Winter 2008

The Birch Columbia University

A Journal of Eastern European and Eurasian Culture

Creative Writing — Literary Criticism — Culture and Affairs — Original Photography The Birch A National, Student-Run Undergraduate Journal

Sierra Perez-Sparks Editor in Chief Alexi Shaw Managing Editor Tanah Spencer Business Manager Eleanor Colley Deputy Business Manager Sasha de Vogel Creative Writing Editor Aga Sablinska Literary Criticism Editor Anna Kats Culture and Affairs Editor Ester Murdukhayeva Contributing Editor Rebekah Kim Copy Editor

www.thebirchonline.org

Editor’s Note

It is a strange feeling to put the finishing touches on this issue of The Birch. I adjust a pho- tograph here, add a hyphen there, but I do not just copyedit. Rather, I watch as an enormous amount of individual work coalesces into a single body of academic and artistic vision. It‘s the product of young minds, observant and ardent. You won‘t find stodgy ideas between these cov- ers and you won‘t find foolishness either. I am immensely proud of the bold statements in Philip Petrov‘s essay and the careful arguments in Amanda Weaver‘s. Yelena Shuster‘s recollec- tions make me shudder, smile and attempt to swallow the lump that forms in my throat by the end of the page—precisely in that order. I take pleasure in the shape these words and images together create, and I hope you will too. If I could, I‘d drop this issue into every mailbox, starting with the one on the back cover.

—Sierra Perez-Sparks

— 2 — Table of Contents

Creative Writing The Names by Rachel Z. Feldman 5 How to Tell a Story about Russia by Sasha de Vogel 6 Kasha by Yelena Shuster 8 Eating My Words by Rachel Ulrich 9 An Insider’s Journey to and through Brighton Beach by Ilona Potiha 11

Literary Criticism Truth, Illusion, and the Meaning of Dostoevsky by Philip Petrov 14 A Cloud in Dialectics: The Contradictions of Vladimir Mayakovsky 17 by Julie Schulte Manipulating the Systems of Languages in Anna Karenina 20 by Erica Cohen-Taub Blok’s Apocalypse: A Poet’s Elusive Revolution by Adams Carroll 23 The Russian Negative Simile by Amanda Weaver 27

Culture and Affairs Cinema of Moral Concern by Patrick Smyth 31 Neither Indirect nor Direct Aid: Russia’s Response to the Greek Revolution, 1821-1822 35 by Ester Murdukhayeva Bilingualism in Ukraine by Iryna Dzyubynska 38 Leveling Neutrality: “Third-party” Contrivance in Contemporary De-Sovietization 41 by William J. Sadd

Notes and References 45

Photography By: Meaghan Patrick (University of Virginia), Patricia Manos (Bard College), Erica Cohen-Taub (Bard College), Justin Starr (University of Virginia), Grace Zhou (Columbia University), Ilona Potiha (Columbia University)

Front cover photo by Imanta Nigals (University of Pittsburgh) Antonija with Red Fruit (Karsava, Latvia)

Page 2 photo by Kristina Brendel (Arizona State University) Arches—castle ruins (Kosova, Belarus)

Page 4 photo by E. B. Bartels (Wellesley College) Visiting the dacha (Kirovsk, Russia)

Back cover photo by Kristina Brendel (Arizona State University) Mailbox—in a village north of Lepel, Belarus

— 3 — The Birch

SPECIAL THANKS

The Birch would like first and foremost to thank its many supporters, without whom this journal would be merely a concept. We are overwhelmingly grateful to the Harriman Insti- tute, and especially to Catharine Ne- pomnyashchy, Alla Rachkov and Frank Bohan for their guidance and support from the incep- tion of The Birch to the present day. We would also like to thank the Activities Board Council and the Office of Student Development and Ac- tivities at Columbia, whose assistance enables The Birch to publish at the highest quality. Ad- ditionally The Birch thanks CU Arts for their belief and confidence in our organization. Funding is made possible I would like to thank the many editors, writ- through a generous gift ers and photographers who collaborate to make from The Gatsby Charitable this creative and academic journal worthy of its Foundation. audience. Finally, The Birch thanks its readers.

— 4 — Creative Writing The Names

Rachel Z. Feldman, Franklin and Marshall College

I walked through the Jewish quarter of Trebič, Where amongst the abandoned homes A sculptor works, Selling statues of the golem.

I visited the crematoriums of Auschwitz, Where tourists pose for pictures Next collections of luggage, And rooms filled with human hair.

I stumbled upon the metal shoes in Budapest, The ones that sit on the edge of the Danube Perched with the pigeons, Memorializing Jews who were shot into the river.

And I have seen the empty chairs in Krakow, Erected there to remember The Jews who waited for trains, When the ghetto was liquidated.

But nothing breaks me Like the names that cover the walls of The Old-New synagogue in Prague. A cacophony of names, Wrapped around the room from floor to ceiling, Swarming like bees.

As I stood among them I remembered what the sculptor told me in Trebič: )אמת( To bring a golem to life you must write the word for truth on its forehead“ ”.)מת( And to destroy a golem you erase the first letter to form the word for death

I force myself to pronounce the names aloud, As if I could bring them to life again like a golem, But each syllable just leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

— 5 — The Birch How to Tell a Story about Russia

Sasha de Vogel, Columbia University

How was the trip? We want to know, Did you eat a lot of cabbage? Did you drink a lot of vodka?

I stomped around a city for weeks, where the streets glittered with broken glass from beer bottles. I stranded myself at night on the wrong sides of riverbanks, and saw sunset slip into sunrise, with no darkness in between. I called the ground by its first name—Peter.

What was it like what we‘ve heard about Mother Russia, Were you being watched?

Yes, I was watched, when I gave twelve rubles instead of the twenty I owed, When they showed us how many grams of cardboard went into a loaf of blockade bread, When the marshrutka drove by me without stopping. Except on those interminable escalator rides down to the metro, when everyone‘s watching young lovers kiss. Being watched is a feeling you have about yourself.

Well, what did you do when you were there? You must have seen so many things—like dancing bears?

At the Pushkinsky Dom, I saw Tolstoy‘s shirt and shoes and drinking cup. Off Vladimirskaya, I visited the room where Dostoyevsky passed, and where Raskolnikov killed that woman, near the Marinsky Theater. In a museum like a temple, I took a picture with Pushkin‘s death mask, his fat lips and nose cast in plaster. I read Esenin‘s suicide note, written in blood at the Astoria Hotel.

— 6 — Creative Writing

But tell us what it was like in Russia? We want to know! You must have so many stories.

Nadezhda feeds me sour cream at dinner and tells me, ―It‘s always the same, Americans are scared, and then they come here and fall in love.‖ We are in the kitchen watching a talk show about soccer goals that collapse and break schoolchildren‘s necks. Today we have only cold water, no hot for another week, and my underwear is strung up on the clothesline in the front hall. ―Those soccer goals, twenty years ago they would already be fixed. With Communism, someone was responsible for every problem. But things are better now,‖ she says, and I pet the cat. Outside, fireworks are going off in the pink-white night, because in the summer every day is another wedding, who can blame them for setting off car alarms like that? ―Eat a cookie, or a Twix, or a Snickers, eat something. In Russia you can‘t just drink tea by itself.‖ So I do, and she teaches me the words for carbohydrates and fat. Then, because it‘s night, I tell her I‘m going, and I‘ll be back later, late, or not.

But I am having a problem with plot. After all, how many times can I walk down Nevsky Prospect, if the weather is always the same—swampy, half raining. And I keep walking until I‘ve gone past everywhere I‘ve been again, until I am back at the airport, saying, Do svidaniya moi drug, Because I don‘t know what else to say.

— 7 — The Birch Kasha

Yelena Shuster, Columbia University

As a three-year-old, I tasted the So- сириал and чипсы. Like any good ba- viet Union—and almost threw it up. bushka, feeding me was her main fixa- That day‘s meal was a milky glob of tion. When she called, the first thing oats, otherwise known as manaya kasha. she‘d ask was, ―What did you eat today?‖ The porridge had a revolting outer layer Every time I came to visit, she would of dry white skin that I could peel, the cook up a feast for me and dedushka result of throwing butter on boiling milk Misha, and say, ―You should gain weight, as it cooled. My caretaker at the Khmel- you are too skinny.‖ nitsky preschool was blonde, young, and ―What, do you want me to be fat?‖ I evil. Like any good villain, she refused to would reply, and as if on cue, we both let us leave the table until we had cleaned laughed. The sly remark about America‘s our plates. Her voice was deep and her impossible standards of beauty was not threats terrifying. As I struggled with my lost on my babushka. stomach, the kasha congealed into a Often, she showed me black and tough blister. I‘m not sure if I got to play white photographs of her younger self with the other kids that day, if the cold hanging on the walls, next to pictures of spoon shoved down my throat was real or deda Misha in his army uniform. I was imagined. But tyranny was the taste of mesmerized by her glamour. I‘ll never that milky flesh. forget when she told me she married him A few weeks after my fifth birthday, after only three weeks of dating. She my family and I left Ukraine and I tasted looked proud, (as when I finished my the freedom of America. In a miracle plate), the sparkling eyes telling me, straight out of the American Dream, my ―Don‘t you know? That‘s how it worked babushka Nina was able to convince me back then,‖ the innocent grin saying, ―It to eat—and love eating—grechnivaya was simple. He found me attractive. I kasha, the sister dish to my childhood wanted to settle down and followed him nemesis. Cooked in water as opposed to to Siberia.‖ milk, her kasha smelled ―mmm‖ good, as she would indicate with her mouth while Now, my dedushka lives alone in nodding sideways when trying to feed their silent apartment and faces her smil- me. Her kasha was always an inviting ing image in every room. He watches brown field of oats, never swimming in a Russian satellite TV all day, reads Rus- milky skin that looked as if it was about sian papers, ventures outside for a walk to pop. Sometimes I caught a misplaced when the weather‘s nice, and tries to hide glob of butter that she added in secret. his tears when we talk on the phone. He My Russian was soon buried under continues her habits, asking what I ate my English thoughts and I had trouble for breakfast, lunch, dinner depending telling baba Nina about my classes, on when I call, always adding ―You are friends, and passions. Instead, we would too skinny! It‘s all right to gain a few chat for a few minutes about cereal and pounds, show some curves—you‘re a chips—the only English words she had no woman now.‖ He tells us he eats, but we trouble adopting as her own, her Russian are never sure. I wonder if, like me, he trilling of the rrr and hissing of the sss still smells her grechnivaya kasha waft- following her tongue as she pronounced ing from the kitchen.

— 8 — Creative Writing Eating My Words

Rachel Ulrich, University of Kentucky

On the birch-ridden banks where the geeky: science-fiction novels, Japanese Volga and Oka rivers intersect in Nizhny Anime, and mythological creatures. Af- Novgorod, I spent June and July at the terward we became inseparable. Nastya linguistic university studying phonetics, and Galina (my host mother) were ex- grammar and vocabulary. Prior to our tremely patient with my broken Russian, arrival in Russia, seminars concerning although our interaction was often punc- the most efficient way to learn a language tuated by the nuisances of everyday life. were proctored by professors from Har- Galina spent most of her free time at the vard and Princeton, who suggested Rus- family dacha located about an hour's sian–Russian dictionaries, studying drive away from the city, tending to her flashcards at the bus stop and summon- beloved garden and preparing endless ing the courage to banter idly with batches of borsch. Nastya's cell phone strangers. Once settled into our strange was an extension of her right hand, on new lives in Nizhny, daily schedules con- which she chatted incessantly with her sisted of lectures and video-courses in Muscovite fiancé, Alexi. Russian, offering insight into the life, Vadim almost defies description; his culture, politics and economics of mod- antics and English improvisation became ern and traditional Russian peoples. legend at school, as my American cohorts Most weekends were booked with excur- would gather each morning to hear the sions to reputed sites such as Pushkin‘s latest hilarity. I will never forget our first home at Boldino; the original Assump- meeting: I was sitting at the table with tion Cathedral in Vladimir; monasteries the rest of the family, when he arrived of rural Suzdal, where time froze some- home by kicking open the door. In a time during the twelfth century; or sim- booming voice with a grandly rolled "r," ply around our town, better known dur- he yelled, 'Rrrrrachel!' and proceeded to ing Soviet times as Gorkiy after the Rus- produce a two-liter bottle of beer and sian author. champagne hidden behind his back. Despite countless hours of structured Each evening, after Vadim gulped learning, the majority of my language down his first course of dinner in an acquisition occurred at the dinner table amazingly efficient manner and Galina with my host family in our flat on the satiated his appetite with a second plate- eclectic Kazanskoye Shosse, a street mix- ful, the events of each family member's ing ancient dachas, crumbling Soviet day would slowly unfold, as he drilled us industrialization and modern 24-hour with questions in his charismatic man- supermarkets. Each day, as the respec- ner. He was intensely curious about my tive activities of each member of my host schooling and wanted each lesson re- family ended, we would slowly accumu- counted in detail, often interrupting, in late in the kitchen—Vadim and Galina, the Russian manner of questioning, with their children Nastya and Grisha, and I. one-word barks of, Who?! What?! Both Grisha and Nastya were twenty- When?! Where?! Everyone else would three, "working" for their father, al- mutter answers into their plates, but I though I hesitate to call the midday found myself sweating as I struggled to hours between ten o'clock and two express simple thoughts clearly and o'clock a workday. Grisha and I slowly quickly. Under such pressure my com- discovered a shared love for all things prehension and short-response skills

— 9 — The Birch sharpened considerably. hilariously ill-conceived; before leaving As dinner finished, the table was for work he would repeat in English, "I cleared and tea set out with accompany- need to leave: I have urgent business to ing blini, thin pancakes stuffed with jelly attend to." Vadim's desire to learn Eng- and topped with dollops of sour cream; lish was capricious and more often than an assortment of store-bought konfeti, not he spent time correcting my gram- often with portraits of past tsars delight- mar, explaining different words and fully decorating their foil wrappers; and phrases to me and reviewing my flash apple- or berry-stuffed piroshki. At this cards. These hours were invaluable, both time, conversation transitioned to more to my personal improvement and the lively banter, with a much broader range development of our relationship. of topics up for discussion. Here we Slowly, my time at home became mused about the differences between tantamount to structured classes as the Russian and American culture, the fam- line between casual conversation and ily‘s history—including Vadim‘s grandfa- daily language instruction blurred. Of ther‘s military service under Nicholas I— course, the fact that dinner with my fam- Vadim and Galina‘s courtship, and ily was perhaps the most enjoyable part Grisha and Nastya‘s plans for the future. of the day didn't hurt—as evidenced by Sometimes, Vadim refused tea and the incessant pleas of my American class- instead produced cognac, vodka, and mates for an invitation to dine at my shot glasses. Galina and Nastya usually house. Late July rolled around and I left refused, but I never did, and learned to Russia, but far from empty-handed; my drink like a true Russian— straight liquor improved fluency is not nearly as impor- preceded by a lemon slice and followed tant as the lasting relationships I devel- by a pickle or cherry, earning me my oped with my host family. I am con- nickname of "gadost‖ or ―badness.‖ vinced this is one Russian tradition that Vadim loved to team up with me in persists: the dinner table as the center of drinking contests against Grisha, often the social world; a place for family and ending in Vadim berating Grisha by add- friends to eat, drink, talk and learn— ing a diminutive ending to his name, ba- about life and each other. sically calling him a little girl. My gadost tended to improve my Russian, the wiz- ard of booze replacing hesitancy with courage. Still, the conversation would stall as I ravaged my dictionary in an effort to ex- press my ideas, but nobody minded. Vadim and Grisha were mildly interested in learning English and would often look up words themselves. Eventually, we tore the dictionary in half: English-Russian for me and Russian-English for Vadim and Grisha. Sometimes Vadim would memorize lines from Grisha's old English grammar books and repeat them to me at breakfast, causing me to snort milk through my nose in laughter. Not only did he use a French accent to speak Eng- lish, but the grammar book lines were Graffiti near the Helsinki ferry terminal (Tallinn, Estonia) — 10 — E.B. Bartels Creative Writing An Insider’s Journey to and through Brighton Beach

Ilona Potiha, Columbia University

-Devushka, what can I help you with? -Half a pound of fantina by the slice, pozhalusta… -Is it possible to have it any other way? Who’s next?...

The last line of my exchange with a years would be unthinkable, but for my saleslady at Taste of Russia was drenched parents, it represented their only hope with sarcasm. I brushed it off, took the for a better life. grainy cheese my father had requested, My parents finally arrived in Los and walked towards home on Brighton Angeles in 1977. They comfortably as- Beach Avenue. The salesladies who work similated to life there, but the heightened in the Russian shops here are always un- tension over the Rodney King trial and derstandably agitated; anyone would be the Los Angeles riots of the early 1990s after standing for ten hours at a time, forced my father to seek different busi- never having anticipated that this would ness options. We were faced with starting be their fate upon their arrival to New over again, this time not across the world York City from the Soviet Union. but across the country, and felt that Stores like Taste of Russia make life Brighton Beach would be a good segue all the more convenient and pleasant for into a new life. the large population of Jewish refugees Why Brighton Beach specifically? My here, who immigrated during the collaps- grandfather, a prominent Russian restau- ing years of the Soviet Union in the late rant owner living in Brooklyn, suggested 1980s. My settlement in Brighton Beach, we take advantage of the many unex- however, is a bit unusual. My family left plored business opportunities there. I Odessa, Ukraine, in the late 1970s with was six. Fifteen years later, I still wonder the help of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid how life would have been different had I Society, an organization that helped stayed in Los Angeles. I‘ve concluded 80,000 Jewish refugees flee the exten- that I would have lacked the grounding sive religious persecution of the former in my heritage that I owe to so many Soviet Union. HIAS helped my family years of living in a neighborhood escape into Vienna and then Rome, paid drenched in Russianness, from the Rus- for their living expenses, and assisted sian titles on virtually every establish- them in getting visas to move to the ment and the smell of Russian food ema- United States. nating from the stores to the sound My mother and my father lived with waves of the language in the air. their families in both Vienna and Rome Since moving into the dorms for col- for several months. My mother was fif- lege, I find myself missing the solemn teen and my father eighteen. When they faces and slightly grayer buildings of the reminisce about their stay in Italy and only place that‘s ever felt like home to Austria, they are wholeheartedly enthusi- me. I treasure the richness of the culture astic: my father is nostalgic for the Italian behind the dreary façade. The downtrod- girls, and my mother, for the chocolate. den, yet animated musicians outside of Their enthusiasm, however, is difficult M&I International Food always have a for me to fathom. To me, moving to an- more somber tone than the average other country during the crucial teenage American classic. They sing of subjects

— 11 — The Birch ranging from the streets of old Moscow of hardship; in Russia, she was an engi- to the faithful wives of the Decembrists. I neer. know, however, that within the unassum- Her story is not uncommon. A pro- ing melodies lie messages of hope and fessor is now a limo driver. The former resilience that have accompanied the dean of mathematics and physics at No- Russian people for centuries. vosibirsk State University now ekes out a Although my grounding lies on living tutoring algebra to high school Brighton Beach, I‘m not a typical resi- students. To some, these are stories of dent. Many people never leave the wasted talent, of people descending from neighborhood, so although Columbia is success into poverty, but to us, these are only a subway ride away, I‘m seen as hav- also stories that attest to the resiliency ing rejected the idea that Brighton Beach and endurance of many Russian immi- is a final destination. As a first- grants. generation Russian-American rather The Russian spirit is unlike that of than an immigrant, I embrace my iden- any other; we believe in our culture and tity while realizing that for me, Brighton in ourselves because we know that to- Beach is the Vienna and Rome of my par- gether, we have lived through far worse. ents, a cherished waypoint on my jour- Look into the eyes of an immigrant and ney. you will see the knowledge that he can Many people here hide skeletons in succeed—he must. For me, this strength their closets. My great-grandmother has been a source of inspiration and has swallowed her wedding ring to evade provided a sense of belonging. We carry strict Soviet laws as she fled for this the plight of our families and the endur- country. A woman enamored with de- ance of the Russian spirit. This too shall signer clothing, holding cigarette butts in pass, continues to sing through the street her ringed fingers and chatting loudly on performer‘s tune. a jewel-studded cell phone, might have had to bribe university officials for her education—a luxury Jews were not al- lowed. The old man who spends his days sitting outside the fruit store playing checkers might have numbers tattooed on his forearm. And who knows what secrets the businessmen hide, strolling outside at 2:00 on a weekday? Though younger generations only learn of oppression and anti-Semitism from their parents and grandparents, those stories mingle with news and gos- sip and remain part of our Russian cul- ture. It feels like a secret society, as our theories about the fire at Café Tatiana move with the wind down Brighton Beach Avenue, where black Mercedes and NYPD cars are double-parked—not coincidentally. We all know the lekarstva lady who stands on the street corner with bags in hand, mumbling, ―medicine, medicine,‖ in Russian. She is a reminder

Brighton Beach (Brooklyn, NY) — 12 — Ilona Potiha Gareth Jones Journalist of the Holodomor 1905-1935 Biographies by Margaret Colley: More Than a Grain of Truth and A Manchukuo Incident

Gareth Jones, a young Welsh journalist, died in mysterious circumstances, on the eve of his 30th birthday in Inner Mongolia investigating the intentions of the Japanese in the Far East. He had been captured by bandits, ransomed and murdered after 16 days in captivity. His death was certainly politically motivated but who was responsi- ble? During his distinguished career Gareth assisted British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, was spectator to the Depression and met President Hoover. Gareth flew with Adolph Hitler and visited Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Soviet Union. In 1933 Gareth witnessed and reported the Great Famine in Ukraine. From his letters home, his diaries and his hundreds of articles his niece, Margaret Siriol Colley, has written two biographies, More Than a Grain of Truth and A Manchu- kuo Incident. For further information and purchase see: www.garethjones.org www.margaretcolley.co.uk Or contact [email protected] The Birch Truth, Illusion, and the Meaning of Dostoevsky

Philip Petrov , Columbia University

THESIS ted. Truth is not important—late There is nothing more unnecessary, Nietzsche is primarily concerned that his perhaps, than yet another juxtaposition arguments be beautiful. It is this ambiva- of Dostoevsky and Nietzsche—in fact, one lence towards the value of truth that al- wonders whether this world can endure lows late Nietzsche to claim, among other another comparison of these two men. things, that Christian dogma arose from But what if it were true that there‘s noth- the primeval economic relationship of ing more exciting than such a compari- creditor and debtor, and that Socrates son? What then? could be refuted by the fact that he was Nietzsche was a man who could not ugly. (This is not to suggest that stand still: it was impossible for him to Nietzsche was necessarily wrong on ei- refrain from changing his mind. His ther count.) worst fear, in fact, was that he would at Throughout his career, Nietzsche some point turn against himself. It remained free from the belief that truth makes little sense to accuse Nietzsche of is more valuable than illusion. Yet he had contradicting himself, for a man who more to offer than the insight that the demolished his own ideas as he formu- falseness of an idea does not constitute lated them shouldn‘t be expected to think an objection to it. What is most exciting systematically. There is one position, about Nietzsche, perhaps, is that he however, from which he never deviated: cheerfully demolished the view that illu- he never gave up his belief in the power sion is shameful escapism. In Nietzsche, of illusion to make life bearable. In early there is nothing pathetic, nothing puer- Nietzsche, one finds the idea that— ile, about the desire to withdraw from historically speaking—art was an abso- reality; on the contrary, the decision to lutely necessary development, a develop- avert one‘s eyes from the horrors of the ment that made it possible for men to world is the hallmark of a sensitive, artis- endure a vile and ghastly world. Hamlet tic, and noble spirit. But what about is early Nietzsche‘s finest example of this Dostoevsky? phenomenon. On Nietzsche‘s account, Hamlet stumbled into a grave error: he ANTITHESIS somehow caught a glimpse of the truth of The terrifying emotional chaos of his life. Hamlet saw through all illusions, environments, the overpowering sensa- and the consequences were catastrophic. tions endured by his characters, the near- He opened his eyes to reality and paid a perpetual uncertainty of his text—these heavy price—he felt ridiculous, lost the features make it clear that Dostoevsky desire to act, and died. was intent on looking directly into the With late Nietzsche, the situation reality of life. Embedded in Dostoevsky‘s becomes even more interesting. Late writings is an impulse to cut through illu- Nietzsche is not content with reminding sion, to see the truth that lies beneath his readers of the necessity of illusion: things. Consider Dostoevsky‘s major late Nietzsche transforms himself into an works. Crime and Punishment is the tale illusion. When one reads Nietzsche‘s fi- of a man who is nearly led to ruin by his nal works, one finds him making argu- belief in the twin illusions of Hegelianism ments in which he doesn‘t believe, es- and utilitarianism. The Idiot tells of a pousing views to which he‘s not commit-

— 14 — Literary Criticism woman who retreats from reality into a simply won‘t remain alive if they insist world of her own making and ends up on dispelling their illusions. On the other getting killed. And The Brothers hand, there‘s Dostoevsky, raising his Karamazov is a tragedy about the un- deep Russian voice, claiming that to bearable consequences that ensue when evade the truth of the world is to repudi- men misunderstand each other‘s inten- ate the very possibility of life. What is to tions and misread the world around be done? them. Dostoevsky is not just a man—he‘s There‘s always the view that Dosto- a declaration of war upon illusion. evsky and Nietzsche represent two dis- It‘s not that Dostoevsky is interested tinct and contradictory approaches to the in systematic knowledge; he would be the world. If one feels tempted to accept this first to remark that the accumulation of view, one should visualize these two great knowledge can never be a mechanism for men as deer—that is, as beasts who the elimination of suffering. Dostoevsky charge one another, lock antlers, and has little interest in philosophy, and, for engage in world-historical struggle. But this reason, it would be perverse to asso- this view is mistaken, for there‘s nothing ciate his assault on illusion with some at issue between the two men. kind of a quest for wisdom. For Dosto- evsky, the problem with illusion has SYNTHESIS nothing to do with its relationship to There is no difference between the knowledge. Rather, illusion is a problem man who loves the truth and the man because it represents an undue focus on who lives for illusion: both of them take the self. When a man constructs illusions the dichotomy of truth and lie seriously. for himself, he becomes excessively fix- It is so with Nietzsche and Dostoevsky. ated on his own imaginative powers, and Nietzsche discovered a corridor that con- this hinders him from perceiving the suf- nected truth and illusion, and he spent fering of others. Illusions cloud one‘s much of his career going back and forth vision, thereby rendering one unrecep- through this little passageway. He trans- tive to the pain of one‘s neighbors. One formed life into a game whose object was can find something very unusual in to blend truth and lie in the right propor- Dostoevsky: one can find a critique of tions, and his writings were intended as a illusion in the name of compassion. Be- rulebook for this strange game. Nietzsche cause he is first and foremost an emis- needed the dichotomy of truth and lie. sary of compassion, Dostoevsky needs to He needed a pair of opposites, for he was preserve the integrity of reality at all determined to solve the greatest and costs. He knows that if he fails to uphold most important puzzle of all time—he the existence of a single, shared world, he was determined to become happy. And will be left with no foundation upon here is a fact that nobody will deny: when which to build his heaven of universal one needs to learn to be happy, when one love. Perhaps we owe Dostoevsky some needs to overcome the disgusting suffer- gratitude for pointing out that compas- ing that makes life tragicomic, one does- sion can‘t be transmitted from the illu- n‘t confine oneself to one end of a corri- sion of one man to that of another. Com- dor. passion cannot survive translation—this Dostoevsky needed the dichotomy of is why there must only be one reality. The truth and illusion no less than Nietzsche. question of truth and lie, then, was no Dostoevsky assembled all the thoughts laughing matter for Dostoevsky. that made the men and women of his day On the one hand, there‘s Nietzsche, neurotic, all the fears that kept the peo- chuckling to himself, suggesting that men ple he knew from loving one another, all

— 15 — The Birch the obsessions that stood in the way of a that truth and lie can be differentiated, compassionate world—Dostoevsky as- that they‘re two distinct things. sembled all these things and put them in When the Buddha attained enlight- a box on which he wrote the word enment and saw through all delusions, he ―Illusion.‖ Dostoevsky didn‘t want to tol- did not attempt to abandon the illusory erate bad air; he set himself the task of world. He made himself equally ac- clearing his Russia of the ideas—that is, quainted with both truth and lie, and he of the illusions—that kept men from un- had no interest in judging between the derstanding one another. Like Nietzsche, two. It is in this way that, when the world Dostoevsky needed to find happiness. becomes more Buddhist, scholars will But Dostoevsky hedged his bets on refuse to judge between Nietzsche and truth—he felt certain that illusion would Dostoevsky. It will be known that destroy the very possibility of compas- Nietzsche is Dostoevsky, and scholars sion, the very possibility of happiness. will amuse themselves by telling stories The situation, then, is this: one man of men who once thought that Dosto- veils reality with illusion so that he‘ll see evsky and Nietzsche were two separate only that which he finds beautiful; the beings. Everyone will know that other dives headfirst into reality to find Nietzsche wrote Crime and Punishment, the beautiful things that reside therein. and Dostoevsky will be recognized as a Both strategies are based on the belief great German stylist.

Abandoned Monastery at the Battlefield of Alexander Nevskij (Russia) Meaghan Patrick — 16 — Literary Criticism A Cloud in Dialectics: The Contradictions of Vladimir Mayakovsky Julie Schulte, University of California, Berkeley

Vladimir Mayakovsky defies catego- edge.‖6 The essence of Adorno‘s argu- rization. Positing him based on his artis- ment is that the Enlightenment‘s call to tic connection with the Futurist move- eradicate myth is the result of the same ment or his tie to the Communist Party mindset from which myths originated, seems inaccurate upon any close exami- the need to dominate nature. Ma- nation of his poetry. Mayakovsky‘s image yakovsky‘s need to reject the past com- of the poet as a prophet leads to images mingles with his link to it; he roots him- and metaphors that question his ideo- self in the past as a Futurist. Adorno ex- logical beliefs. Victor Erlich calls these plains that ―so close is the self to the pri- contradictions ―The Predicament of meval myth from whose embrace it has Vladimir Mayakovsky.‖1 He highlights wrested itself that its own lived past be- ―the pervasive theme of martyrdom comes a mythical prehistory.‖7 This dia- [which] occasions here a wealth of reli- lectic necessitates Mayakovsky‘s renun- gious imagery, striking in a poet so mili- ciation of his role as the poet/prophet. tantly secular and so blatantly materialis- The title ―A Cloud in Trousers‖ takes tic.‖2 It is important to understand how on a religious connotation. The cloud in Mayakovsky uses religious imagery in a trousers can be seen as the ethereal or new way. the spirit taking on a form, but rather When the Futurists established than a body he takes on only a pair of themselves in 1912 with the manifesto ―A pants. This evokes the notion of Christ as Slap in the Face of Public Taste,‖3 they ―spirit made flesh,‖ but rather than being stipulated that poets are ―to feel an insur- a man like Christ, ―A Cloud in Trousers‖ mountable hatred to the language exist- is something quite different. In the line ing before their time.‖ This accounts for in which the title is articulated he pro- Mayakovsky‘s need for negation in his claims, ―I can be irreproachably gentle, / 1915 poem ―A Cloud in Trousers.‖ He Not a man—but a cloud in trousers.‖ Ma- proclaims, ―Glorify me! / The great ones yakovsky boasts how much he is not like are no match for me! Upon everything a man: he can ―rage on raw meat‖ and that‘s been done I stamp the word ―change into hues.‖8 He denounces poets ‗naught.‘‖4 Erlich references this passage who ―play your love on the violin‖ or as ―a strident repudiation of all tradi- ―crude ones [who] play it on the drum tions, all authority, all established stan- violently.‖ As his challenge suggests, dards (social, ethical, aesthetic), a per- ―Can you turn yourselves inside out, like sonal commitment to a Future totally me / And become just two lips entirely?‖9 discontinuous with the ‗stifling past.‘‖5 This question shows that worth requires These lines take on a dialectical, even a deterioration of the self. His self is at paradoxical quality, in that for Ma- the mercy of the feats he performs; in yakovsky to possess the authority to Part I he confesses, ―I feel- / ‗I‘/ Is too eradicate the past he must assume the small to fit me. Someone inside me is role of prophet, a figure of the very ortho- getting smothered.‖10 This ―too small I‖ dox conceptions he sets out to eradicate. suggests there is something bigger that Theodor Adorno wrote: ―Enlight- he is struggling to uphold. It is reminis- enment‘s program was the disenchant- cent of Christ ―giving his life as ransom ment of the world. It wanted to dispel for many,‖ but Mayakovsky imagines it myths, to overthrow fantasy with knowl- as something purely corporeal. The ―I‖ is

— 17 — The Birch

―smothered‖ as a result of the many he Words here do not represent love will represent. itself but rather commodities of love, prostitutes, and the poet is the brothel The Prologue establishes the poem‘s perva- they must escape from to be saved; he sive theme of mockery: must cheapen them to allow them to Your thought, stand apart from bourgeois art. In other Fantasizing on a sodden brain, moments, Mayakovsky playfully chooses Like a bloated lackey on a greasy couch sprawling, words that in their humor become trivial. With my heart‘s bloody tatters, One clear example is the passage: ―You I‘ll mock it again.11 used to say: / ‗Jack London, / Money, / Love and Ardor,‘— / I saw one thing 17 The first action attributed to the only: / You were La Gioconda.‖ In the ―I‖ (Mayakovsky) is ―to mock‖ (boodoo Russian pronunciation, ―Dzhjek Lhon- draznat) but it is done with his ―heart‘s don‖ rhymes with ―Dzhjekonda.‖ This bloody tatters‖ (ob okravavlyenni serd- flippant rhyme further trivializes images tsa loskoot). The violence of the mockery he rejects. In the guise of a braggart he works to show his self-sacrifice. This sac- exclaims, ―I pass you by,— handsome, / 18 rifice enters into the realm of his desire, twentytwoyearold.‖ Yet in Russian, ―Whether the heart is cold metal. / At while correct grammatically, ―dvadtsatee night, you want to wrap your clamor / In -dvooklyetni‖ (twentytwoyearold) is something feminine, / Gentle.‖12 But his more cumbersome than the rhythmic desires are never granted; Maria continu- ―dvadtsit dva goda,‖ which carries the ally denies Mayakovsky love and it is by same meaning. Mayakovsky demon- this figure that we see the rejected Ma- strates this by defacing an aesthetically yakovsky. Yet his degradation is not pleasing image with an oral clumsiness; solely the result of Maria‘s aloofness but he repudiates the self he has just aes- is at times a deliberate choice. He refers theticized with ironic word choice. to himself as ―a pimp and a fraud all the Mayakovsky demonstrates a tension while,‖13 and in this self-immolation he between moments of poetical sacrifice effectively negates such moments of self- and the deep poetry that sacrifice im- aggrandizement as ―I am, / Perhaps, / plies. Various street people are seen peti- The handsomest of your sons / In the tioning the poet: ―Will you moan, at whole human race.‖14 Adorno states, least, / To report to the centuries that I‘m 19 ―Ruthless towards itself, the Enlighten- on fire?‖ The fact that they come to him ment has eradicated the last remnants of to speak for them asserts Mayakovsky‘s its own self-awareness. Only thought power, and yet the appeal for a simple which does violence to itself is enough to ―moan‖ degrades his poetic ability. Fur- shatter myths.‖15 His self-negation must thermore, Mayakovsky‘s subjects them- take on a cyclical nature continually to selves are unpoetic: ―I will glorify you prove he is not a great prophet. regardless— / Men crumpled like bed sheets in hospitals, / And women, bat- 20 Words are sacrificed as well. Mayakovsky tered like overused proverbs.‖ The depicts them as ―prostitutes‖: ―regardless‖ indicates the narrator‘s hesi- Every word, tation to acknowledge, much less repre- Whether funny or crude, sent, these marginalized figures. This That he spews from his scorching mouth, asserts an acute awareness of the impor- Jumps like a naked prostitute tance of his actions. In the following pas- From a burning brothel.‖16 sage, ―From all of you, / Who soaked in love for plain fun, / Who spilled / Tears

— 18 — Literary Criticism into centuries while you cried, / I‘ll walk tions. It becomes inescapable because away / And place the monocle of the rather than something new, it is continu- sun / Into my gaping, wide-open eye,‖21 ally old. Mayakovsky differentiates other poets The poet‘s need to negate the past from himself. His promise to walk away proved too strong a dialectic for Ma- from them condemns their practices yakovsky to escape through imagery and while depriving his own participation in representation alone. The conflict of his them. He includes a prophetic vision, artistic ideas with his own grandiose self- ―Like a woman, quivering, the earth will image locked him into a pattern that re- lie down.‖22 Nature is conquered in the quired self-destruction. Yet complete self same manner Christ conquered death. -destruction could never be accom- In opposition to Christ‘s redemptive plished as it occurred only on the level of sacrifice, Mayakovsky relates the after- his poetry; even in its enactment the ac- math of his sacrifice of poetic speech. He tual poet still remained. Mayakovsky‘s describes, ―Corpses of words are scat- 1930 suicide provides a shocking real-life tered about,— / Two live and thrive,— / correlative to the self-destruction that ‗Swine‘ / And another one,— / I believe haunted his poetry; it allowed him to ‗borsch.‘‖ He chastises the other poet‘s escape the dialectic. reaction of ―soaking in sobs and com- plaining,‖ because ―there‘s no way to por- tray now / A beautiful lady, / Or love / Or a dew-covered flower.‖23 Limiting speech to such an extent is bought at the cost of beauty. The bleakness of poetic language calls into question the usefulness of such sacrifice. In the closing Part of ―A Cloud in Trousers,‖ the poet relates, ―The sky is again bloody with slaughter.‖24 The prevalence of such violent images creates a sense of inevitability. Mayakovsky‘s use of ―again‖ here clarifies how past imagery when repeated (such as the bloody slaughter of a sacrificial lamb) can be- come mythic repetition. Adorno explains this in terms of ancient nature cycles: ―The postulation of the single past even endows the cycle with a quality of inevi- tability, and the terror radiating from the ancient event spreads over the whole process as its mere repetition.‖25 This is why Mayakovsky‘s usage of religious and prophetic symbolism is more complex than a mere contradiction. By perpetuat- ing these symbols—―the most golden- mouthed,‖ ―the present day Zarathustra,‖ ―the thirteenth apostle,‖—Mayakovsky Cloudscape—in a village north of portrays the process as one beyond his Lepel, Belarus authorial control despite his initial inten- Kristina Brendel

— 19 — The Birch Manipulating the Systems of Languages in Anna Karenina

Erica Cohen-Taub, Bard College

The Russian literary critic Mikhail ates a multitude of languages. As these Bakhtin once claimed that two basic ―specific world views‖ are alternated, the characteristics of the novel are its ―multi- reader becomes aware of the distinct lan- languaged consciousness‖ and its ―zone guages that exist in the novel‘s world. of maximal contact with the present Living outside of the conventional lan- (with contemporary reality).‖1 Later, in guages, Levin and Anna struggle the The Russian Novel from Pushkin to most with the ―environment of social Pasternak, John Garrard observed that heteroglossia‖ and the challenges of ―Russian writers have been obliged to clashing ideas they see in their genera- assume a heavy burden of responsibility‖ tion and their own lives. Part of this clash because there has generally not ―been is caused by a growing European influ- [an] institution or forum for public dis- ence on Russian agriculture and society, cussion of ethical and social issues.‖2 By and between the cultural languages of presenting a variety of languages and Europe and Russia. As Bakhtin notes, contemporary issues in Anna Karenina, ―consciousness finds itself inevitably fac- Tolstoy takes on this ―heavy burden‖ and ing the necessity of having to choose a uses a ―multi-languaged consciousness‖ language,‖4 which is problematic for to fill in Garrard‘s void. As Konstantin both Levin and Anna. Seeing no Levin and Anna struggle with their god- ―institution or forum for public discus- lessness and their need for a meaningful sion of ethical and social issues,‖ they life, languages define the ideas they both create such a space within their minds. In explore as they seek clarity. These lan- their internal forums, Anna and Levin guages are ―specific points of view on the fight the noise of hetero- and polyglossia world, forms for conceptualizing the created by vast variety of Russian life- world in words, specific world views, styles and philosophies. each characterized by its own objects, Levin‘s quest is to find ―something meanings and values. […] [T]hese lan- more important in life than reason.‖5 guages live a real life, they struggle and During his struggle to find an alternative evolve in an environment of social het- to reason, Levin interacts with many eroglossia.‖3 The interaction of these lan- ―specific world views‖ as represented by guages develops alongside the evolution his family members, peasants, books, and interactions of the characters. The and his own doubts. In one such interac- conclusions Levin and Anna reach at the tion, Levin tries explaining his theory on end of the novel reflect how their ap- successful agriculture to the peasants. He proaches to these external and internal finds that the peasants mistrust him and languages change. Tracing these changes are ―firmly convinced that his true goal throughout the novel reveals that it is […] would always lie in what he did not Levin‘s ability to consolidate the contem- tell them.‖6 Levin tries to implement porary and traditional languages into a changes to better life for everyone, but he dominant system of languages that keeps and the peasants are unable to have a him going, while Anna‘s inability to bring successful dialogue. He earnestly ex- together various systems of languages plains his ideas to them, but thinks the leads her to suicide. peasants ―said many things, but never Tolstoy‘s technique of alternating said what their true goal was.‖7 They thus which character the narrator follows cre- speak to one another in a language of

— 20 — Literary Criticism omission. Levin believes that Russia has system of languages in her head, a world ―excellent workers…but in the majority of with its own ―problem of heteroglossia cases, when capital was employed Euro- within a language, that is, the problem of pean-style, they produced little, and that internal differentiation, the stratification this came only from the fact that the characteristic of any national language.‖12 workers wanted to work […] in the one Anna‘s system of languages includes way natural to them.‖8 Levin makes as- those of the different social circles she sumptions about the peasantry in his inhabits in Petersburg, Moscow, and own language and judges the disposition Europe. Depending on where she is and of workers without considering that they with whom she is interacting, she uses too have varied and individual methods various languages of desire. Anna pas- of communication. As Levin has yet to sionately reflects on the systems of lan- consolidate and truly understand various guages she speaks and perceives around languages, he has difficulty communicat- her. The language Anna creates in order ing with other ―world views‖ and strug- to have an affair backfires because, gles to live harmoniously. unlike Levin, she cannot reconcile her old However, after a particularly mean- systems with the new languages she ingful exchange with a peasant, Levin learns. When Anna thinks about Vron- begins to make everything part of one sky, she redefines her desires and her system of languages and beliefs, there- personal narrative and enters into the fore preventing each sub-system from literary language of novels, wishing to obscuring the rest and allowing them to live the way the people in her book live. meld together. The peasant tells Levin: The thrill she finds in creating a literary ―Well, that‘s how it is—people are differ- affair changes her world into a foreign, ent. One man just lives for his own needs, fictitious language by embracing the take Mityukha even, just stuffs his belly, words and morals from a book in Eng- but Fokanych—he‘s an upright old man. lish. At the end of the book, acknowledg- He lives for the soul. He remembers ing the loss of one of her created realities, God.‖9 In reaction to this conversation, she asks in English: ―He loves me—but Levin experiences ―a host of vague but how? The zest is gone.‖13 The ―zest‖ is important thoughts burst from some from Anna‘s ―English novel‖ on the train locked-up place and, all rushing towards ride,14 where ―the hero of the novel was the same goal, whirled through his already beginning to achieve his English head.‖10 By streamlining his complicated happiness, a baronetcy and an estate, thoughts towards one purpose, Levin and Anna wished to go with him to this finds the peace of mind he hoped for. estate…‖15 Anna‘s daydreaming leads her Whereas previously, ―reasoning led him to the English word ―zest‖: an affair that into doubt and kept him from seeing takes her to Europe and Vronsky‘s estate what he should and should not do,‖11 the in the countryside with English horses, simplicity of Levin‘s newfound state of English novels, and an English-style mind allows him to muffle his thoughts, nursery with an English governess. Her listen to his soul, and interpret the sys- reality with Karenin is destroyed by her tems of languages around him without affair, but the affair was barely a reality; doubt. As Levin is now able to interpret it was an invention that needed the Eng- the systems of language without the lan- lish novel‘s ―zest‖ in order to survive. guage of reason that previously hindered Anna and Levin search for answers him, he is able to avoid the inner turmoil to their problems in various languages Anna‘s mind sustains. and try to live ―firmly and definitely.‖16 Anna‘s affair with Vronsky creates a Levin is able to combine many systems of

— 21 — The Birch languages into one system of heteroglos- thing separate from truth, and believes sia by remembering God in his everyday that the language of reason is unable to family life. He concludes, ―I and all peo- answer the questions of life. The ultimate ple have only one firm, unquestionable difference between Anna and Levin is and clear knowledge, and this knowledge their opposite methods of quieting their cannot be explained by reason—it is out- minds: whereas Levin comes to terms side it.‖17 Levin shifts from thinking in a with death by living zealously, Anna language of reason to thinking in a lan- comes to terms with life by dying. guage of religion, but Anna continues to Levin‘s world becomes less like polyglos- use reason to find relief from her per- sia and more like monoglossia over the sonal life. In the final hour before her course of the novel, because he finds a death Anna asks: ―But if you see the way to exist within the languages of relig- truth, what can you do?‖18 Anna‘s ―truth‖ ion and family in the language of Russia. at that moment is that life is eternal suf- Both Anna and Levin show the difficulty fering. She overhears a lady, speaking in of interpreting the languages of their French, say ―‗Man has been given reason time, and demonstrate the struggle be- in order to rid himself of that which trou- tween Western influence and the values bles him.‖19 These words lead her to- of religion, family, and society that are wards death, as she uses reason to ―rid embedded into Russian life. [herself] of that which troubles [her].‖ Levin, in contrast, sees reason as some-

Yuriev Monastery (Novgorod, Russia) — 22 — Erica Cohen-Taub Literary Criticism Blok’s Apocalypse: A Poet’s Elusive Revolution

Adams Carroll, Reed College

A characteristically modern apoca- course, Blok puts down his silver spoon lyptic current runs through many of in both his life and his art, but as a revo- Aleksandr Blok‘s works. But despite their lutionary poet he can‘t help but battle fervent calls for revolution, Blok‘s poems with his past: ―His art was at odds with were classified as unnecessary in post- his way of life. What he lived by in his life revolutionary Russia and Blok was he burned to ashes in his art.‖4 These pushed to the outskirts of the new Soviet ashes, scorched as they may be, still literary circles. In the months following smudge the pages of Blok‘s work. We find the Revolution, Blok stopped writing po- them in the poet‘s unyielding spirituality, etry, withdrew from his official responsi- elevated speech, and his messianic tone. bilities, and soon died, rejected and belit- These ashes color Blok‘s revolution as tled by the new world for which he had one distinctly different from that of the yearned so strongly. At the bottom of it Bolsheviks, a discordance that ultimately all is the poet‘s conception of revolution led to the poet‘s marginalization in the and its implications. As Viktor Zhirmun- years that follow 1917. sky notes, ―It is not the political fortunes The greatest disconnection between of his native land that concern the poet, Blok‘s anticipated revolution and the but the salvation of its living soul.‖1 Blok October revolution lies in Blok‘s spiritu- called for revolution as an agent of na- ality. Indeed Blok speaks more generally tionwide, even worldwide, spiritual re- of apocalypse than of revolution. Blok‘s birth. He lamented the bankruptcy and work is permeated by a cataclysmic drive shallowness of his age more than he ever from his very earliest poems all the way did labor conditions or workers‘ rights. to ―The Twelve,‖ but this is the cataclysm Unfortunately, Blok‘s revolutionary of Revelation, not revolution. In hopes did not coalesce into reality, and as ―Autumnal Love,‖ Blok equates Russia‘s his apocalyptic dreams were brushed disarray with a profound spiritual suffer- away, so too, was Blok. ing, and, casting himself as a Christ, calls It would be wrong to classify Blok as for God‘s intervention on the country‘s a poet of the revolution. Rather, he is a behalf: poet for the revolution. Blok‘s poetry is Oh, Christ, My Lord! My land is sad. not the art of the proletariat, but rather I faint upon the cross, I die! the lofty speech of a prophet. Blok scorns When will Thy bark now reach the shore the common masses, as if insulted by Where I hang, crucified, on high?5 their banal and unfeeling lives. He char- Blok often returns to this motif of poet as acterizes the average nobodies of the city prophetic Christ figure. He repeatedly as ―heaps of human trash, […] human likens his occupation to a sacrifice made roast beef, grey specters of wet bore- on behalf of the Russian people, building dom.‖2 This disdain for everyday man, as himself up as a vanguard of the coming well as Blok‘s noble personality and pedi- apocalypse, a spiritual leader taking a gree, prevents his inclusion in the pan- nation of lost souls to their redemption. theon of wholly revolutionary literature. Boris Eikhenbaum titles this shade of Blok grew up in the arms of Russia‘s es- Blok the ―dictator of thought of an entire tablished upper class, describing his generation […] [the] dictator of feel- childhood as ―a veritable Christmas tree ings.‖6 With this characterization in of aristocratic overindulgence.‖3 Of mind, it becomes clear why so many of

— 23 — The Birch the poets who follow him look up to Blok No one piece captures all the nu- as a God figure. His poetry is ―The grim ances of Blok‘s voice better than ―The hangman, railing, [who] drives / Into my Twelve.‖ In this masterpiece we see palm the iron nail‖;7 it burdens the poet prophecy, denunciation, and hope along- and at the same time indebts all those side one another. Published in 1918, ―The who hear his voice to his martyrdom. Twelve‖ is rooted in the events of the At times Blok‘s prophecies are terri- October Revolution and yet, as Viktor fying and sobering. In ―A Voice from the Zhirmunsky relates, the tone is spiritual, Chorus,‖ Blok warns of ―the darkness of not political: ―Like the poet‘s entire work, the days ahead!‖8 Russia, drunken, frivo- it is completely removed from politics, lous Russia, must experience the worst programs, and the like; the problem it before she can receive her redemption: poses is not a political, but a religious And we shall see the apocalypse, and moral one, and its message is indi- the last, worst age descend. vidual rather than social.‖13 Blok takes Repulsive evil will eclipse the world as he sees it, dark and uncer- the sky, laughter freeze on all lips, tain, and relays it with the full force of his a longing for life‘s end…9 prophetic voice. We enter this world in The ―last, worst age‖ is Russia‘s final trial the midst of a maelstrom: before the end of history, before a ―‗New Darkness—and white Petersburg city, coming out of heaven snow hurled […] will return transformed ‗on the last by the wind. The wind! day.‘‖10 Blok expects of the revolution not You cannot stand upright just a political power shift, but a com- for the wind: the wind plete transformation of the world and of scouring God‘s world.14 the souls of men. His righteous ―New The contrast between the dark of night Petersburg‖ is God‘s kingdom on earth and the white blinding snow defines the and ingrained in this city is an optimistic, poem‘s color palette. The only shade pre- overarching sense of hope that refrains sent to stain the city‘s drab grayness is throughout Blok‘s works. In ―Russia,‖ blood red. The Revolution‘s haze sets a Blok bemoans his homeland‘s abundant stage of grotesque moral ambiguity. This suffering, but nevertheless is filled with is Russia in the same darkness that Blok hope for her future: predicts in ―A Voice from the Chorus.‖ And the impossible is possible, Even nature gets caught up in rebellion. the highroad is light and long, Amidst the blackness of night, the wind and the glint of an eye far off torments the city‘s inhabitants. And still, glances from under the scarf the ―Black sky grows blacker‖;15 the as prison-weary, sorrowful, night‘s chaos entrenches Russia even begins the troika-driver‘s song.11 further into darkness. Blok, who is never afraid to criticize his The wind plays up: snow flutters down. country for her shortcomings, firmly be- Twelve men are marching through the lieves in Russia‘s potential for absolution. town. He looks to the nation‘s reverent past, Their rifle-butts on black slings sway. criticizes the superficiality of the present, Lights left, right, left, wink all the way… and then sees retribution, onerous as it Cap tilted, fag drooping, everyone may be, on the horizon. The poet is con- looks like a jailbird on the run. vinced that the coming upheaval will bring salvation, that ―the revolution [is] Freedom, freedom, down with the cross! omnipotent, and he [makes] enormous demands of it without doubting that they Rat-a-tat-tat!16 [will] be satisfied.‖12

— 24 — Literary Criticism

With several vivid, tight stanzas, with the people‘s uprising? For Blok the Blok introduces a company of Red relationship is clear: Guardsmen on a march engulfed in wind, He seems to suggest, as he pauses in his pierced by gunshot, illuminated by the work on ―The Twelve,‖ that the revolu- tion is neither a question of politicians fires burning all around. These soldiers, (―Lunacharsky or even Lenin‖), nor of who at once become raucous troops, an- freshly provoked territorial disputes gels of death, and Christ‘s disciples, are (―neither Rumania, nor Finland, nor not majestic, glorious harbingers of the Ukraine‖), but ―the end of the historical 21 Revolution. Instead, they are a ragamuf- process.‖ fin band, each one looking ―like a jailbird After the revolution, Blok was positively on the run.‖ The lowness of this descrip- giddy with a sense of the end. Korney tion and of the soldier‘s forthcoming be- Chukovsky writes, ―when the revolution havior casts the setting of ―The Twelve‖ came, Blok greeted it with a kind of reli- as the vulgar, bankrupt Russia that Blok gious exultation as the festival of the often denounces in his poetry. These sol- spiritual transfiguration of Russia.‖22 diers, consorting with the same prosti- Unfortunately for the poet, the actual tutes as their counter-revolutionary ene- events that transpired never approached mies, represent Russia and all of its defi- anything like a ―spiritual transfigura- ciencies tearing itself apart. ―Let‘s take a tion.‖ Life was as tedious as ever, if not crack at Holy Russia, / Mother Russia / more so. The old world had been de- with her big fat arse!‖17 they cry, as if the stroyed, and yet nothing new was put in careless violence of their march makes its place. Bureaucrats, the foot-soldiers of them any holier than the old world which Byt, still flooded every office floor, and in they overthrow. the midst of it all, Blok lost his gift for Leaving the old world behind them, prophecy: ―I have forgotten how to write 23 and ―Abusing God‘s name as they go, / all poems and how to think about poems.‖ twelve march onward into the snow …‖18 A far cry from the resplendent sonorous The Guard‘s blasphemous words are the kingdom of God that he had envisioned, penultimate step before they are re- the new Russia was dull, silent, and sti- deemed, before the second coming. A red fling. Blok gave up hope in his vision; it flag is seen in the distance, shots are had been crushed under a wave of reality fired, and the target is presumably hit: that hope and poetry could no longer ―Come out, comrade, or you‘ll regret hold back. In but a few months, all Blok‘s it—we‘ll fire when I‘ve counted five!‖ accomplishments were sucked into the past: Crack–crack–crack! But only the echo Life has changed (but it is not new, not answers from among the eaves…19 nuova). We have conquered the whole And suddenly, as if from nowhere, world, this is now an accomplished fact, and everything will now change in the Christ: opposite direction, not [the direction] in carrying a blood-red flag — which we live and which we loved.24 invulnerable where bullets crossed — crowned with a crown of snowflake Blok died after a long illness, pur- pearls, portedly of starvation in the midst of a flowery diadem of frost, food shortages, but his poetry died long ahead of them goes Jesus Christ.20 before this event. Essentially, there was Enveloped in white purity, arisen un- no room for it anymore—the Soviets did- scathed by bullets, Christ—and Blok‘s n‘t need any mystical ―Poems to the long-awaited salvation—has arrived as Beautiful Lady,‖ and calls for revolution Russia‘s new leader. This single line had already become dated. When they shocked and confounded Blok‘s contem- did publish Blok‘s works, they did so dis- poraries—what does Christ have to do dainfully. Even while he was still alive,

— 25 — The Birch publishers told Blok that ―The Twelve,‖ ets, and even the new Soviet world, had while one of ―the best works of Russian been rebuilt in his image. In the real literature,‖ was only valuable because of world, however, what can you do with a its ―historical significance.‖25 Others were ―Dictator of Feelings‖ when you already not so kind in their interactions with the have a ―Dictator of the Proletariat‖ in fallen poet. As Boris Pasternak recalls: place? Autocracy by its very nature saves Blok had been told a pile of monstrous only one seat, and Blok, because of his things and they had not been ashamed to nobleness, his spirituality, or perhaps his tell him to his face that he had outlived his time and was inwardly dead—a fact naive hope for change, had his chair with which he calmly agreed. And all this pulled out from under him before he was was said to him just a few months before offered a chance to sit down. Blok‘s leg- his actual death.26 acy, however, lives on in his words, and One can imagine a post- those of the generations of writers who revolutionary Russia in an alternate uni- grew up under his towering shadow. verse in which Blok comes out on the other side of the apocalypse as a trium- We are traitors in life and friendship, phant messiah, having led his people to we are spinners of empty words. the promised land. Blok was such a So What? We are clearing the way prophet, such a Christ, that he could only for those who come afterwards.27 have survived if the new art of the Sovi-

Stormy Arches (Ruzhany, Belarus) Kristina Brendel — 26 — Literary Criticism The Russian Negative Simile

Amanda Weaver, Arizona State University

The negative simile is a unique liter- where the vehicle (which is invalidated) ary trope, for it does not occur exten- introduces the tenor. A perfect example sively within Western literature and only presents itself in Pushkin‘s ―Brat‘ja Raz- appears noticeably in Eastern European bojniki‖: ―No flock of ravens has flown epic poems and folk songs. The artistry together / On to heaps of rotting bones, / of the negative simile (sometimes also Beyond the Volga, around fires at night / referred to as negative parallelism or the A gang of daring fellows has gathered.‖2 negative analogy) is contained in its abil- The subject of the analogy is a group of ity to connect two superficially unlike men, but that is presented only after the objects together by means of negation, in (negated) comparison to a flock of ra- such a way that the verbs within the de- vens. Therefore, the negative simile be- vice are indispensable to the description. stows the reader with a different order of Yet even within this already unique liter- mental images, first presenting the com- ary apparatus, the Russian model of the parison and then the subject. negative simile stands at variance with its The verbs within a common simile or Eastern European counterparts in that metaphor generally are not as essential the Russian form is an abbreviated ver- to the meaning as with a negative meta- sion of the device. There exists some con- phor. When a conventional simile comes jecture among scholars as to what the to mind, the comparing word is generally original form of negative parallelism was, ―like‖ or ―as,‖ demonstrated excellently but there is widespread agreement that, by two subsequent lines of Alexander whatever the earliest version, it had its Pope‘s ―Imitations of Horace‖: ―I pluck foundations in Russia. However, analyz- out year by year, as hair by hair, / And ing the Russian and other Eastern Euro- melt down ancients like heaps of snow.‖3 pean forms side by side reveals that the Here, the links between the tenors and earliest form of the negative simile in the vehicles do not even consist of a verb, Russia was most likely not the truncated for the comparison is constructed with form, but actually the longer version ap- ―like‖ and ―as.‖ This can limit the im- parent in other parts of Eastern Europe. agery, especially when compared to an The negative simile does not utilize example of the Russian negative simile: the same mechanism for comparison ―It is not a green oak tree bending to the conventionally present in usual meta- earth, nor paper leaves fluttering low to phors and similes. Normally, the tenor the ground—a son is falling down before precedes the vehicle (to which the tenor his father, and begging his blessing.‖4 is compared), as in the English poem The variance of actions here, coupled ―Red, Red Rose‖ by Robert Burns: ―O my with the somewhat unusual connection Luve‘s like a red, red rose, / That‘s newly of a son to an oak or to leaves, creates a sprung in June; / O my Luve‘s like the much richer metaphor than a simple melodie / That‘s sweetly play‘d in tune.‖1 positive simile. As Patricia Krafčik states, In other words, the tenor (here, ―my ―The negative simile does not simply reit- Luve‖) first creates the image in the erate the symbolic substantive pairs, but reader‘s mind, and the characteristics of rather invests them with […] [a] vitality the vehicle are imposed secondarily. By of their own. […] It is the action that af- contrast, the negative simile features a fords the total substantive image its dy- reversal of the generally expected order, namic expressiveness. In this way, all

— 27 — The Birch parts of the device are woven into the Finnish folk songs is geographically lim- fabric of the whole.‖5 Indeed, the verbs ited, appearing only in regions with close within a negative simile add an expres- proximity to Russia.10 In addition, the siveness that a positive simile does not choices of vehicles are often thematically contain. similar. For example, Felix Oinas ob- In general, the regular Slavic and serves that, ―In Russian folksongs, as in Baltic forms of the negative simile consist Karelian and Finnish, menacing atmos- of three parts, at odds with the Russian pheric phenomena (clouds, heavy rain, variant. The initial statement (in all but spreading fog) symbolize an attacking the Russian version) presents a percep- army or the arrival of a hero.‖11 Beyond tion, or a proposed vehicle for the im- such weather motifs, the vehicles in both agery; the second negates the proposed forms tend to hark back to nature, often idea; and the third statement declares in the forms of wild animals or trees. The what the actual tenor is. Such an example verses of a Finnish folksong (―‗What has appears in a Finnish folksong: ―What is tumbled into the snow on his face, / Is it foggy outside, / Could it be dense a wise black bird, / Or a cold pigeon?‘ / smoke, / Could it be a dark cloud? […] / […] ‗It is not a wise black bird, / Nor a It is not dense smoke / Nor a dark cold pigeon, / A serf has tumbled into the cloud, / Untamo‘s gang […] is coming.‖6 snow on his face,‘‖12) and a Russian verse Although both the initial and second about bogatyri (―No two elephants are statements consist of two parts, it is still swaggering in the open field, / No two possible to see the triple nature of the damp oaks are swaying, / Swaggering- simile. This form of the device appears swaying are two bogatyri / Toward the most notably within Serbian, Karelian, very Danila Denisič himself‖13) both dis- Finnish and Estonian folk literature.7 Yet play similar themes. In both of these ex- this triune form contrasts noticeably with amples, the vehicles are parts of nature the Russian, as apparent in the following and are not things that would initially bylina: ―Fellows, it was not a storm-cloud come to mind when thinking about the that came up, / It is not fog spreading tenors (which again relates to the rich- over the field, / It is Vasilij Permjagič ness of negative imagery). Given these rising from the sea.‖8 Here, the Russian extreme similarities between the Russian version does not contain an initial hy- and non-Russian forms of negative anal- pothesis or a rhetorical question; instead, ogy, it would be logical to assume that it begins directly with the negation. Al- there is a concrete relation between the though the Russian negative simile lacks two. Novgorod overtook Ancient Karelia the triplistic formula of other Balto- in 1275, making it likely that the negative Slavic forms do, the Russian simile still simile from Russia was the initial form, consists of three parts: ―[1] It was not a and other Balto-Slavic examples were dark storm-cloud that came up, / [2] And assimilated into their respective cul- not a dark cloud was rolling up,— / [3] It tures.14 However, considering the natural was Dunaj, Ivan‘s son.‖9 Indeed, the ma- entropy and evolution of languages, there jority of instances of the Russian negative appears to be a likely possibility that simile features two negated vehicles, fol- Russian originally utilized the longer lowed by a validated tenor. form of the negative simile. This would The overall similarity of the Russian mean that Russian, after infusing other negative structure with its East European cultures with the original longer form of counterparts certainly suggests some sort the negative simile, subsequently trun- of relation between the two forms. The cated the form, while the other influ- use of negative analogy in Karelian and enced areas preserved the original form.

— 28 — Literary Criticism

Therefore, as Oinas states, ―there exists a dressed in the course of the rhetoric. Fur- curious situation—the preservation of a thermore, the repetitive nature of the construction in the area of its penetration imagery enhances the (often triplistic) and its modification in the area of its ori- motifs found in Eastern European folk gin.‖15 Although this is a theory merely songs and lyric or epic poetry. The fact shared among certain scholars, the two that the Russian semblance of the device forms correspond too closely to be mere aligns so closely with other Slavic and coincidence, thus adding a substantial Baltic forms certainly speaks to some amount of likelihood to the above propo- close connection between the two. Yet sition. whatever the connection, it is undeniable The negative simile truly is a work of that the negative simile adds invaluable art, for it imbues whatever work it graces literary depth, regardless of the culture with a rich tapestry of synesthetic im- or environment in which it appears. ages. It serves as an inclusion device for the reader or listener, who is directly ad-

Uhowo, Poland Patricia Manos

— 29 — The Harriman Institute Russian, Eurasian and Eastern European Studies at Columbia

Since its founding in 1946, the Harriman Institute at Columbia University, formerly the Russian Institute, has maintained its position as a leading center for the advancement of knowledge in the field of Russian and Eurasian studies through the research conducted by its faculty, students, fellows and visiting scholars and the training of scholars and pro- fessionals. Through its programs, conferences, lectures and publications, the Harriman Institute seeks to create a forum for intellectual exchange and the further enhancement of our stu- dents’ education.

Undergraduates are welcome at all Harriman Institute events. For more information, or to subscribe to our listserve, please visit www.harriman.columbia.edu. Culture and Affairs Cinema of Moral Concern Patrick Smyth, University of Notre Dame

“So if we ask ourselves what is the fundamental obligation of the artist towards the contemporary Polish experience we can only arrive at one answer: it is to speak the truth. Though this answer may seem a platitude, it remains an unshakable fact that only the truth can lead us out of the present crisis, restore confidence between people, and also between society and government, and liberate the creative energies of our nation.”1 -Andrzej Wajda (1980)

The Context collective memory. Most had experienced the entrenched abuses within the com- Wajda‘s statement seems a simple munist system firsthand, as the corrup- ―platitude,‖ but within the context of a tion, hypocrisy, and opportunism that Communist system that had, from its were trademarks of the political bureauc- very inception in Poland, operated on a racy were equally pervasive in the film political and social platform of mass de- industry. ception, corruption, manipulation, and hypocrisy, the statement becomes quite The Films telling. The Cinema of Moral Concern that emerged in the mid-1970s to provide Such were the circumstances that a realistic examination of contemporary allowed for and fueled the audacious issues and social institutions in commu- agenda of Moral Concern. But concern nist Poland prided itself on the represen- for moral issues related to political and tation of ―obvious truths.‖2 There was social problems was one thing; their nothing unclear or ambivalent about translation vis à vis film was quite an- their films; rather, each stressed simplic- other. A demonstrative cross-section of ity and universality. In the telling of this evolution can be found in the pro- ―obvious truths,‖ the cinema became a gression of three films: Kieslowski‘s key element in empowering its audience documentary From a Night Porter’s to negotiate with the defunct Communist Point of View (1977), Wajda‘s masterful system from a moral high ground— Man of Marble (1976), and Kieslowski‘s because ―while moral perturbation is not introspective Camera Buff (1979). necessarily political, political decisions Any discussion of Moral Concern are always at least in part, moral, there- must begin with an explanation of its fore subjective, personal.‖3 documentary roots. Many critics, while In a society that had been encour- acknowledging the documentary influ- aged to lie, steal, cheat, and even murder ences of Moral Concern, believe the in the name of ideology, the program of movement to be defined solely by the this brave 1970s cinema posited itself as feature films produced during the pe- a beacon of hope. The auteurs of Moral riod.4 While a discrepancy does indeed Concern were of a specific generation exist between the universality of the that possessed a distinct and enduring themes portrayed by the features in-

— 31 — The Birch cluded in Moral Concern and the indi- man. Made in 1977, the film was shelved vidualistic themes of the documentaries, until 1979 when it was allowed a very the movement as a whole must be con- limited release in Polish film circles. sidered as a sum of its parts— In the tense atmosphere of the 1970s documentary and feature alike. As such, and early 1980s there was perhaps no the documentary works of Kieslowski, better ―cultural conveyor‖ of Polish na- Marcel Lozinski, Irena Kamienská, Piotr tional and social identity than the estab- Szulkin, and Tomasz Zygadlos must be lished master, Andrzej Wajda. His crown considered as an integral component of jewel of the period and a quintessential the Moral Concern movement. piece of the Cinema of Moral Concern Kieslowski‘s From a Night Porter’s was the internationally acclaimed Man of Point of View documents the authoritar- Marble. It was the first effective feature ian sentiments of a lowly security guard film of the period. The project repre- working at a local factory. The short film sented a completely new kind of under- is based on transcripts from an actual taking for Wajda, one that resonated with interview with the subject, a toothless worker and intellectual alike, spurred and incomprehensible Lodz man; but the further reconciliation between the two, actor who appears in the film, Marian and helped to unite them in opposition to Osuch, serves as a viable substitute.5 Re- the communist system. The film is an flective of a contemporaneous dialogue examination of two distinct periods of taking place in the 1960s and ‘70s con- Polish history, which Wajda portrays cerning the ―everyday fascism‖ in Polish simultaneously through a plot that inter- society, Kieslowski delves into the nit- twines the experiences of two separate picking, power-tripping, distorted world protagonists—one within the context of of an individual who has fallen victim to the Stalinist repressions and the other his debasing environment.6 The social within the lead-up to Solidarity. status of the man was essential in Ki- Wajda‘s main character, Agnieszka, eslowski‘s mind, for, ―if this exists on the is on a mission to complete her diploma lowest rung of the social ladder, that film, a dissertation for film students. Her means it is far more widespread than if story line traces the vicissitudes of Ma- we‘d looked for it higher up.‖7 As the teussz Birkut, a Stakhanovite bricklayer monologue gains momentum, Osuch‘s and national hero of the 1950s. Agni- abominable social ideals come forth. He eszka‘s supervisor on the project discour- advocates public executions and pro- ages her from making a film about such a motes law enforcement over human contentious issue, but Agnieszka persists rights, justifying physical retribution for and probes deep into the life of the some- dissident students.8 Although eschewing what mysterious Birkut. A former Party any definite ideology, Osuch seems official informs Agnieszka of the blindly to support Party power above ―accident‖ that ruined Birkut‘s future as a anything. His ruminations illuminate the bricklayer (he was sabotaged), the job he appeal of the socialist state‘s authoritari- was given providing housing for workers, anism and the ―readiness for a fascist and the disappearance of his friend Win- philosophy‖ amongst society. But more centy Witek. Witek had been identified as importantly, the sinister tone of the film a harbinger of rightist deviations and a acts as an ominous foreboding concern- possible saboteur based on a trip he ing these unchecked tendencies and their made to France following the Spanish malicious effects on the individual. Ki- Civil War. He was arrested as the show eslowski prevented the film‘s television trials of the early 1950s were sweeping release in order to protect the naïve Lodz the country. Birkut sought out Witek,

— 32 — Culture and Affairs attempting to defend him against bogus ing beyond the mere façade of things in charges, but he too was arrested, tried, order to film reality. He begins attending and sent for rehabilitation. Agnieszka meetings of the local film society and finds that Birkut has since died, but that convinces Krzysztof Zanussi to attend his son, Maciej Tomczyk, is alive and one of the society‘s gatherings and dis- working in the shipyards of Gdansk. Be- cuss Camouflage (1977), Zanussi‘s com- fore she has an opportunity to seek out plex yet powerful contribution to Moral Maciej, her supervisor informs her that Concern. After showing Zanussi some of she has gone well over budget and that his latest work and receiving his appro- her film will not be made. Aware that this bation, Filip decides to risk airing some is a ploy indirectly to censor her dealings controversial footage of a handicapped with the sensitive issue of the Stalinist worker within the factory during a televi- era, she proceeds to Gdansk to seek out sion special. The documentary proves to Maciej anyway.9 Man of Marble provides be a remarkable accomplishment, but a distinct link between two generations, fallout from the film devastates Filip. A that of the Stalinist 1940s and early ‘50s friend is fired, and his estrangement and the relatively liberal 1970s, through a from his wife is further exacerbated as a common disillusionment with commu- result of the film‘s airing. In a direct ref- nist ideology. It is also a commentary on erence to the self-imposed censorship the institutions and functionaries within common during the period, a distraught the film industry itself and the obstacles Filip destroys a project that was near it posed to artistic expression. Ironically, completion.11 In the film‘s tragic ending, Wajda‘s film suffered from the restric- Filip‘s wife and daughter leave him and, tions of censorship as it was only made in a moment of profound self-intro- available for limited release in 1977. spection, Filip turns the camera on him- Whereas Wajda merely touched on self as, in Kieslowski‘s words, ―[he] sim- the experience of the auteur within the ply realizes that, as an amateur film- Communist system, Kieslowski‘s first maker, he‘s found himself in a trap and international success Camera Buff pro- that, making films with good intentions, vides a rigorous examination of this he might prove useful to people who‘ll theme. The film is a self-reflective look at use the film with bad intentions.‖12 the responsibilities of filmmakers.10 Filip Mosz, a common factory worker from The End of Moral Concern outside of Krakow, develops an amateur and Its Legacy passion for filmmaking after purchasing an 8mm camera to document the birth of Though an exact date for the begin- his child. When his superiors at the fac- ning of Moral Concern is open to argu- tory catch wind of his new hobby, they ment, it is clear to most familiar with the ask him to document the progressive cinema that December 13, 1981, signaled happenings within the factory to be aired its end. It was on this day that General on Polish television. Despite ambivalent Wojciech Jaruzelski declared martial law misgivings concerning Filip‘s varied film in Poland: ―Political and social life froze subjects, his supervisor releases a cen- in that cold oppressive December. A cur- sored reel for official use. Feeling his few was declared. There were massive short films to be more effective if viewed arrests of Solidarity activists […] Public unedited, Filip enters an amateur film places, including theaters and cinemas, competition where he is awarded the were closed. For the moment film pro- second-place prize. The results of the duction stopped.‖13 Fallout from the dec- competition encourage Filip to start look- laration led to the disbanding of Wajda‘s

— 33 — The Birch production company and censorship took Polish society with the tools effectively to on a renewed rigor.14 A Party-supported engage their Party counterparts from a shift towards popular cinema, dealing moral high ground. The Cinema of Moral with the ―imaginary sphere of sensation, Concern demonstrated how culture, and eroticism and escapist entertainment,‖ more specifically collective memory ex- gradually replaced Moral Concern in the pressed in culture, could shake the politi- ―period of normalization‖ from 1983 to cal and social foundations of an entire 1986.15 However, it is impossible to ig- country, leaving irreparable cracks in the nore the role Moral Concern played in Communist façade that would falter in precipitating the revolutionary events of the decade to come. 1980.16 It empowered key elements in

Bragin, Belarus Kristina Brendel

— 34 — Culture and Affairs Neither Direct Nor Indirect Aid: Russia’s Response to the Greek Revolution, 1821-1822 Ester Murdukhayeva, Columbia University

At the start of 1821, the great conser- der I‘s plea of ignorance seemed suspi- vative statesmen of 19th-century Europe cious. Ipsilantis‘s distinguished career in gathered in Laibach to discuss the best the Russian army and his confidence in approach to resolving a situation. After the Tsar‘s support suggested a close rela- one month of passionate speeches tionship and perhaps, an existing prom- against secret societies and revolutionary ise of assistance. fervor, Alexander I received news from Powerful social and economic ties Moldavia. Joined by his foreign minis- between the two nations, increasingly ters, Counts Karl Nesselrode and Ioannis solidified by 1821, had tremendous influ- Kapodistrias, Tsar Alexander I stead- ence on Greco-Russian relations. A sig- fastly defended the Great Powers‘ obliga- nificant portion of the Russian Foreign tion to suppress the revolutions.1 A group Service was Greek-born, including Kapo- of Greek rebels led by Alexander Ipsilan- distrias and his secretary Alexander tis had crossed the Pruth River, calling Sturdza. Greek Phanariot aristocratic for open Christian revolt against the Ot- families, including the Ipsilantis clan, toman sultan while promising the loyal often found themselves settling in Russia support of a ―great power.‖2 Several days as a result of exile or other political cir- after hearing the news, Alexander I re- cumstances. The children of these fami- ceived a letter from Ipsilantis, calling on lies often served in the Russian army and Russia to ―help the Greek people in their married into Russian nobility. Consider- battle against the Ottoman yoke.‖3 By ing the long and highly developed Greek directly and publicly calling on the Tsar conceptualization of its spiritual and po- for assistance, the Greeks forced Alexan- litical relationship with Russia, Alexan- der I to respond immediately. der Ipsilantis‘s proclamation to the Het- Reacting with equal parts humilia- airia—―Act, oh friends, and you will see a tion and anger, the Tsar rebuked the re- Mighty Empire defend our rights‖—did volt. Kapodistrias immediately wrote to not seem excessively misguided or Ipsilantis with a warning that ―Russia strange.7 will provide neither direct, nor indirect, Yet Alexander I eventually chose not aid unless you listen to this advice that to assist the Heitarist uprising. Russia will save you—cease this uprising!‖4 Ipisi- saw its relationship with Greece as one lantis and the Philiki Hetairia, the secret that centered on religious sympathy and society responsible for planning and exe- political convenience. This is not to say cuting the revolt, created fundamental that the two were mutually exclusive ac- problems for Russia. The Tsar‘s forceful cording to situation, or that Russia‘s denouncement did not convince some choices were purely cold and calculating. notable contemporaries, who believed Rather, the varieties of Russian philhel- that Russia must have had prior knowl- lenism never posited the kind of obliga- edge of the rebellion.5 Rumors circled tion to provide deliverance that the around Europe suggesting that Alexan- Greeks had imagined they would. These der I and Kapodistrias had always known philhellenisms were based in compas- of, and supported, the plans for the Het- sion, religious unity and political strat- airist revolt, but ―disowned Ipsilantis‘s egy. None of these varieties succeeded in venture at Laibach [only] because of the convincing the government to take offi- pressure of Britain and Austria.‖6 Alexan- cial action, yet each failed for different

— 35 — The Birch and important reasons. Understanding ion, an assurance that a distinction these failures helps to illuminate the would be made between the innocent and choices made in 1821 by a Russian gov- the guilty […] and the acceptance of Rus- ernment tied to both East and West. sian cooperation in organizing the inter- After some thought about the Greek nal affairs of the Danubian principali- conflict, Alexander I‘s government de- ties.‖10 Ottoman officials did not respond cided to pursue a policy of neutrality. to the document in the given time frame, Despite the ultimate failure of Ipsilantis‘s which resulted in Stroganov breaking Rumanian uprising, Grigorii Stroganov, diplomatic relations and departing for the Russian envoy in Constantinople, Odessa. found it difficult to both ―reassure Otto- Kapodistrias‘ secretary, Sturdza, ar- man officials and at the same time [urge] gued that the rebellion was not an illegal moderation and caution in suppressing act against a legitimate government. the rebellion.‖8 The greatest struggle was Rather, the violent Turkish actions to convince the sultan that the rebellion proved that ―the Greeks […] were tribu- was political, not religious. ―Ipsilantis, taries rather than legal subjects of the with fatal imprudence that will doom his Porte; they were connected to the sultan nation, has given the sign that this is to by bondage and servitude instead of by become a war of faiths,‖ Stroganov wrote religion and nationality.‖11 Utilizing a to Count Nesselrode. ―[Ipsilantis] has direct analogy between the Greek inde- sworn to die or to exterminate the tyrants pendence movement and the Russian who have oppressed Greece for four cen- defeat of Tatar rule, he stressed that the turies.‖9 Violent Turkish reprisals against revolt was an attempt to overthrow an the Ottoman Christian community con- unjust yoke to whom there was no legal firmed Stroganov‘s fears of a religious obligation. By proclaiming neutrality, war and severely strained the relation- Sturdza argues, Russia was not only act- ship between the Ottoman Porte and the ing as ―an accomplice in the fall of the Tsar. church and in the extermination of an News was pouring into Stroganov‘s entire people,‖ but was also allowing embassy daily about the massacres of Britain to strengthen its position in the Phanariot Greeks, bishops, priests and Eastern Mediterranean.12 other Christians. Churches were de- The influential substance of stroyed with impunity. Cities with large Sturdza‘s argumentation is evident in the Greek populations were regularly efforts of Kapodistrias and Stroganov to stormed and terrorized. Returning to St. implore the Tsar to aid the Greeks. The Petersburg from Laibach on May 12, ineffective Byzantine religious rhetoric of Alexander I learned of the most shocking Prince Shiksmatov was revitalized when of the Turkish reprisals—the hanging of expressed in contemporary political the Patriarch of Constantinople, Gregory terms. Both Stroganov and Kapodistrias V, on Easter Sunday. While the other were astute diplomats who knew that as reports sickened the Tsar, the symbolism much as the Tsar was emotionally af- and violence of the Patriarch‘s murder fected by religious loyalty and humani- was particularly troubling. tarianism, he would only be convinced to One month later, Stroganov received intervene by political rationale. Using instructions from the Tsar to deliver an religion as a base, the ―war party‖ sought ultimatum to the sultan. The demands, to prove that military assistance was nec- drafted by Kapodistrias, called for ―the essary to protect the Russian, rather than restoration of damaged Orthodox prop- Greek, political position. erty, the protection of the Christian relig- Stroganov‘s breaking of diplomatic

— 36 — Culture and Affairs relations with the Ottomans in July of ganov and Destunis touched on all the 1821 only further contributed to the rest- right points—religious reprisals, treaty lessness of Kapodistrias and Destunis. violations, and decline of prestige—they The removal of an ambassador was were never able to craft an Eastern policy known traditionally as the first step to an that was attractive enough to make Alex- official declaration of war. At the very ander I turn away from his Western least it should have contributed to Rus- goals. He was sympathetic to the plight of sian occupation of the Danubian princi- Greek Christians, angered by Turkish palities as dictated by the Kutchuk- disrespect, and wary of the political sig- Kainardji treaty. Yet Alexander I chose nificance of taking a weak stance. Yet, not to pursue this course and instead Alexander never believed that pursuing a sent out feelers to European diplomats. stronger course of action would bring Since it was decided at Laibach that Aus- more good than harm. Alexander was not tria would intervene in the Italian rebel- manipulated by Metternich and Castler- lions in order to restore political order, eagh, nor was he so completely revolted the Tsar wanted permission to pursue the by the uprising that he coldly rejected the same program in the Peloponnese. Met- idea of intervention. He did seriously ternich and Lord Castlereagh, the British consider the war party‘s arguments. In Foreign Secretary, refused to provide the end, they were simply not convincing backing for military intervention and in the right way. instead half-heartedly ordered the Otto- mans to protect the status of Greek Christians. In addition, Metternich and Castler- eagh began to place seeds of doubt in Alexander I‘s mind about Kapodistrias and his intentions. Sir Charles Bagot, the British ambassador to Russia, wrote that ―the labour and intrigues of Count Kapo- distrias to bring on the war are incon- ceivable […] his enourmous presumption still makes him think that he can guide the politics of Russia and lead the revolu- tions of Greece at the same time.‖13 The Tsar ultimately succumbed to European suspicion of his Foreign Minister‘s mo- tives. By the beginning of 1822, Kapodis- trias realized that he would have no fu- ture influence over Alexander I‘s Greek policy and soon resigned. With the end of Kapodistrias‘s ser- vice came the end, at least for the time being, of the war party‘s hopes that Rus- sia would intervene on behalf of the Greek cause. Despite the rhetorical strength of the religious and political arguments, Alexander I could never bring himself to unilateral action against Assen Krepost (Asenovgrad, Bulgaria) the Porte. Although Kapodistrias, Stro- Grace Zhou

— 37 — The Birch Bilingualism in Ukraine

Iryna Dzyubynska, University of Kentucky

Ukraine is in the midst of a linguistic Ukrainian people will keep using the problem which divides the country into Russian language, as many still feel it to two parts: the Russian-speaking (in the be their native tongue. south and the east) and the Ukrainian- speaking part (in the west). Although Несмотря на то, что официальным today the national language of Ukraine is языком Украины является Ukrainian, it has not always been this украинский, он не является way, and Russian still remains the first единственным языком, на котором language for many. говорят ее граждане. Среди языков More than 300 years ago, central, национальных меньшинств - southern and eastern Ukraine were all белорусский, болгарский, гагаузский, part of the Russian Empire, and in the греческий, еврейский, крымско- 20th century Ukraine was one of the re- татарский, молдавский, немецкий, publics of the Soviet Union. In the Soviet польский, румынский, словацкий и Union, Russian had the status of a lan- венгерский. Что же касается русского guage of international communication. языка, то он в Украине является не In most schools in Ukraine, subjects were менее распространенным, чем taught in Russian. Although Ukrainian украинский. На западе Украины existed as a subject in Ukrainian schools, большинство населения говорит на it was not obligatory to learn it. украинском, в то время как на юге и After Ukraine gained its independ- востоке большая часть населения – ence from the Soviet Union, the govern- русскоязычная, а в селах говорят на ment did everything in its power to суржике (смесь русского с "Ukrainianize" the former Soviet republic украинским). При этом подавляющее as quickly as possible and to restore the большинство населения Украины primacy of the Ukrainian language. Over является двуязычным. То есть, если the course of the last eighteen years, the даже не все могут свободно говорить Ukrainian government switched the in- на русском и украинском, то struction in most schools, universities, понимают оба языка практически все. work places, and the media in Ukraine Почему русский язык на Украине from Russian to Ukrainian. Many people является не менее распространенным, in Ukraine were uncomfortable in adjust- чем украинский? Так получилось «из- ing to this change, as their first language за» истории. Более 300 лет was Russian. However, the changes that центральная, южная и восточная occurred to Ukraine historically and cul- Украина входили составной частью turally have led to a bilingual society. сначала в Российскую империю, а в Ukraine, as an independent country, двадцатом веке Украина являлась is still searching for identity, and the одной из республик Советского Союза. Ukrainian language plays an important В Советском Союзе русский имел role in this search. However, I think it статус языка межнационального wouldn't be wise for Ukraine to lose its общения, его изучение было unique bilingualism. In my opinion, it обязательным. В большинстве школ, would be a good idea to make both Rus- даже в Киеве – столице Украины – и в sian and Ukrainian the official languages западных областях, все предметы of Ukraine. For if that does not happen, были на русском. Украинский язык

— 38 — Culture and Affairs

существовал как школьный предмет, и юге. Правда, во многих селах этой но, учить украинский было части страны говорят на так необязательно. Спустя 18 лет после называемом суржике, не диалекте, а распада Советского Союза, многие своеобразной смеси украинского и граждане Украины, даже те, кто русского, который возник благодаря являются украинцами по взаимному влиянию этих языков друг национальности, до сих пор чувствуют на друга. В русском языке на Украине себя русскими. И русский для них – можно найти отличия от русского родной язык. языка в центральной части России. За 18 лет независимости Украины, Отличия, прежде всего, в украинское правительство занималось произношении, такие как замена тем, что многие называют «что» на «шо», произношение насильственной украинизацией. украинского «г» (более мягкого) После распада СССР в школах стали вместо русского и прямое постепенно изменять систему использование слов из украинского обучения: сокращать классы русской (например, «буряк» вместо «свекла»). литературы и языка и переводить В школах и в институтах, в которых преподавание всех предметов на поменяли язык обучения на украинский язык. По закону о украинский, есть преподаватели, телевидении и радиовещании, не которые имеют минимальные знания менее половины передач в украинского языка, но все равно украинском эфире должно быть на пытаются преподавать свой предмет украинском. Оставшаяся половина – на государственном языке страны. на русском языке. Но от этого почти Результат при этом часто не самый никто не страдает. На украинских ток- хороший – происходит некое шоу нередко встречается, когда смешение русского и украинского. ведущий говорит на украинском, а Вследствие такой учебы может приглашенный гость разговаривает с пострадать и качество восприятия ним на русском, и один другого учащимися предмета, не говоря уже о понимает без особых проблем. том, что и шансов выучить Иногда, при переводе мультфильмов, литературный украинский язык таким роли дублируют на украинский, а образом мало. другие – на русский, что, естественно, Будучи на зимних каникулах на создает комический эффект. юге Украины, в городе Николаеве, я Но происходящей трансфор- провела интервью со своими мацией довольны далеко не все сверстниками и узнала об учителях, жители Украины. Есть те, кто знает которые преподают на смеси русского только русский язык или, скорее, с украинским. Я родилась в знают его значительно лучше Николаеве, жила в этом городе и украинского. Их не устраивает, что им училась в школе, где преподавали на придется переучиваться. Они хотят русском языке. Потом несколько сохранить знание русского языка, месяцев я жила в Киеве и училась в потому что это их родной язык. Они школе, где все предметы были на также хотят, чтобы их дети и внуки украинском. Однажды на уроке наша имели возможность изучать русский и учительница по музыке, сама этого не общаться на нем. заметив, плавно перешла с Интересно отметить однако, что украинского на русский, а потом, украинский язык более распространен когда заметила, то воскликнула: «Ой, в сельской местности, даже на востоке извините меня, пожалуйста, я забыла,

— 39 — The Birch

что я должна говорить на украин- русские школы закрываться не будут и ском». Еще больше меня шокировало все желающие смогут учиться на то, что и мои киевские одноклассники своем родном языке (но при этом и учителя, которые разговаривали на знание государственного – украин- украинском на уроках, сразу же ского – языка будет обязательным). переходили на русский, как только Не забудем, что и митингующие на звенел звонок на перемену. Майдане Незалежности1 говорили кто Интересно, что же будет с языком на украинском, кто на русском, но при в Украине теперь, четыре года после этом прекрасно друг друга понимали. «помаранчевой революцiï» (оран- Для Украины, как независимого жевой революции), когда к власти государства, поиск своей идентич- пришла оппозиция под руководством ности продолжается, и украинский Виктора Ющенко. В результате многие язык играет в этом важную роль. Но и граждане Украины стали по- терять существующее двуязычее (в настоящему гордиться тем, что они своем роде совершенно уникальное) украинцы. Знать украинский и было бы, на мой взгляд, глупо. Я говорить на нем становится считаю, что иметь два официальных престижным. Как это отразится на языка на Украине – русский и русском языке? Останется ли русский украинский – было бы неплохой настолько же распространенным, как идеей. Но даже если этого не будет, я украинский, будет ли он существовать уверена, что люди будут продолжать как второй язык, снизится ли его общаться на русском языке и учить популярность или же он станет одним его, чтобы иметь возможность из официальных языков страны? Во пользоваться богатствами русской время предвыборной кампании культуры. Ющенко обещал, что существующие

Chernobyl, Ukraine — 40 — Justin Starr Culture and Affairs Leveling Neutrality: “Third-party” Contrivance in Contemporary De-Sovietization William J. Sadd, Boston College

The Soviet Union officially collapsed proper), both Abkhazia and South Os- on December 31, 1991. Since then, much setia have distinct ethno-linguistic popu- of the world which had been consumed lations. As the corrosion of stability by the frenzied experimental political within the Soviet Union worsened, union that was the U.S.S.R. has become Abkhazia and South Ossetia both became inundated with degeneration, death, and regions of increased tension. destruction—of course, under the frame- With the downfall of central develop- work of democratization. In light of the ment and authority in the late 1980s and war in Georgia this past August and the early 1990s, both throughout Georgia many separatist conflicts that have been and much of the Soviet Union, any vague so evident in Russia‘s ―near abroad,‖ I sense of cultural or ethnic identity which hope to re-appraise one simple question: had previously existed was propelled into what had the United States and the inter- full-scale nationalism.1 Manifestations of national community expected of these such unrestrained, nationalist-driven many small, newly recognized states and divisions were, in many ways, responsi- unrecognized quasi-states, when the fab- ble for the alarming levels of violence ric of their previous stability had been that have since become an indelible mark but barely supported under a central au- of statism and separatism in the South thority in Moscow? Notably, when their Caucasian post-Soviet world. loosely bound unions (of a multiplicity of All of this unrest became apparent by peoples) had existed, they had been un- the late 1980s. During this time, a grow- der an anti-ecclesiastical, oddly inconsis- ing number of Georgians were expressing tent totalitarian state with unreliable, their will to secede from the Soviet Union shifting levels of autonomy. Ultimately, completely. Mikhail Gorbachev, presi- who is to blame for the appalling and dent of the Soviet Union, had instituted a needless war that occurred this past Au- number of state-wide reforms through- gust? out the 1980s. Gorbachev‘s reforms were To understand the current situation, meant to create a stronger union. Ironi- it is important first briefly to examine cally, they ultimately contributed to the what was. Georgia was a society where final dissolution of the Soviet state in statehood, and central development of creating the latitude for populations to the state, had previously existed. At the articulate discontent and display move- same time, however, Georgia‘s post- ments for greater autonomy. 2 Soviet survival had several fractious chal- Popular will to separate and estab- lenges to the legitimacy of its statehood, lish true independence from the Soviet in part as a result of what were Soviet-era Union was as evident in Georgia as any- experimentations with nationhood and where else in the former Soviet states. autonomy. Namely, Georgia had three This came to a head on April 9, 1989, autonomous sub-republics: Abkhazia, when a group of hunger strikers began a South Ossetia, and Adjaria. While Ad- protest in front of a building in Tbilisi jaria was, for all intents and purposes, a known as the Supreme Soviet. Their mes- fictitious pseudo-nation created by Mos- sage: the Republic of Georgia wants and cow because the Georgians living there deserves its independence from Moscow. were Muslims (as opposed to the major- Soviet troops violently thwarted the pro- ity Christian population in Georgia tests, killing demonstrators. This single

— 41 — The Birch event virtually ended Soviet rule in Geor- flict. Rhetoric and policymaking, driven gia. I would argue that current Georgian by a man who had deteriorated to a sort President Mikheil Saakashvili‘s violent of ethnocentric, messianic Georgian na- suppression of demonstrations just one tionalist, were the marks of his short- year ago — now of greater significance in lived presidency. Gamsakhurdia‘s lan- light of the civil-war-turned-war-with- guage led to a Georgia stained with the Russia— will similarly be seen as a sort of blood of civil war—war which drowned end of popular rule. the country in 1992-93, resurged occa- For the early 1990s, the unusual po- sionally throughout the 1990s, and, still litical organization of nations within the unresolved as of last August, ignited Soviet Union and the bitter, violent road again. As many may be aware—in seeing to collapse would ultimately provide a the human devastation of the early 1990s footing for Georgia‘s internal wars. At the in Abkhazia and throughout Georgia, the same time, the balance of inter-ethnic Russo-Chechen Wars, the Ossetian- relations in Georgia and pre-Soviet Geor- Ingush conflict, the fighting between the gian history also need to be regarded. To Armenians and Azeris over Nagorno- be sure, disunion in the Caucasus among Karabakh, and again, Georgia this past its many diverse populations is nothing August—the conflicts of the Caucasus new. Abkhazia, for example, while still to have been bloody and sordid. What is this day internationally recognized as more, these conflicts paint the skyline of being within Georgia, contains an acutely Russia‘s conflict-ridden ―near-abroad.‖ divided population. The peoples of the Now, in light of all of the conflicts of Abkhaz region and those of Georgia the early 1990s and the wider geo- proper have in their long disjointed his- political balancing act since the collapse tories periods both of union and glaring of the Soviet Union, one thing has be- division. This is evident in South Ossetia, come abundantly clear: Russia cannot be as well. And while South Ossetia may both a ―third party‖ and a second party in appear as the more worrisome issue to- resolving conflicts in its ―near-abroad.‖4 day, Abkhazia has historically far more This, in differing from most other intrica- consistently been the contested territory. cies of the South Caucasus, is fairly plain It should be noted that many of the and simple. This August war in Georgia grievances among the variegated ethno- has only further supported such an argu- linguistic populations of the Caucasus ment. Today, few would suggest that the revolve around issues of indigenousness Russians can objectively reassume their and homeland. And while the reliability roles as peacekeepers. They are the vic- of census records from antiquity may be tors; Georgians, Abkhazians, Ossetians, questionable, there is some certainty re- and of late, increasingly so the Ingush, garding the census of 1989. This census are proving to be the vanquished in this showed that Georgians made up approxi- whole ongoing process of de- mately 45.7% of Abkhazia‘s population.3 Sovietization. Perhaps there is some This may have suggested that the terri- truth in the argument—as Georgia‘s tory would, for pragmatic purposes, re- president Mikheil Saakashvili put forth main a part of the emerging post-Soviet in the days following the Russian incur- Georgian state. But for a number of rea- sion—that allowing a Russian peacekeep- sons, this did not happen and war broke ing force in the South Caucasus is no out between the Georgians and the more reasonable than designating a fox Abkhazians. Notably, the brief tenure of to guard a chicken coop. the Georgian President Zviad Gamsak- But the United States too must not hurdia contributed greatly to this con- be seen as a third party in this conflict.

— 42 — Culture and Affairs

While the U.S. may consider Georgia its ers are to heroin dealers.‖7 With the ex- democratic ―darling‖ of the Caucasus ceedingly ethno-nationalist-fueled and region—as several media outlets have politicized nature of Georgia‘s wars, such suggested—U.S. foreign economic and a description seems fitting. military investment in Georgia is not so It would be foolish to say in any de- exceptional.5 Further, I might suggest claratory way ―who‖ or ―what‖ is most that the less than adequately informed responsible for the war of this past Au- envoys the U.S. government has been gust—a war that is only the most recent sending to Georgia of late has done little escalation in a series of post-Soviet con- more than aid in fueling the conflicts. In flicts that continue to plague the peoples an article from August 4, 2008, just prior of Georgia and the Caucasus region. Was to the war, it was reported that Hrant it the fault of Georgian President Mikheil Melik-Shahnazaryan (the chairman of Saakashvili for seeking to reclaim power the Armenian Mitq analytical center) over lost territory, banking on support noted the following: U.S. mediating dela- from allies who would not come? Or was gations with shallow understandings of it the fault of the government of the the many complexities of the conflicts United States for any number of mistakes and many complexities of the region, are made regarding both Russia and Geor- advancing the potential of actually esca- gia? Vladimir Putin, who presumably still lating the conflicts. In fact, he stated di- runs Russia, may be to blame here; or rectly in reference to the United States‘ perhaps the new Russian President Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Dmitry Medvedev was looking to make a European and Eurasian Affairs Matthew proclamation on behalf of himself or his Bryza, that his ―contradicting statements country. The international community arouse tension in the conflict zones. certainly failed diplomatically to resolve American diplomacy neglects historical this most recent conflict before the start realities.‖6 The escalation of conflict is, of the war, having previously left Geor- quite obviously, no longer a prospect or gia‘s two conflicts ―frozen,‖ in positions matter of question; it is now our reality. of fragile stalemate, yet still within a So who are these contrived ―third struggling Georgia for a period of roughly parties‖? Well, Russia, as mentioned 15 to 20 years. Thoughtlessly, the inter- above, for starters. This is perhaps of national community has continuously primary importance now, considering the supported territorial integrity as a geopo- current circumstances. Also, of course, litical catchphrase in the case of Georgia, the United States is included in this. The without ever actually doing anything sub- Georgian Orthodox Patriarch Ilia II must stantive to rectify and reconcile its bro- too take some responsibility for the im- ken statehood. pact of several of his more controversial Ultimately, in light of the misery of statements. Ilia maintains a position as this past August, those who might try to one of the most important and influential defend measures which have led to acts quasi-political figures in Georgia. And of violent exchange should probably now disappointingly, I might also include cer- heed the cautious words of the great hu- tain historians here as one of the fraudu- manist and theologian Desiderius Eras- lent third parties involved. History has mus, who famously observed: scarcely is been grossly politicized in Georgia‘s con- there any peace so unjust that it is not flicts. Here I am reminded of a quote by better than even the fairest war. In times British historian Eric Hobsbawm who of tension, regrettably, this is not always once suggested that ―historians are to clear. nationalist politicians what poppy grow-

— 43 — Interested in Russian or Soviet culture? The Barnard Slavic Department’s spring courses have some- thing for everyone – whether you’re a native Russian speaker, just learning, or don’t know a word!

RUSS V3221y Literature and Revolution HSSL W3224y Cities of the Russian Empire Prof. Stanton. 3 pts. TR 1:10 - 2:25. Profs. Nepomnyashchy & Wortman. 3 pts. TR 1:10-2:25. An unforgettable tour of 20th-century Russian literature from the An introduction to the study of the region formerly occupied by pre-Revolutionary avant-garde to the culture of high Stalinism, the the Russian and Soviet Empires, focusing on cities as the space of Thaw, and beyond, with attention to other media including music, self-definition, encounter, and tension among constituent peoples. painting, architecture, and film. Texts by Blok, Mayakovsky, Analysis of historical, literary, and theoretical texts as well as film, Babel, Bulgakov, Nabokov, Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn, Erofeev, and music, painting, and architecture. others. RUSS V 3339y Masterpieces of Russian Literature: 19th Cen- RUSS V 3335y Vvedenie v russkuiu kul'turu: Russian Culture tury. Prof. Kashper. 3 pts. MW 1:10-2:25. in NYC. Prof. Kashper. 3 pts. MW 4:10-5:25. A close study, in the original, of representative works by Pushkin, Practice and perfection of Russian language skills through the Lermontov, Gogol, Turgenev, Goncharov, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, study of Russian art, opera, ballet, theatre, and film. Class discus- Leskov, and Chekhov. sions supplemented by outings to performances and muse- Prerequisites: Native or near-native knowledge of Russian and ums. Prerequisites: RUSS V1202 or the equivalent and permis- permission of the instructor. sion of the instructor. Notes and References

A Cloud in Dialectics: The Contradictions of 9 Tolstoy 794. Vladimir Mayakovsky, pp 17-19 10 Tolstoy 794. 11 Tolstoy 791. Endnotes 12 Bakhtin 337. 13 1 Victor Erlich, ―The Dead Hand of the Future: The Predicament Tolstoy 763. of Vladimir Mayakovsky,‖ Slavic Review 21.3 (1962): 433-440. 14 Tolstoy 99. 2 Erlich 435. 15 Tolstoy 100. 3 Vladimir Markov, ―The Province of Russian Futurism,‖ The 16 Tolstoy 789. Slavic and East European Journal 8.4 (1964) 401-406. 17 Tolstoy 795. 4 Vladimir Mayakovsky, ―A Cloud in Trousers,‖ trans. Andrey 18 Tolstoy 766. Kneller, Part II lines 1-4. 19 Tolstoy 766. 5 Erlich 433. 6 Theodor Adorno, ―The Concept of Enlightenment,‖ 1. Work Cited 7 Adorno, 25. Bakhtin, Mikhail M. ―The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays.‖ 8 Mayakovsky Prologue lines 21-26. Theory of the Novel: A Historical Approach. Ed. Michael 9 Mayakovsky Prologue lines 11-15. McKeon. Baltimore: John Hopkins UP, 2000. 321-53. 10 Mayakovsky Part I lines 124-27. Dostoevsky, Feodor. ―Dostoevsky‘s Notebooks.‖ Crime and 11 Mayakovsky Prologue lines 1-4. Punishment. Ed. George Gibian. 3rd ed. New York: Nor- ton, 1989. 12 Mayakovsky Part I lines 24-28. Garrard, John. ―Introduction: The Rise of the Novel in Russia.‖ 13 Mayakovsky Part III line 47. The Russian Novel from Pushkin to Pasternak. Ed. John 14 Mayakovsky Part III lines 138-42. Garrard. New Haven: Yale UP, 1983. 15 Adorno 2. Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina. Trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa 16 Mayakovsky Part I lines 138-42. Volokhonsky. New York: Penguin Books, 2002. 17 Mayakovsky Part I lines 93-98. 18 Mayakovsky Prologue lines 9-10. 19 Mayakovsky Part I lines 175-76. Blok’s Apocalypse: A Poet’s Elusive Revolution, 20 Mayakovsky Prologue lines 28-31. 21 Mayakovsky Part III lines 48-54. pp 23-26

22 Mayakovsky Part III lines 61-62. Endnotes 23 Mayakovsky Part II lines 46-56. 1 Viktor Zhirmunsky, ―The Passion of Aleksandr Blok,‖ Twentieth 24 Mayakovsky Part IV line 195. Century Russian Literary Criticism, ed. Victor Erlich (New 25 Adorno 20. Haven: Yale University Press, 1975) 131. 26 Mayakovsky Part III line 133-37. 2 Korney Chukovsky, ―Excerpts from A.A. Blok: The Man,‖ Blok: An Anthology of Essays and Memoirs, ed. and trans. Lucy Vogel Work Cited (Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1982) 69. Erlich, Victor. ―The Dead Hand of the Future: The Predicament of 3 Chukovsky 64. Vladimir Mayakovsky.‖ Slavic Review 21.3 (1962): 433- 4 Chukovsky 71. 440. 5 Eugene M. Kayden, ―Alexander Blok,‖ American Slavic and Horkheimer, Max and Theodor Adorno. The Dialectic of Enlight- East European Review 6.1.2 (1947): 94. enment: Philosophical Fragments. Translated by Edmund 6 Boris Eikhenbaum, ―Blok‘s Fate,‖ Blok: An Anthology of Essays Jephcott. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2002. and Memoirs, ed. and trans. Lucy Vogel (Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1982) Markov, Vladimir. ―The Province of Russian Futurism‖ The Slavic 140. and East European Journal 8.4 (1964) 401-406. 7 Kayden 94. Mayakovsky, Vladimir. ―A Cloud in Trousers.‖ Trans. Andrey 8 John Stallworthy and Peter France, trans., Aleksandr Blok: Kneller. Selected Poems (Manchester: Carcanet Press Limited, 2000) 68.

9 Stallworthy and France 68.

10 Sergei Hackel, The Poet and the Revolution (London: Oxford Manipulating the Systems of Languages in University Press, 1975) 151. Anna Karenina, pp 20-22 11 Stallworthy and France 55. 12 Chukovsky 69. Endnotes 13 Zhirmunsky 134. 1 Mikhail M. Bakhtin, ―The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays,‖ 14 Stallworthy and France 94. Theory of the Novel: A Historical Approach, ed. Michael McKeon 15 Stallworthy and France 96. (Baltimore: John Hopkins UP, 2000) 325. 16 Stallworthy and France 97. 2 Garrard, John, introduction, ―The Rise of the Novel in Russia,‖ 17 Stallworthy and France 98. The Russian Novel from Pushkin to Pasternak, ed. John Garrard 18 Stallworthy and France 108. (New Haven: Yale UP, 1983) 20. 19 Stallworthy and France 109. 3 Bakhtin 348. 20 Stallworthy and France 110. 4 Bakhtin 350. 21 Hackel 165. 5 Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa 22 Chukovsky 73. Volokhonsky (New York: Penguin Books, 2002) 788. 23 Hackel 193. 6 Tolstoy 340. 24 Hackel 198. 7 Tolstoy 340. 25 Hackel 195. 8 Tolstoy 342.

— 45 — The Birch

26 Boris Pasternak, ―Excerpts from People and Situations,‖ Blok: Rastas, Mauri. ―Main Events in Karelian History.‖ History of An Anthology of Essays and Memoirs, ed. and trans. Lucy Vogel Karelia. 2 Dec. 2007 . 27 Stallworthy and France 53.

Work Cited Cinema of Moral Concern, pp 31-34 Chukovsky, Korney. ―Excerpts from A.A. Blok: The Man.‖ Blok: An Anthology of Essays and Memoirs. Ed. and Endnotes trans. Lucy Vogel. Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1982. 64-89. 1 Andrzej Wajda, address, Forum of the Polish Filmmakers‘ Eikhenbaum, Boris. ―Blok‘s Fate.‖ Blok: An Anthology of Essays Association, Gdansk, 1980. First published in Polish Perspectives and Memoirs. Ed. and trans. Lucy Vogel. Ann Arbor: 24.1 (1981). Ardis, 1982. 131-143. 2 Marek Haltof. ―Camouflage and Rough Treatment: The ‗Cinema Hackel, Sergei. The Poet and the Revolution. London: Oxford of Distrust,‘ the Solidarity Period, and Afterwards,‖ Polish Na- University Press, 1975. tional Cinema (New York: Berghahn Books, 2002) 146. Kayden, Eugene M. ―Alexander Blok.‖ American Slavic and East 3 Boleslaw Michalek and Frank Turaj, The Modern Cinema of European Review. 6.1.2 (1947): 94-97. Poland (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988) 72. Pasternak, Boris. ―Excerpts from People and Situations.‖ Blok: 4 Coates 188. An Anthology of Essays and Memoirs. Ed. and trans. Lucy 5 Vogel. Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1982. 171-173 Coates 189. 6 Stallworthy, John, and Peter France, trans. Aleksandr Blok: Coates 189. Selected Poems. Manchester: Carcanet Press Limited, 7 Coates 189. 2000. 8 From a Night Porter’s Point of View, dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski, Zhirmunsky, Viktor. ―The Passion of Aleksandr Blok.‖ Twentieth TOR Film Studios, 1979. Century Russian Literary Criticism. Ed. Victor Erlich. 9 Man of Marble, dir. Andrzej Wajda, Film X Film Studios, 1977. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1975. 10 Haltof 152-53. 11 Camera Buff, dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski, prod. Wielislawa Piotrowska, TOR Film Studios, 1979. The Russian Negative Simile, pp 27-29 12 Haltof 154. 13 Michalek 79. Endnotes 14 Coates 94. 1 Robert Burns, ―Red, Red Rose,‖ Representative Poetry Online 15 Wieslaw Godzic, ―The Real End of Moral Anxiety,‖ The New (University of Toronto Press) 2 Dec. 2007 lines 1-4. (London: Flicks Books, 2003) 54. 2 Patricia Krafčik, ―The Russian Negative Simile: An Expression 16 Timothy Garton Ash, The Polish Revolution (New York: Vin- of Folkloric Fantasy,‖ Slavic and East European Journal, 20.1 tage, 1983). (1976): 18. 3 Alexander Pope, ―Imitations of Horace,‖ Representative Poetry Works Cited Online (University of Toronto Press) 2 Dec. 2007. lines 64-65. 1983. 4 Dimitri Obolensky, ed., The Penguin Book of Russian Verse Camera Buff. Dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski. Prod. Wielislawa (Baltimore: Penguin Books Ltd., 1962) 23. Piotrowska. TOR Film Studios,1979. 5 Krafčik 20-21. Coates, Paul. "Kieslowski, Politics and the Anti-Politics of Colour: 6 Felix Oinas, ―Karelian-Finnish Negative Analogy: A Construc- From the 1970s to the Three Colours Trilogy." The Red tion of Slavic Origin,‖ The Slavic and East European Journal and the White: The Cinema of People's Poland. London: 20.4 (1976): 380. Wallflower Press, 2005. 7 Oinas 379. From a Night Porter’s Point of View. Dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski. 8 Oinas 383. Prod. KrzysztofKieslowski. TOR Film Studios, 1979. Haltof, Marek. "Camouflage and Rough Treatment: The ‗Cinema 9 Oinas 383. of Distrust,‘ the SolidarityPeriod, and Afterwards." Polish 10 Oinas 379, 382. National Cinema. New York: Berghahn Books, 2002. 11 Oinas 382. Man of Marble. Dir. Andrzej Wajda. Screenplay by Aleksander 12 Oinas 381. Scibor Rylski. Film XFilm Studios, 1977. 13 Krafčik 21. Michalek, Boleslaw, and Frank Turaj. The Modern Cinema of 14 Mauri Rastas, ―Main Events in Karelian History,‖ History of Poland. Bloomington: IndianaUniversity Press, 1988. Karelia, July 2002, 2 Dec. 2007 . Association, Gdansk, 1980.Polish Perspectives 24.1 (1981). 15 Oinas 385. Wieslaw Godzic. "The Real End of Moral Anxiety." The New Polish Cinema. Eds. JaninaFalkowska and Marek Haltof. Works Cited London: Flicks Books, 2003. Burns, Robert. ―Red, Red Rose.‖ Representative Poetry Online. University of Toronto Press. 2 Dec. 2007. . Krafčik, Patricia. ―The Russian Negative Simile: An Expression of Neither Direct Nor Indirect Aid: Russia’s Re- Folkloric Fantasy.‖ The Slavic and East European Journal sponse to the Greek Revolution, 1821-1822, pp 20.1 (1976): 18-26. 35-37 Obolensky, Dimitri, ed. The Penguin Book of Russian Verse. Baltimore: Penguin Books Ltd., 1962. Endnotes 1 Alexander Bitis, Russia and the Eastern Question: Army, Oinas, Felix. ―Karelian-Finnish Negative Analogy: A Construction Government, and Society 1815-1833 (Oxford: Oxford University of Slavic Origin.‖ The Slavic and East European Journal Press, 2006) 104. 20.4 (1976): 379-386. 2 G.L. Arsh, Eteristskoe dvizhenie v Rossii: Osvoboditel’naya Pope, Alexander. ―Imitations of Horace.‖ Representative Poetry bop’ba grecheskogo naroda v nachale XIX v. I russko-grecheskie Online. University of Toronto Press. 2 Dec. 2007 . 3 Ipsilantis, ―To Alexander I,‖ March 8, 1821, Vneshniaia Politika

— 46 — Notes and References

Rossii, Series II, Volume IV, March 1821 – December 1821 предрассудков в диалоге украинской и русской (Moscow: Ministry of Soviet Foreign Affairs, 1980) 39. культур в Украине, «Социологи – интернет- 4 Kapodistrias, ―To Ipsilantis,‖ March 14, 1821, VPR, Series II, сообщество» (официальный сайт). . 5 Patricia Kennedy Grimsted, The Foreign Ministers of Alexander Полякова, Кристина. «‗Русь’ ждет помощи России». I: Political Attitudes and the Conduct of Russian Diplomacy, Литературная газета 26(5882), 26 июня - 2 июля 1801-1825 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969), 254. 2002 г. . 7 Quoted in Richard Clogg, ed., The Movement for Greek Inde- Шульга, Н. А. Русская культура в Украине: кризисы pendence, 1770-1821 (London: Macmillan, 1976) 201-203. идентичности, Четвертая Международная научно- практическая конференция. «Диалог украинской и 8 Barbara Jelavich, Russia’s Balkan Entanglements (Cambridge русской культур в Украине». 9–10 декабря 1999 года, г. University Press, 2004) 55. Киев. . Volume IV, 113. Elbrekht, Olga and Valeria Elbrekht. ―Ranok.‖ Focus on Ukraine. 10 Jelavich, ―Tsarist Russia and Greek Independence,‖ 87. English students’ book. Kharkiv, 2001. 11 Theophilus C. Prousis, ―Aleksandr Sturdza: A Russian Conser- vative Response for the Greek Revolution,‖ East European Quarterly 26.3 (1992): 323. 12 Quoted in Prousis 323-324. Leveling Neutrality, pp 41-43 13 Charles Webster, The Foreign Policy of Castlereagh, 1815- 1822, (London: G. Bell and Sons, 1947) 387. Endnotes 1 Ronald G. Suny, The Revenge of the Past: Nationalism, Revolu- Works Cited tion, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union (Stanford: Stanford Arsh, G.L. Eteristskoe dvizhenie v Rossii: Osvoboditel’naya University Press, 1993) 97. bop’ba grecheskogo naroda v nachale XIX v. I russko- 2 Christoph Zurcher, ―Georgia‘s Time of Troubles, 1989-1993,‖ grecheskiesvyazi. Moscow: Nayki, 1970. Statehood and Security: Georgia after the Rose Revolution, eds. Bitis, Alexander. Russia and the Eastern Question: Army, Gov- Bruno Coppieters and Robert Legvold (Cambridge: MIT Press, ernment, and Society 1815-1833.Oxford: Oxford Univer- 2005) 85. sity Press, 2006. 3 Zurcher 89. Clogg, Richard, ed. The Movement for Greek Independence, 1770 4 This summer was the first time in several years that Russia had -1821. London: Macmillan,1976. been recognized as a second party in a conflict of the Caucasus Grimsted, Patricia Kennedy. The Foreign Ministers of Alexander (i.e. the Russo-Georgian conflict). Previously, wars have been I: Political Attitudes and the Conduct of Russian Diplo- referred to—if in name only—as conflicts sans Russia (e.g. Geor- macy, 1801-1825. Berkeley: University of California gia-Abkhaz conflict, Georgian-Ossetian conflict). During these Press,1969. conflicts, the Russian military acted as ―third-party‖ peacekeep- Ipsilantis. ―To Alexander I.‖ March 8, 1821. Vneshniaia Politika ers. Rossii, Series II, Volume IV,March 1821-December 1821. 5 The U.S. government gives a tremendous amount of economic Moscow: Ministry of Soviet Foreign Affairs, 1980. and military aid to many countries which taxpayers might sus- Jelavich, Barbara. Russia’s Balkan Entanglements. Cambridge: pect. As of 2005, the Sudan was receiving far more in both cate- Cambridge University Press,2004. gories than Georgia. And warring countries as well—both Arme- nia and Azerbaijan receive an equal amount of military aid. This Jelavich, Barbara. ―Tsarist Russia and Greek Independence.‖ is all available for public viewing on our government‘s census Russia’s Balkan Entanglements.Cambridge: Cambridge website: . Kapodistrias. ―To Ipsilantis.‖ March 14, 1821. Vneshniaia Politika 6 "U.S. mediating missions in South Caucasus can provoke escala- Rossii, Series II, Volume IV,March 1821-December 1821. tion of conflicts." panarmenian.net. 4 August 2008. PanARME- Moscow: Ministry of Soviet Foreign Affairs, 1980. NIAN Network. 5 August 2008 . tive Response for theGreek Revolution.‖ East European 7 Matthew Evangelista, The Chechen Wars: Will Russia Go the Quarterly 26.3 (1992): стор. 00309. Way of the Soviet Union? (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institu- Stroganov. ―To Nesselrode.‖ April 10, 1822. Vneshniaia Politika tion Press, 2002) 106. Rossii, Series II, Volume IV,March 1821-December 1821.

Moscow: Ministry of Soviet Foreign Affairs, 1980. Webster, Charles. The Foreign Policy of Castlereagh, 1815-1822. Works Cited London: G. Bell and Sons,1947. Evangelista, Matthew. The Chechen Wars: Will Russia Go the Way of the Soviet Union? Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2002. Двуязычие на Украине, pp 38-40 Suny, Ronald G. The Revenge of the Past: Nationalism, Revolu- Endnotes tion, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union. Stanford: 1 Площадь в Киеве, где сотни тысяч людей в ноябре-декабре Stanford University Press, 1993. 2005 года протестовали против фальсификации результатов президентских выборов United States of America. U.S. Census Bureau. Table 1271. U.S. Foreign Economic and Military Aid by Major Recipient Bibliography Country: 2000 to 2005. 27 ноября 2001 г.. Zurcher, Christoph. ―Georgia‘s Time of Troubles, 1989-1993.‖ Интервью автора этой работы со студентами Николаевского Statehood and Security: Georgia after the Rose Revolu- государственного университета и Николаевского tion. Eds. Bruno Coppieters and Robert Legvold. Cam- университета им. Петра Могилы на тему: «Язык bridge: MIT Press, 2005. преподавания в высших учебных заведениях г. Николаева». Коробов, В. К. Преодоление этнических стереотипов и www.thebirchonline.org © Copyright 2008, Columbia University — 47 —