Click here for Full Issue of EIR Volume 14, Number 8, February 20, 1987 Mother Russia by Luba George 'Repentance' film signals great purge geni Yevtushenko, Andrei Voznesen­ Raisa Gorbachova's cultural mafia is at work again, preparing sky, Vladimir Lakshin, Chinghiz Ait­ Russians for the war-plan transformation of the Soviet economy. matov, and well-known "anti-Stalin­ ists" Sergei Zalygin and Georgi Bak­ lanov, editors of Novy Mir and Zna­ mya, all have been assigned to lift the Partyboss Mikhail Gorbachov's talk Deputy Interior Minister. Churbanov, taboo on publicizing the crimes of the about "democratization" is nothing 50, purged for "bribe-taking" two Stalinist past. more than stating the mechanism by years ago, will now go on trial, facing The first reviewof the filmPokay­ which the remnants of the Brezhnev the death penalty . anie in the Russian press (before its party apparatus will be removed by The coming KGB shake-up was mass release)was in the Nov. 30, 1986 1988. Under Gorbachov's rule, the signaled in Pravda on Jan. 8, when issue of the weekly Moscow News. broadest chistka (purge) in the KGB boss Viktor Chebrikov an­ Literary critic Lakshin-himself U.S.S.R. since Stalin has occurred, nounced the sacking of a senior purged from NovyMir as a liberal over and the final act is now set to begin. Ukrainian KGB official for "unlawful 15 years ago-wrote: "I feel that words One indisputable sign was the pre­ actions." Chebrikov's speech to last fail me to describe this work of art that miere of the film,P okayanie (Repent­ year'sparty congress, warmly praised is bound to become a catharsis for ance) in Moscow's Rossiya Theater. by Gorbachov, was the first by a serv­ many." Indeed, such a film cuts deep ' The film, the work of Georgian direc­ ing KGB chief. The Interior Ministry into the Russian psyche. Stalin's ter­ tor Tengiz Abuladze, deals with the purge began a year ago when Gorba­ ror touched every Russian household terror under Joseph Stalin. Before chov protege Aleksandr Vlasov took in one way or another. being released to the Russian public, over, replacing Vitali Fedorchuk. Re­ A commentator for the West Ger­ the film was shown to small elite cently, Vlasov told the youth paper man Hessische Rundfunk, after the groups and select foreign audiences, Komsomolskaya Pravda that he was Moscow premiere, said the high point and had been playing in Soviet Geor­ removing "crooked militiamen." of the film was the scene when the gia. Roy A. Medvedev, a "dissident" The film is a clinical example of body of the buried dictator was ex­ Soviet historian on the Stalin period, manipulating mass psychological re­ humed by the People. For anyone who saw a preview, said: "The release actions by using the Stalin image. For knowing Russian history, he said, the of this movie will be the most impor­ a Russian audience, the cathartic ef­ message was clear: Russian soil, me­ tant event in Soviet cultural life in at fect of "dealing honestly" with the taphorically speaking, is "sacred soil" least a decade. " wrongsof the past creates emotions of and must not be polluted by the evil The movie is the story of one Var­ hope and "faith" in the people's pres­ this dictator represented. "Holy Rus­ lam Avaridze, who bears striking re­ ent "Little Father," Mikhail Gorba­ sian soil stands for the will of the peo­ semblance (with a small black mus­ chov. Such films are invaluable to ple." tache, pince-nez, and leather suspen­ promote the coming purge of inept and On Feb. 2, Radio Moscow con­ ders) to Lavrenti Beria, who ran Sta­ corrupt bureaucratic dead wood, de­ cluded a long commentary on Pokay­ lin's secret police. nounced by Gorbachov at the plenum anie: "The West only wants the film According to film world sources, for embodying the "thinking of the to be about Stalin. However, for us the film's release was decided on by 1930s and '40s." the film has a much wider signifi­ Politburo members Yegor Ligachov Abuladze's film, made in 1984, cance. Our world is threatened by a and Eduard Shevardnadze,the former was promoted after Abuladze's close crisis . that is only comprehensible KGB chief and party boss in Georgia. friend Elem Klimov was elected to to those authorized to take great uni­ It was timed with big shake-ups in the chair the Filmmakers' Union last fall. versal decisions. " Interior Ministry and the KGB in Jan­ On the personal initiative of Gorba­ Gorbachov, the new "Czar," is uary, in the same week as a plenum of chov's wife, Raisa, director Klimov, taking such "great universal deci­ the party Central Committee. After the and other leading Soviet artists and sions." At the plenum, Gorbachov plenum, the Soviet government an­ poetswere enlisted into Raisa's Soviet called for an ExtraordinaryParty Con­ nounced the arrest of Brezhnev's son­ Culture Foundation to rid the c�ltural gress in 1988-the mystical I,OOOth in-law, Yuri Churbanov, former First sphere of theold guard.Klimov, Yev- anniversary of the Russian Church. 52 International EIR February 20, 1987 © 1987 EIR News Service Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission strictly prohibited..