Interview Interview with Inna Klause Composers in the Gulag By Henny van der Groep Inna Klause: The idea took shape in DSCH: What is the essence of your 2004 when I went to Magadan for book? What do readers need to know? The Kolyma Stage1 two weeks to write about the com- poser Vladislav Zolotaryov4, who IK: I think several topics are of To Yury Osipovich Dombrovsky2 had lived there after the labour camps importance. Like for instance, the (1955) had almost disappeared. I played his importance of music for both prison- compositions for bayan and loved his ers and their guards. This represents a They go, music. I was eager to find out about large part of the book. It’s important Drunk on the oncoming wind, Zolotaryov’s demise, as he died at to acknowledge that although music And file in silent rows. an early age (he committed suicide) was able to give strength to inmates, it Then corpses are brought out. and about which there was no writ- could also easily be exploited, impact- They are counted. ten material. In Magadan, where he ing negatively on prisoners’ mental While hillocks, deathly-still, are coldly lived for a good number of years, I state, leading to discouragement and looking on. attended an exhibition about labour worse. It’s significant that prisoners ...alive form lifeless rows. camp prisoners. Among them were were forced to play for fellow inmates Admitted by someone from GULAG musicians such as the singer Vadim who left the camp to go to their places Who’s scanning their blue-lipped, Kozin5. Until then Western music of work.6 One might refer to this as a earth-shaded faces researchers believed that musicians form of mental abuse. It’s important With his well-trained eyes, were hardly concerned by arrests to show the different functions that Repeating, like a spell: and labour camps. I was beginning to music can have, especially in extreme “Any questions? wonder if this was true and that led situations.7 Questions?” to my research project. The question On the other hand I wrote about Bayonets shining in the sun. inspired me to work on this topic professional musicians, and the sheer “Any questions?” especially given the number of musi- numbers that were arrested and sent German shepherds baring their fangs. cians and composers who were sent to labour camps. A fact not previously And high above, to the Gulag. appreciated. In the book I include Invisible and inaudible, a table of over sixty composers. Of A solemn choral of human souls. DSCH: Does Zolotaryov feature in course not all of them were necessarily your book [for information about first-rate composers but often these Semyon Samuilovich Vilensky3 the author and book look at the end musicians were sent to the Gulag at of the interview]? a young age and many of them were ur interview with Inna Klause never given any chance to develop took place during the Sympo- IK: No, not as such, as strictly speak- their abilities, dying so young. That’s sium “Saved from Oblivion” ing he had nothing to do with the why it’s of importance to understand O(Dem Vergessen entrissen. Symphon- Soviet forced labour camps, although the potential artistic, creative and ische Musik von Alexander Weprik) I do know that he likely collected musical talents we lost in the Gulag. dedicated to Alexander Weprik, one prisoners’ poems. He was born in Inna Klause continues: of the many musicians/artists to be the 40s, lived in Magadan in the 60s Most of the arrests occurred as a sent to the Gulag before and during where visual relics of barracks, such result of being denounced by others, the reign of Tikhon Khrennikov. as watchtowers and so on still existed. such as when someone knew a musi- He was clearly influenced by these cian or a composer who expressed an DSCH Journal: What where the cir- images and, in my opinion, they are opinion opposed to the Soviet Union’s cumstances that led you to study the perceptible in his music, but at the ruling party government (including complex topic of musicians in the same time Zolotaryov did not belong Stalin). Or when individuals visited a Gulag? to my subject about the Gulag. foreign country or had family living 50 • Jan. 2020 • Nº 52 • DSCH JOURNAL Henny van der Groep • Interview with Inna Klause abroad; but also people of noble birth speeches or actions. Mostly these all of the many musicians there were or with homosexual tendencies—all accusations were based on concocted able to play in the orchestra. Some of of these could serve as reasons to be stories. There was only a relatively them simply had routine work, and arrested. In fact many musicians in small number of people whose arrests some of them died there. And some the camps were innocent. were based on real activities. Alex- prisoners had to do both, working in ander Kenel12 (an acquaintance of a mine for example, as well as playing DSCH: Like Protopopov8? Shostakovich) was a member of the in musical ensembles. When a camp Freemasons, in which he held a high needed a large orchestra, and if an IK: Yes, like Sergey Protopopov and position, the reason for which he was opera or operetta was being staged, the tenor Vadim Kozin, who were imprisoned. then musicians often had just the gay. Another example for an innocent music to work on. The National-So- inmate is the composer Vsevolod DSCH: What kind of work was cialistic Concentration Labour system Zaderatsky9, whose reputation was assigned to the musicians who were in Germany functioned in a similar blackened by his colleagues from imprisoned in the Gulag? way. This work could have been a key the Muzykalnoye uchilish- to survival, one might say. che (Music High school) I indeed have the impres- in Yaroslavl. And there’s a sion that for labour camp view that this happened to prisoners who were able to Weprik 10 as well. Having a exercise their own profes- specific nationality could sion, such as music, this was also be a reason to be picked important in the struggle up. Under orders from the to retain their identity and secret services Germans, maintain morale—all part Greeks and other nation- of survival. It was good for als, who had been living in the psyche. But it must have the Soviet Union already been very difficult to make for long time, were arrested. music in such circumstances And among them there were and could also have been of course musicians and something of a burden, to composers. This fact itself have such a relatively priv- did not necessarily play a ileged position. part in defining their des- tiny, but it was occasionally DSCH: Did poetry help in a used by interrogators who similar way to music? accused prisoners of playing music that was character- IK: Yes, poetry helped ised as being “wrong”—such many people to survive, as Wagner and other Ger- and even those who had man composers, or indeed Inna Klause never had any connection in general, music from the with poetry began to write West or Zionist music. So poems. Uncomplicated ones although music was used in cross-ex- IK: Most of the musicians sent to of course, but nevertheless this helped aminations generally you could say the forced labour camps worked as them to come to terms with their trau- that the profession itself did not really normal labourers in lumber, construc- matic experiences and to write about play a significant role. tion, mining—gold or coal or various their feelings in rhyme and rhythm. other important mineral sources DSCH: As I recall there was a certain (Kolyma13). Some of them, as they DSCH: Reading your book I kept “paragraph” involved, wasn’t there? later recounted, were lucky enough to wondering how it was possible to play play in ensembles or bands. As a part and sing in such extremes of cold? IK: Yes, the arrests often happened of cultural-educational programmes, based on Paragraph 58: that is, on all camps had strict rules concerning IK: In winter the temperature in suspicion of being involved in Count- music. The central camp leaders in Kolyma and some other regions could er-Revolutionary activities.11 Moscow prescribed that all camps fall to around -40 or -50 degrees Cel- Or in other words, the arrest of peo- should re-educate prisoners through sius. Less so in Magadan, being close ple accused of undermining the Soviet music. In general all big camps had to the sea. But most prisoners were system in some way, often through to have an orchestra. Of course not held inland where the goldmines were, DSCH JOURNAL • Jan. 2020 • Nº 52 • 51 Interview with Inna Klause • Henny van der Groep Dmitry Gachev playing in a cultural brigade in Kolyma in September 1942. and where the weather could be unbe- they refused to work, forcing others IK: The “false” criminals for sure, but lievably cold. There is a published to toil, exploiting them and literally as for the blatnye it’s difficult to say. poem by Yelena Vladimirova14 in gambling on their lives. For example There are some testimonies about that which she describes how the musi- these criminals often played cards and but they are rare. We know that they cians’ lips turned blue and how the sometimes the life of a non-criminal sang; however it is unclear whether instruments froze up. Imagine the was used as a bet in the card game.