May 01, 2004

Two Stalin-Faced Books

The Soviet Mind

By Isaiah Berlin

Brookings, $28.95

Shostakovich on Stalin

By Solomon Volkov

Knopf, $30

It is interesting to consider that the same academics, philosophers or intelligents who one would expect to decry the appearance of new Stalin monuments on Moscow city streets, seem to have no problem with using Stalin’s visage to sell their books.

Book covers rely on iconographic images and emotions to move themselves off shelves (people actually do a great deal of judging books by their covers). And there are few things as iconographic in the Soviet/Russian realm as Stalin. Evil sells.

Yet, in fairness, writers rarely have much control over their book covers. Blame it instead on the art directors or us money-grubbing publishers. Then again, these are books about Stalin, or at least about the intellectual, cultural and political shadow he cast over Russia.

First comes The Soviet Mind, a useful compilation of Isaiah Berlin’s writings about Russian and Soviet culture and history. His narratives of his encounters with Akhmatova (cited in this issue) and Pasternak are included and offer intimate and thoughtful portraits of these great writers.

But interesting too is his account of his visit to Soviet Russia in 1956, and his extremely insightful 1957 essay “Soviet Russian Culture,” which begins: “One of the most arresting characteristics of modern Russian culture is its acute self-consciousness. There has surely never been a society more deeply and exclusively preoccupied with itself, its own nature and destiny. From the 1830s until our own day the subject of almost all critical and imaginative writing in Russia is Russia.” It is the measure of a truly perceptive writer that, 50 years on, his analysis still has weight.

The volume ends with Berlin’s essay, “The Survival of the Russian Intelligentsia,” written in 1990, and reflecting on the huge promise of the revolutions of 1989. It provides a poignant cap to this volume of erudite essays on the ideological and cultural themes that dominated the 20th century.

If the compilations of Berlin’s writings offer a macro view of Soviet reality in the 20th century, Solomon Volkov’s new work, Shostakovich and Stalin, looks at that reality through the micro lens of confrontation between the great composer and the horrific tyrant.

Volkov co-wrote Dmitry Shostakovich’s controversial memoir, Testament (controversial because some questioned its authenticity), giving him a virtually unrivaled vantage point from which to provide this intimate portrait. Shostakovich is full of fascinating vignettes and first-person accounts – glimpses of what life was like in the first circle of Hell that was the pinnacle of the Soviet arts world.

Shostakovich was a musical genius and an unimaginably brave soul. No other composer, Volkov writes, may have suffered so much for his music. And yet, though Shostakovich lived constantly in fear after his massive, Stalin-instigated denunciation in 1936, he worked on. What is more, at several critical junctures, in one-on-one and indirect confrontations with Stalin, Shostakovich showed an honesty and frankness that many would have called insane.

Indeed, central to Volkov’s interpretation of Shostakovich is of the composer as yurodivy – a holy fool permitted to speak Truth to Power without fear of retribution. Stalin, meanwhile, is to Volkov a Soviet remake of Nicholas I, perched on the triumvirate of communism, Stalin and socialist realism.

This is a compelling interpretation and a much better informed one than that of historians who have seen Shostakovich as a limpid (or, worse, craven) composer ready to do Stalin’s bidding. It is helped along by Volkov’s wonderful storytelling style, fluidly translated by Antonina Bouis. One wishes only that this fine book were able to rely more on the story it had to tell than on Stalin’s mustache to sell books.

– P.R.

BRIEFLY NOTED

The Dancer Defects: The Struggle for Cultural Supremacy during the Cold War, by David Caute (Oxford University Press • $39.95) The Cold War had a very active cultural front. Caute provides a needed Eurocentric take on this aspect of the conflict, with fascinating details of how the Cold War penetrated everything from film to art and music.

A Well-Ordered Thing: Dmitry Mendeleev and the Shadow of the Periodic Table, by Michael D. Gordin (Perseus • $30). Mendeleev, a bureaucrat, teacher and hot air balloon enthusiast (among other interests) has been clouded by his best known creation – the Periodic Table. Gordin peels back the shadow and constructs a wonderful portrait of 19th century Russia in the process. One cannot help wondering who will play Dmitry Ivanovich in the movie version...

Russia: All 89 Regions, Trade and Investment Guide (CTEC • $395) Never mind that Russia now has 88 regions (and falling). For investors, lawyers, bankers and anyone with a professional interest in Russia, this is an invaluable reference guide, well-organized and meticulously cross-indexed (also comes with a companion CD). There have been many “All-Russia” investment guide reference books published over the past decade, based on official sources. But this is without a doubt the most professional and useful.

Roaming Russia, by Jessica Jacobson (iUniverse.com • $17.95) We can’t resist plugging this new, self-published tome by a Russian Life author. Jacobson has gone places in Russia were few foreigners have been, and brings an open, engaged mind to what she sees. If you want to go off the beaten path in Russia, check this book before you go.

The Russian Far East, by Josh Newell (Daniel & Daniel • $59.95) The richness of the RFE is carefully detailed in this “reference guide for conservation and development.” Includes region-by-region natural histories, photos, maps, plus economic, historic and social overviews. No person with an interest in the RFE should be without this book.

May 01, 2004

Two Stalin-Faced Books

See Also

Shostakovich and Stalin: The Extraordinary Relationship Between the Great Composer and the Brutal Dictator

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