Ilf and Petrov's Excellent Adventure
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Ilf and Petrov’s excellent adventure cial structure in opposition to the dynamic Chris Berg reviews capitalism of the east and west coasts. (Al- though as Erika Wolf notes, Ilf and Petrov Ilf and Petrov’s American are once again tricked, as a Native Ameri- Road Trip can who pretends to be unaware of civili- sation was actually a famous photographer by Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov and clown dancer on tour.) Similarly, a trip (Cabinet, 2007, 156 pages) through North Carolina confirms their So- viet views about American race relations— n 1931, some 10,000 American tour- deep in the Jim Crow era, it is fair to say ists travelled to the Soviet Union in or- they had a point. der to see what the great Soviet Experi- What does surprise the modern reader Iment could offer their depression ravaged tering the little town of Moscow, Ohio. is the unfocused rage they direct towards country. There are some photographs of more American filmmaking. ‘We watched at least But the tourist traffic heading the other political importance. A swaying sign in the a hundred picture shows and were simply direction was much lighter. Ilf and Petrov’s street with the lettering ‘REVOLUTION depressed by the amount of vulgarity, stu- American Road Trip is the travelogue of two IS A FORM OF GOVERNMENT pidity and lies’. Certainly, it would be hard Soviet satirists, Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov, ABROAD’ is, to Ilf and Petrov, bourgeois to defend the vast piles of films which were as they crossed the United States, scribbling intimidation of the working class. (As Erika produced to fulfil contractual obligations reports for Pravda readers back home. Like Wolf notes, the joke was on the Russians— in the studio system during Hollywood’s the American fellow-travellers who were the sign was instead an advertisement for Golden Age, but cheaply written and pro- merrily shuttled from Potemkin village to a popular humour anthology illustrated duced movies are hardly a unique feature Potemkin village, the report of their jour- by Dr Seuss. Ilf and Petrov were the fore- of American cinema. The cookie-cutter ney reveals more about their home country most satirists of the Soviet Union, but they productions of Soviet cinema during the and culture than the country they ostensi- were unable to recognise the work of their ideologically rigid Stalin era are, on aver- bly went to investigate. American colleagues.) age, of a far lower quality than comparable The resulting photoessay, which was For the most part, Ilf’s camera is non- American films, and have certainly held up originally published in the Russian maga- political. Indeed, American Road Trip gen- worse over time. Ilf and Petrov may have zine Ogonek, (roughly equivalent to Life) erally avoids direct political criticism. Ilf been outraged more by the ideological con- reproduced the snapshots taken by Ilya Ilf and Petrov are obviously fond of the coun- tent of Hollywood films than their quality. on their journey with their satirical impres- try they are studying. They are fascinated American Road Trip is certainly at the sions of their trip. American Road Trip is a by the advertising they see plastered across margins of Soviet culture in the 1930s, but delightfully naïve interpretation of Ameri- their trip, and direct much of their satiri- it is more than a historical curiosity. Satire can society in the depression era. cal energy towards Coca-Cola and cigarette was a major part of Russian culture before In this book edited by Erika Wolf, a advertising: and after the October Revolution. The lives of Illya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov illustrate how historian of Soviet art, Ilf’s photographs are The fiery writing burns all night mixed the bureaucratic approach to politi- affectionately reproduced for the first time long above America and all day cal satire could be. Their 1928 novel The in an English language publication. long the garish billboards hurt Twelve Chairs flirts with political criticism, Ilf’s photographs are more happy- your eyes: ‘The Best in the World! but they remained in favour—other well- snaps than Ansell Adams. Many photos Toasted Cigarettes! They Bring You known satirists, such as those in OBERIU appear to have been taken by sticking the Success! The Best in the Solar Sys- literary collective, were killed in Stalin’s camera out of the windows of their car. tem!’ purges for sedition. The book is full of slightly askew pictures When we read how foreign the most ba- of things the two Russians found inter- Ilf and Petrov do little more than re- sic and innocuous advertising seems to the flect dominant Soviet thinking about their esting, or at least notable—some ‘hand- two Russians—they are surprised that that some and unusually elaborate’ species ideological opponent, but they are never towns advertise themselves on billboards heavy handed or propagandistic. Ameri- of cactus, the childhood home of Mark beside the highway—we don’t gain a better Twain, an advertisement for whiskey that can Road Trip purports to be a study of picture of the United States in the 1930s, the United States, but instead fascinatingly incorporated a statue of a horse, and a but of the Soviet Union. sign that notified visitors they were en- reveals the strength of Soviet ideology and They are highly sympathetic to the the Russian mindset. Native Americans living on reservations, Chris Berg is Editor of the IPA Review. predictably seeing them as remnants of a so- R www.ipa.org.au IPA Review | March 2008 49.