summaries.
Short summaries of over 1,000 works of Soviet literature by over 250 authors. Sorted:
By Author and
By Year
SovLinks
Links to over 500 web sites related to topics of Soviet Literature.
Soviet Matchbox Collections
Every Soviet citizen at some point in his or her life collected stamps.
But this did not preclude the collection of other items, such as books, toy soldiers, and matchboxes.
Given the facts that (a) Soviets smoked like chimneys; (b) they needed matches to start primus stoves,
kerosene lamps, and even gas stoves; and (c) disposable lighters were not as readily available as in the
West...it is no wonder that a phenomenal number of matchboxes were produced in Soviet times. And each box
of 50-75 matches had to be topped with something, giving rise to an unsung army of matchbox illustrators.
Many matchbox covers offered relaxing nature scenes: birch forests, flowers, fish, birds,
animals, etc. There were also city series, giving views of the monuments and tourist sites not only in Moscow
and Leningrad, but other towns such as Mink, Ulan-Bator, Krasnoyarsk, Pyatigorsk.
Since matchboxes received almost universal distribution, Soviet authorities couldn't pass
up this opportunity for education, propaganda, and agitation. Of course matchbox covers were used to praise
and illustrate Soviet accomplishments: there are series of Soviet icebreakers, locomotives, airplanes,
helicopters, spaceships, and even Soviet-made cameras and tractors. Specific professions and workers
themselves are often highlighted. A series
of "Praise to Construction Workers" features bricklaying, crane-operating, and a new group of Soviet apartment
buildings. Some boxes where obviously meant for distribution mainly on collective farms, bearing slogans such as,
"White clover is the best grazing food for pigs!" and "Introduce Complex Mechanization in Corn Tilling".
Of course evey Party Congress was celebrated on a matchbox cover, as were other important events and anniversaries: the Battle of Stalingrad, an International Womens Congress, and the Moscow
Cultural Festival. Politically important messages such as "No to Nuclear War" were proclaimed. Sports were
covered: skiing, basketball, gymnastics, cycling, weight-lifting, and, in later days, "figure
skating on rolling boards", i.e., skateboarding. Writers, museums, bridges,
railway stations, and just about anything Soviet all found their
way onto matchbox covers.
Matchbox covers were also used to remind citizens of simple safety dictums: look both ways
before crossing the street, cross only at
crosswalks, red light means stop, don't play in the street, don't jump off tram cars. Rules of safe swimming
and boating, how to operate a primus stove, what specific traffic signs means, and reminders not to litter and
pollute called out to citizens from their matchboxes, as did the all-important public-service message: Only you can prevent
forest fires!
In short, just about every aspect of Soviet industry, agriculture, culture, politics, and
everyday life found its way onto matchbox covers. Fortunately, some present-day collectors have posted many of
these Soviet-era matchboxes on the site of the Siberian
Phillumenist Society. (And, yes, "Phillumenist" is a real word meaning "matchbox collector"). Sadly, the
site is very poorly organized and it is difficult to find your way around it. However, if you spend enough
time digging around and clicking on all the links, you will eventually uncover a vast array of interesting,
educational, and often highly artistic matchbox covers, giving an accurate glimpse into a time and people who
have now disappeared.
Hint: Perhaps the easiest way to get a flavor for what is available on the site is to
click on the Izbrannoye link (the picture of the burning match)....then,
in the central window keep clicking "Next". But don't stop there. There's plenty more on the site.
Previous Comrades of the Month:
MINI-SUMMARIES
Short summaries of 1,000+ works of Soviet literature
by 250+ authors.
By Author
By Year
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educational organization dedicated to the study and preservation of Soviet Literature.
Founder, Chairman (Comrade), and Editor-in-Chief: Eric Konkol, B.A., Harvard University, Slavic Languages and Literatures.
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