Diplomacy, Harnessing Classical Music for Power Purposes*

POLSKAAKADEMIANAUK KOMITET SOCJOLOGII INSTYTUT STUDIÓW POLITYCZNYCH 2017, nr 3 AUTOETNOGRAFIA MARZENNAJAMES PrincetonUniversity DIPLOMACY, HARNESSING CLASSICAL MUSIC FOR POWER PURPOSES* Lina and Serge by Simon Morrison is a rare bines a popular appeal of a compulsively read- phenomenon on the publishing market: it com- able biography with a valuable scholarly contri- Adres do korespondencji: mjames@prince *Simon Morrison, Lina and Serge: The Love and ton.edu Wars of Lina Prokofiev, Houghton Mifflin Har- 242 RECENZJE, OMÓWIENIA bution on a new research frontier in the study cabarets championing Russian music, would of history and politics—understanding the so- be enough material for a riveting biography. cial, economic and political realities underpin- However, Lina’s life took on an even more ning classical music in Soviet-style regimes. In extraordinary and, unfortunately, devastating particular, it reveals the staggering dimensions turn: the Prokofievs moved to the Soviet Uni- of the abuse of state power over composers and on in 1936. their families. Lina had met Serge in 1919 after one of At the heart of the attractiveness to the his performances. The virtuoso pianist, who ar- general public lies the dramatic life story of rived from Russia and toured the US, Europe, an amazing woman: Carolina (Lina) Prokofiev. and Japan, composed in his every spare mo- Brilliant, beautiful, and gifted with a captivating ment, including on train, ship, and during peri- sociability, she was born in 1898, to a Spanish- ods of respite afforded by periodical commis- -Russian-Polish family of excellent opera sing- sions from ballet and opera houses. The har- ers Juan Codina and Olga Nemisskaya. She grew rowing dominant drama of their lives first sur- up in the Russian émigré community in New faced in 1925 when the cultural agents of the York City: a Brooklyn and Manhattan girl. Num- Soviet government initiated what would turn bering about 500,000 prior to the Communist out to be a macabre courtship of a famous clas- Revolution, subsequently swelling to 750,000, sical music composer needed to help legitimize the Russian-American ethnic group in New the Soviet political and economic system in the York created a fertile environment for the incub- eyes of the rest of the world. The positive ef- ation of intellectuals and artists. Lina travelled fects of the cultivation of classical music on the with her parents around Europe, learned five country’s international image (today some call foreign languages before reaching adulthood, it soft power), was deeply appreciated by So- and received classical music education that was viet leaders. However, harnessing classical mu- the cement of the social circles in which she sic for power purposes had to be done delicately. moved. Her young life was filled with concerts As the example of Serge Prokofiev shows, the and opera performances, often in association Soviets had a problem: in order to grow pro- with institutions working in support of those fessionally, Russian musicians needed the inter- most needy both in America and back in Russia. action with Western artists, so they had to be Lina had the privilege of being admired, allowed some contact before being lured to go cared for, and educated by many leaders of back. Thus in 1918 Serge was allowed by Len- the émigré population in New York. Her bio- in’s culture administration to travel to the West, graphy abounds with portraits of impressive, and it was after 18 years that he went back to his larger than life personalities. Linked to the home country. equally vigorous cultural scene in Paris, the Soviet enticements ranged from lucrative Russian-Americans who treasured classical mu- commissions for compositions to the logistics sic often crossed the Atlantic, and so did Lina. of everyday life, including a secure and flexible There, she lived and performed with Serge singing career for Lina. Soviet diplomats organ- (Sergei) Prokofiev and married him in 1923. ized lavish parties in honor of the Prokofievs, in- Her participation in the excitements of artist- vited them to elegant vacation homes in France, ic life in Paris, narrated by Morrison with the stage-managed glamorous welcomes on music- eye for impactful intellectual breakthroughs al tours of the Soviet Union, and guaranteed among composers, electrifying competition first-class housing, first-rate education for their among ambitious impresarios (including Serge two sons, Svyatoslav and Oleg (in an elite Eng- Diaghilev of Ballets Russes), as well as lowbrow lish-language school created in Moscow for the children of the members of the foreign trade, court, Boston–New York 2013 (also published banking, and other arms of the Soviet foreign in England, The Love and Wars of Lina Prokofiev, service) and, “of course,” the possibility of any Vintage Books, London 2014). time return to the West. RECENZJE, OMÓWIENIA 243 The regime succeeded in many ways in from fighting the Germans, to fighting the Aus- harnessing classical music to impress interna- trians, and then, in another forced adjustment, tionally and domestically. In the case of the to fighting anti-Soviet Ukrainian nationalists. In Prokofievs, at first, Serge just praised theSo- the meantime, the English school for children viet system in interviews with Western journ- closed down. Teachers, neighbors, colleagues, alists, then accepted commissions for musical and friends were executed, secretly killed with endorsements, such as, for example, the col- the help of hired thugs, or dispatched to the Gu- laboration with Georgiy Yakulov and Diaghilev lag. Serge found himself writing musical works in 1925 on Le pas d’acier, a ballet about major lauding the Soviet political and economic sys- features of communism (expressed in symbols tem in the hope of shielding the people working such as, for example, a small street market to on these artistic projects from danger of impris- represent Lenin’s New Economic Policy) in the onment. process of building a new civilization superi- Both Serge and Lina learned the art of mak- or to the West. Once in Moscow, Serge regu- ing only positive statements about the Soviet re- larly churned out compositions whose subjects gime, even in private. Sometimes they slipped substantiated the main myths and propaganda and made an honest mistake without intending of the Soviet system, and allowed all his work to come across as critical. Serge, for instance, to be seen as part of the pursuit of the Soviet once altered, for musical reasons, a libretto that sound, the communist project of creating the contained Lenin’s speeches. As a result, he saw brave new world. his Cantata for the Twentieth Anniversary of October After just a few months, broken prom- [Revolution] banned, thus learning that “tamper- ises started crashing down on the Prokofievs. ing with Lenin’s words was akin to burning the Among the first was the pledge of freedom Bible—absolutely taboo” (p. 179). of international travel: the last trip, with their Morrison’s intricate knowledge of the polit- sons kept in Moscow as hostages, took place ical, social, and economic realities at the time al- in 1938. Serge had to report on himself during lowed him to discern many telltale things that the trip, observe curfews specifying the length the Prokofievs did not do. For example, Serge of stay in the places he visited, and continue did not volunteer for political committee work to work on “Soviet topics,” such as, for ex- in the Union of Soviet Composers, instead, “he ample, popular songs in honor of Soviet lead- turned up at the meetings only when his mu- ers (among them, as it later turned out, mass sic was under discussion, acting incredulous at murderers). Requests for further travel were any suggestion that his melodies and harmonies turned down and so Serge stopped petitioning evinced anti-Soviet tendencies” (p. 178). Lina for fear of overstepping the clear but unspoken did not register to obtain a medal For the De- decision made somewhere in the corridors of fense of Moscow distributed to civilians en- power. Corrupt bureaucrats suffocated Lina’s gaged at the home front in the capital, and did singing. Serge received engagements, but un- not give up friendships with diplomats at West- predictably and dependent on the political ap- ern embassies. Given the context, these were proval, which caused him endless frustrations. unmistakable signs of inner resistance to the For example, Prokofiev’s opera Semyon Kotko political system. which had originally been composed to be anti- Starting in the summer of 1937, Serge re- -German, featuring a sarcastic parody of a Ger- ceived a summer vacation in a spa in Kislov- man march, had to be reconfigured at the ur- odsk in North Caucasus, but Lina did not. Even ging of the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav when Lina came for a short visit, she could only Molotov after the USSR signed the Ribbentrop- stay in the Intourist hotel. In contrast, Mira -Molotov Pact with Nazi Germany in August Mendelson, a devoted admirer, 23 years Serge’s 1939, ushering extensive cooperation, includ- junior, whose family belonged to the elite in ing between the two secret services in dividing charge of economic central planning, received up Poland. The main hero of the opera switched the same spa allocation — with the common 244 RECENZJE, OMÓWIENIA dining room, and opportunities to try to sneak unique historical material. Its novelty should to Serge’s room. By the time Serge finished the appeal equally to scholars and the general audi- third summer in Kislovodsk with Mira in the ence. spa, and Lina in Moscow, the family was broken. Although important links between state Serge moved out with a Soviet mistress very power and art and artists in Soviet-style com- much unlike Lina. Mira had a positive attitude munist regimes have been established,² gaining to the Soviet system, and instead of making in-depth insight into any single case of polit- Serge feel that he should fight it, she was happy ical interference with artists and their famil- to help him navigate its opaque patronage sys- ies in the Soviet Union is exceedingly rare.

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