New Directions

Volume 5 | Issue 2 Article 9

1-1-1978 The Resurrection Of Alexander Push kin John Oliver Killens

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Recommended Citation Killens, John Oliver (1978) "The Resurrection Of Alexander Push kin," New Directions: Vol. 5: Iss. 2, Article 9. Available at: http://dh.howard.edu/newdirections/vol5/iss2/9

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Essay

every one of the courts of Europe, then 28 The Resurrection of of the 19th century? Here is how it came to pass. Peter felt that he had to have at least Alexander Pushkin one for his imperial court. Therefore, In the early part of the 18th century, in By [ohn Oliver Killens he sent the word out to all of his that sprawling subcontinent that took Ambassadors in Europe: To the majority of literate Americans, up one-sixth of the earth's surface, the giants of Russian literature are extending from the edge of Europe "Find me a Negro!" Tolstoy, Gogol, Dostoevsky and thousands of miles eastward across Meanwhile, Turkey and Ethiopia had Turgenev. Nevertheless, 97 years ago, grassy steppes (plains), mountain ranges been at war, and in one of the skirmishes at a Pushkin Memorial in Moscow, and vast frozen stretches of forest, lakes a young African prince had been cap- Dostoevsky said: "No Russian writer and unexplored terrain, was a land tured and brought back to Turkey and was so intimately at one with the known as the Holy Russian Empire, fore- placed in a harem. He had been eight- Russian people as Pushkin. Those runner of the Union of Soviet Socialist years-old and was going to be trained to multitudinous writers who have taken Republics, which is so vast, even today be a eunuch. In the Sultan's harem, the people as their theme compared to it has seven time zones. For example, young boys were fattened and castrated Pushkin, are, with, at the most, two the United States of America has only somewhat like wealthy race horsemen exceptions, only gentlemen writing four. The Emperor of this empire was have done to their geldings, so these about the masses. Even in those two Peter the Great, Czar he was of all the boys could move among the beautiful gifted exceptions, Tolstoy and Russians. nubile women of the harem and have Turgenev, there is apt to appear upon The Russian aristocracy had a severe no sexual desires. occasion a flash of haughtiness, which inferiority complex vis-a-vis the rest of seems like an effort to bring happiness Europe, especially the French. Many This is the fate that Pushkin's great- to the masses by raising them to the Europeans looked upon the people of grandfather would have suffered had he writer's level. Without Pushkin, we Russia disdainfully as "barbaric not been kidnapped at the age of nine by would have lost, not literature alone, Asiatics." The Russian nobility wor- the Russian ambassador to Turkey and but much of our irresistible force, our shipped French as if it were a fetish that brought to the court of Peter the Great. faith in our national individuality, our would ward off evil spirits, secure to Peter took an immediate fancy to the belief in the people's power, and most them the keys to the kingdom and bring lad, who was strikingly handsome and of all, our belief in our destiny." all happy things to past. The French highly intelligent. He was promoted Franco-Russian biographer Henri Troyat language, the way of life, the entire rapidly from lackey to footman to, at wrote in his biography on Pushkin: culture were servilely worshipped and the age of 16, the office of personal "Pushkin grew with the years. Every adulated. All imperial documents, all secretary to His Most Imperial Majesty. other Russian writer claimed descent official papers, the literature, all decrees Eventually, Peter adopted the lad and from him. Inexplicably, the whole of were in French instead of Russian. A became his godfather. The Queen of Russian literature proceeded from his man might have been a street hoodlum Poland became his godmother. But the genius. Poetry, novels, short stories, or a garbage collector in Paris. In Russia lad was proud of his African origin and history, theatre, criticism-he opened he was a uchitol (house tutor) in one of refused to adopt the Christian name of up the whole gamut of literary endeavor the great Russian households. his imperial godfather. Instead, he chose to his countrymen. He was the first in In those days it was fashionable in the name of an ancient ancestor and time, he was the first in quality. He was Europe to have at least one Negro in the named himself Ibrahim Petrovich the source. Neither Gogol nor Tolstoy imperial palace, or Ethiope, or Blacka- Hannibal. Under the sponsorship of could have existed without Pushkin, for moor, as Black people were designated Great Peter, he received an education in he made the Russian language; he in the courts of Europe in that far-off France in Army engineering. Back in prepared the ground for the growth of era. Usually the Blackamoor played the Russia, after the death of Peter, he was every genre." role of lackey, footman, court jester or exiled to Siberia where he remained The question is: Why is it that most buffoon. It was the in thing in Europe, until the reign of Empress Elizabeth, literate Americans know so little about a kind of European-type feudalistic who had been his playmate when they this great Afro-Russian? And how did tokenism, as seen today in all levels of were children in the court of Peter the Alexander Pushkin happen to find him- government. Great Peter was a Euro- Great. Under the regimes of Empresses self in imperial Russia at the beginning phile, and if at least one Negro graced Elizabeth and Catherine the Great, his 29 30 star went into orbit. He became a then I was hooked. I had an Afro- Back to Moscow and to Pushkin Square, general in the Russian army and ac- Russian on my back, and loving it. I a plaza located in the heart of town quired an estate with a thousand serfs. would go away from him and write where stands a gigantic monument to He lived almost a hundred years. Ibrahim another book, then back to Alexander Pushkin at the foot of which fresh Petrovich Hannibal was the maternal Sergeivich, another book, back to flowers are placed each day of the year, great-grandfather of Alexander Sergeie- Pushkin, until I began to get invitations excepting of course those frigid snow- vich Pushkin, the father of Russian from the Soviet Union to attend the covered days of Moscow winters. Hun- literature. annual Pushkin festivals. dreds of his countrymen and women were lined up to take their tum to stand Pushkin was born on May 29, 1799. He What is a Pushkin festival? was proud of his African ancestry. One and gaze at Pushkin's magnificent of his unfinished works, published after During the last week of May and a larger-than-life monument-in-bronze. his untimely death in 1837 in a duel, couple weeks into June, an annual As a boy, Pushkin spent a lot of time was "The Negro of Peter the Great," a festival is held in the Soviet Union to alone with his books. His brother, Leo novel about his great-grandfather. which writers from all over the world could boast that at the age of 11, are invited to celebrate the life and How did I get hooked on Pushkin? Pushkin knew all of French literature contributions of Alexander Pushkin to What was my initial inspiration? by heart, including Moliere, Racine and world literature and the humanities. Voltaire. At age 12, he wrote continu- I was at my home in Brooklyn about 14 In 1968, my wife and I decided to attend a Pushkin festival. We flew to Moscow ously and in Russian idiom, which was years ago when I got a phone call from not the style in those days in Russia. He and caught a midnight train to Lenin- Paris, France, from a friend of mine- was published at 15. At 20, he was grad, which was called Saint Petersburg Harry Belafonte. He called to tell me banished from St. Petersburg to the in Pushkin's days. In Leningrad, we that he had been with Russian film south of Russia for revolutionary went to all of the places where the great producers who wanted to do an English- activity and his inflammatory verse, man lived out his brief tumultuous life speaking movie on the life of Alexander such as his Ode To Freedom, calling on so precariously. We visited the duel Pushkin. They wanted him to play the the serfs to rise up and throw off their ground where he was fatally wounded role of Pushkin, he said, and that I was shackles, and his The Dagger, in which and his apartment on Moika Street. chosen to do the screenplay. "What do he extolls the use of violence as a you think, John," he said. From Leningrad then to a city where he means of liberation. He wrote studied at the Lycee, an elitist school Derevtiya, The Village, in which he "Greatest idea you ever had, Harry. II for the "future leaders of the empire." It romanticizes the idyllic aspects of pas- "Why in the hell don't you start the was the location of the imperial Sum- torallife, but, being a romantic revolu- research then!" he demanded. mer Place in Pushkin's time and was tionary and a realist, in the same poem called Tsarkoye Selo. It has been he attacks the landed gentry and their "I would start if you'd stop running renamed "Pushkin." treatment of serfs on their estates. your mouth and get the hell off the

telephone. II From Pushkin finally to his grand- Pushkin was the first people's poet and father's estate at Mikhailovskoye, where he wrote in Russian, not in French as The next morning, I made it up to the thousands of people of myriad nation- most Russian writers had before him. Schomburg Collection - a library at alities had been gathering all week, The people read his verses! Students 135th Street and Lenox Avenue. I re- living in tents, trailers and so on. With knew his poems by heart. Workers who searched for three weeks and came away Pushkin's larger-than-life portrait in the could read read Pushkin. Those who with about 100 pages of material on the background on a raised platform, writ- could not read had others read for them. life and times of Alexander Pushkin. ers read poems and essays to Pushkin Czarist spies sent word to the Emperor By the time Belafonte returned from before thousands who gathered in an of workers in Karkov, a thousand miles Europe, he brought with him about 20 open field. I spoke to them about my away from the capital, who walked off or 25 books by or about Alexander novel. From Mikhailovskoye we went their jobs after students read Pushkin's Pushkin, from which I amassed 200 nearby to participate in a ceremony at poems to them. He spent six madden- more pages of research. For whatever his tomb on Holy Mountain. I took ingly lonesome years completely out reason, the Russian film project fell some dirt from the great one's grave of touch with his comrades and his through. It didn't matter though. By and put it in an envelope. family. Notwithstanding, he continued 31 :a write. Nothing could stop the flow of inspiration. those days. He seemed to take a special ..::!s genius. delight in cuckolding noblemen, mak- Besuzshev Rynumin testified: "My ing it with the wife of some general, '::::was during his terrible banishment inspiration came from Alexander baron, count, adjutant or some minister :::Jat Pushkin began and almost corn- Pushkin and his Ode to Freedom of state. He got out of one scrape and ed his most outstanding literary and his The Dagger.Who could read immediately got into another. Imperial .evement- his novel-in -verse, Pushkin without committing himself informers literally breathed on his ~ugene Onegin." He spent the last two to the overthrow of feudalism?" neck, peeked into his windows, read his vears of his exile on his grandfather's In attempting to gain favor with the personal letters. They even got Pushkin's estate at Mikhailovskoye. Sometimes artists, the intellectuals and the Russian own father to spy on him. ~ thought about his great-grandfather people in general, the new Emperor .:::nriedin the frozen earth on nearby Alexander Sergeivich Pushkin was brought Pushkin back from exile and ..::'Diy Mountain, thousands of miles fatally wounded at the age of 37. At pardoned him. :::mn the sunny clime and land that Pushkin's death, the Emperor feared a ~ed him. And he would long for the Back from exile, the people hailed him revolution. The Russian people moved, hd of his great-grandfather. If he everywhere he went as "The voice of inexorably, toward the sudden void, the eould escape this frozen crazy hopeless Russia!" ... "Our national pride!" ... voice that would be heard no more. ia, which he loved with the deepest "The soul of our national genius!" They came to the apartment on Moika .rnd of helplessness, perhaps he would Street in troikas, barouches, droschkas, Upon leaving the Moscow Grand x whole again. The longing for escape in horse and donkey carts-thousands Theatre one night, crowds followed him iknved from his pen and joined the came on foot to that awful sudden down the street. "There he is!" they verses of the immortal "Eugene silence on Moika Street. A 16-year-old shouted. "Pooshkin! Our own! Our Onegin." Thus he wrote: Dostoevsky went on a hunger strike. very own!" ... "He's back!" ... "He's Thousands stood in freezing weather - "hen strikes my liberation hour! really back!" Men and women embraced outside the apartment building. -=-_5 time, it's time-I bid it hail; him, kissed him on his bearded cheeks, ..:pa::-ce the shore, the sky I scour begged him for his autograph. A few "Farewell, Pusbkint" And beckon to each passing sail. weeks later, a woman poet described "Goodbye, oh noble son of Russia!" 5torm-canopied, wave-tossed in motion that memorable evening in the "PoorRussia! The good lord has On boundless highways of the ocean, Petersburg Neva Observer, in a poem: forsaken us!"

T Thenwill I win unbounded reach! These were Pushkin's people, the ..::'s:-time to leave this tedious beach The crowd pushed forward, working men and women, peasants, =-notdamps my spirit, to be flying I hear, look, he's coming! students, businessmen, artists and - Ibere torrid southern blazes char Our poet! Our glory! intellectuals, the Third Estate, the Iy own, my native Africa, The people's darling! lonely women on the far away Russian There of dank Russia to be sighing, Distinguished, though not tall- Bold, quick and knowing. steppes who had read "Eugene Onegin" T 'here once I loved, where now I weep, by a feeble fire. ~d where my heart is buried deep. He walked past in front of me, And forever afterwards Meanwhile, the Emperor waged war "When the Emperor Alexander died My dreams were ruled by ddenly, his brother Nicholas sue- against a phantom. He banned the, His African profile opening of his play, The Covetous eeeded to the throne. Pushkin's com- And lighted by his flaming eyes! ~es attempted a revolution. It was Knight in St. Petersburg. Thousands DOrtive, put down ruthlessly by the How come most Americans know were turned away outside the theatre. 'Newspapers were prohibited from 3!\V Emperor. Seven were hanged, practically nothing about this Russian 3mdreds were sent to Siberia. Because giant? What kind of man was Alexander mentioning Pushkin's name. University - e attempted revolt was in December, Pushkin? He was a man who loved life, professors and students were prohibited ~e insurrectionists are known to but loved to live li£edangerously. from leaving their classes to attend the' sian history as the "Decembrists." Throughout his brief eventful life, he funeral. The police force was instructed ?nshkin is known as "the bard of the had this crazy romance with change to destroy all copies of a new Pushkin Decernbrists." At the trial of the and revolution. He was forever fight- portrait bordered in black, with the =:!aItyrs, all claimed Pushkin as their ing duels, which was the fashion in caption underneath: "The fire has gone out on the altar." 32 A popular bookshop on N evsky certainly sensed it. And Martin's Prospekt sold out "Eugene Onegin" on speech about the "Mountaintop" indi- the evening of his death. The next day, cates that he knew his days were thousands thronged the bookstore while numbered. Death is a realistic fact of many others stood outside in 30-below- life every revolutionary has to live zero weather. Policemen raided the with. Pushkin must have anticipated it. publishing house and destroyed the A combination of this mysterious plates and printing presses. No matter, foreboding and consciousness of his more than 60,000 copies were sold out worth must have inspired his poem in St. Petersbourg alone. Exegi Monumentum, which he wrote shortly before his death. The funeral was announced to take place at the St. Issaic Cathedral. Ten What did Turgenev think of as he stood thousand turned out for the funeral, but there crying unashamedly in the falling the Emperor's police had secreted the snow and watched the weeping peasants body to a church on Stable Street, lower Pushkin's coffin into the frozen where the funeral was held attended earth? Did he remember his great only by those whom were extended friend's poem, Exegi Mon um en tum i printed tickets. Pushkin, dead and Unto myself I raised a monument, helpless, lay there among his enemies, By hands, a track thereto the people's while the people of the Third Estate feet will tread; scurried around the frozen city looking Not Emperor Alexander's Shaft is as for their fallen poet. At the end of the lofty as my pillar funeral services, his enemies came up That proudly lifts its splendid head. to his casket and kissed his hand and Not wholly shall I die, forehead and breathed their sighs of But in my lyre, my spirit deep relief. Souvenir hunters cut off Shall, incorruptible, and bodiless locks of his hair, tore buttons from his survive frock. And I shall know reknown As long as under heaven At Midnight, he was taken clandestinely One poet yet remains alive. by three troikas to Holy Mountain near The rumor of my fame will sweep Mikhailovskoye-hundreds of miles through vast Russia. southwardly where he would be buried And all its people speak this name, near his mother and his fainous Whose light shall reign alike great-grandfather. Two policemen rode For haughty Slav, and Finn, and in the trailing sledge. Pushkin's coffin Savage Thngus and Kalmuk riders of was in the second sledge. The Emperor the Plain. authorized the poet's fellow writer and I shall be loved and long the people comrade, Turgenev, to accompany will remember Pushkin's body to the final resting The kindly thoughts I stirred- place. He rode in the first troika. My music's brightest crown, Some said of Pushkin that he was How in this cruel age I celebrated arrogant, was possessed of savage tem- freedom, per and temperament, which they And fought for truth for those cast John Oliver Killens, writer-in-residence at Howard attributed to his African blood. One down. University, recently completed "Great Black thing is clear. He had a calm objective Oh muse, as ever, be ye unafraid, Russian, " a novel on the life and times of Alexander Pushkin. He is the author of several sense of his own value to the Russian To praise and slander cool, other important books, among them, "Youngblood," people and to world history. Strange Demanding no reward, sing on, "And Then We Heard The Thunder," and "The Cotillion." He wrote the screenplay for two maior how revolutionaries seem to sense But in your wisdom, motion pictures, Odds Against Tomorrow and when the end is near. Malcolm Be silent when you meet a fool. D Slaves.