I find the romanticization of socialism, with its Marxist origins and aspirations, very off-putting, at best a childish fantasy from a picture book of everyone frolicking in fields of equity with rainbows of opportunity coming out of their backside, and in reality, maliciously idiotic and blind to the painful history of several countries and generations.
I utterly agree with you. "No socialism for me" as an old immigrant, running to America from Soviet socialism long ago, but socialism ("another kind)" is my daughter and her husband's wish for this country. I think this political absurdity comes from the professors at their colleges who consider themselves progressivists who carry humanism into education.
I understand and am also bothered by this disturbing parallel, a lot of what I have seen and read here in the past years - especially in the educational settings, even primary schools - is like some absolutely dumbed down, ultra primitive Marxism 2.0, almost like a joke!
It continues to beggar belief that it is 'cool' in some circles to sport a hammer and sickle, or a Che image, or a McLenin's t-shirt. Nobody would use a swastika that way.
I am familiar with the 'find tougher people' citation. Many to this day think of Lenin as a nice intellectual whose clever ideas were warped by bad guys. The man was riven with hatred. He didn't care about the poor. He cared about humiliating unto death those he perceived to have slighted him and his family. It was vengeance on a vast, catastrophic scale.
This is an intimate and sobering labor of remembrance and warning. Countless, precious lives cut short in the name of “ideology.” Thank you for helping us to see more clearly.
Sarah, thank you for reading and for your empathy! It’s hard for me to view current events objectively, in a detached way, because some of the parallels are really frightening, and being lectured on these “abstract concepts” by people who entirely dismiss history is triggering. I know that quite a few ex-Soviet people feel this way.
Even though there were epic advances in science, industrialization, education and other areas I don’t think the sacrifices this took are doubtlessly justified. It’s maddening that today a lot of people in Russia will even dismiss there were sacrifices, claiming them to be Western propaganda https://theins.ru/en/news/274707 just in latest news, and the closing of Memorial, which was essential to many people uncovering their families’ stories. The country is still run by the same death squadders/prison guards or their direct successors.
I often wonder what the country could have been like if the revolution would’ve been subdued. In my view, maybe Russia’s biggest tragedy.
I researched my own ancestors and family only. I’d expect the overlord records wouldn’t be accessible to the public and would be largely scrubbed/redacted, and frankly no interest in any of them.
Poor Petrov- Vodkin… He painted his canvasses , being cold and hungry in the after Revolutionary Moscow. The hungrier he was the more fattening were his “kupchikhi.”
The painting is by Boris Kustodiev who lived an extraordinary life despite a spinal cord tumor leaving him paraplegic and bringing him enormous suffering. Although his sickness caused him so much pain, his paintings are brimming with love for the Russian people, culture and way of life, color and simple, human joy. I’ve always found that fascinating about him and love his work and his heroic strength of spirit.
He was never cold and hungry or a victim of socialism, managing to navigate the zeitgeist without losing his creative integrity, one of the rare and lucky ones. I think he even managed to depict the revolution with an air of hope and joy in the painting I used here. To me, he is one of the painters that embodies the essence of the Russian soul that has survived through all of our difficult history.
Sorry for my mistake. I am a lazy woman; I could go downstairs to my basement and look at my art books. I have too many of them. We brought our library here. Many highly talented people accepted the Revolution, thinking about the fate of the poor Russian people. I am now "publishing" an essay about Blok. Aristocrat, esthete, for him, the idea of the people was more important than his own life. What was the result? Forty years of life, and he is dead. How could he know who would be the rulers of the new regime and what would be this regime?
Oh I envy bringing the library, the real treasures!
I got excited because I really love Russian art of that period, the turn of the century and the avant-garde, am a complete sucker for it, really miss Novaya Tretyakovka! Kustodiev of all of them was so surprisingly optimistic to me, lubok and little man things but with such a big heart.
Looking forward to reading your piece about Blok!
I’m now reading “Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad”, the first part of the book focuses on the period between the revolution and WW2, and although there’s nothing new to me in it regarding the regime and I can’t say it’s particularly well written, it’s such a hard book to read, so maddening, makes me so furious, I have to stop and take breaks, which is why it’s taking me forever to get through the book. Just feel such rage, grief and rage again for the people and everything that was done. Speaking of poets, this book makes such a scoundrel of Mayakovsky, he is absolutely despicable in it, I was surprised by how bad.
Who is the author? And what does Mayakovsky have to do with it? He was briefly in Petrograd, reading his poems in Brodiachaya Sobaka, Akmeists' cafe. Blok didn't like his bravado, but he understood his talent. I love your manner of reading books. Love it. How to find this book? Our library is only LClassical literature. That is why I can write about Blok. It's his Diary, Notebooks, his letters, and his poetry. I don't write from myself. Sounds as a wrong English.
I wanted something for my kid to read on the subject of the siege and the time period that would hopefully be objective, and this was very well-reviewed. The author mentions Mayakovsky in passing, as a contemporary of Shostakovich, moving in overlapping circles (has several pages about him in the book), but you read and think, what a bastard! Describes him as a complete narcissist who enjoyed driving women to suicide and was obsessed with materialist petty things. I’ve never seen such an extreme characterization of him, so was surprised.
I buy most of my books second hand on Ebay, Thrift Books etc.
Ok, I found this book in the Young Adult nonfiction section at our local library, and I will borrow it from them tomorrow. I am curious how this American writer could know everything about Mayakovsky or somebody else. By the way, my name is Larisa, but what is yours if it is not a secret? I am very glad that I somehow came out to your Substack. I already don't even remember how it happened. I am not good at the techniques of Subsrack at all.
Malyavin, oh бальзам на душу! The really big pieces, with the girls swirling in flashes of red shawls, I really, really love those. The cheeks, energy and life in all of them is mesmerizing. I loved spending time in front of them in Tretyakovka the old building. His mood and colors are unique and very "true".
I utterly agree with you. "No socialism for me" as an old immigrant, running to America from Soviet socialism long ago, but socialism ("another kind)" is my daughter and her husband's wish for this country. I think this political absurdity comes from the professors at their colleges who consider themselves progressivists who carry humanism into education.
I understand and am also bothered by this disturbing parallel, a lot of what I have seen and read here in the past years - especially in the educational settings, even primary schools - is like some absolutely dumbed down, ultra primitive Marxism 2.0, almost like a joke!
It continues to beggar belief that it is 'cool' in some circles to sport a hammer and sickle, or a Che image, or a McLenin's t-shirt. Nobody would use a swastika that way.
I am familiar with the 'find tougher people' citation. Many to this day think of Lenin as a nice intellectual whose clever ideas were warped by bad guys. The man was riven with hatred. He didn't care about the poor. He cared about humiliating unto death those he perceived to have slighted him and his family. It was vengeance on a vast, catastrophic scale.
Absolutely! They were little, petty men, the lot of them.
This is an intimate and sobering labor of remembrance and warning. Countless, precious lives cut short in the name of “ideology.” Thank you for helping us to see more clearly.
Sarah, thank you for reading and for your empathy! It’s hard for me to view current events objectively, in a detached way, because some of the parallels are really frightening, and being lectured on these “abstract concepts” by people who entirely dismiss history is triggering. I know that quite a few ex-Soviet people feel this way.
Even though there were epic advances in science, industrialization, education and other areas I don’t think the sacrifices this took are doubtlessly justified. It’s maddening that today a lot of people in Russia will even dismiss there were sacrifices, claiming them to be Western propaganda https://theins.ru/en/news/274707 just in latest news, and the closing of Memorial, which was essential to many people uncovering their families’ stories. The country is still run by the same death squadders/prison guards or their direct successors.
I often wonder what the country could have been like if the revolution would’ve been subdued. In my view, maybe Russia’s biggest tragedy.
Thank you for sharing!
During your “genealogy bender” did you notice anything unusual about the genealogy of the top Bolsheviks?
Thanks for commenting!
I researched my own ancestors and family only. I’d expect the overlord records wouldn’t be accessible to the public and would be largely scrubbed/redacted, and frankly no interest in any of them.
No you’d be surprised!
That information is out there!
Would you be interested in learning about who the perpetrators were?
Poor Petrov- Vodkin… He painted his canvasses , being cold and hungry in the after Revolutionary Moscow. The hungrier he was the more fattening were his “kupchikhi.”
The painting is by Boris Kustodiev who lived an extraordinary life despite a spinal cord tumor leaving him paraplegic and bringing him enormous suffering. Although his sickness caused him so much pain, his paintings are brimming with love for the Russian people, culture and way of life, color and simple, human joy. I’ve always found that fascinating about him and love his work and his heroic strength of spirit.
He was never cold and hungry or a victim of socialism, managing to navigate the zeitgeist without losing his creative integrity, one of the rare and lucky ones. I think he even managed to depict the revolution with an air of hope and joy in the painting I used here. To me, he is one of the painters that embodies the essence of the Russian soul that has survived through all of our difficult history.
Sorry for my mistake. I am a lazy woman; I could go downstairs to my basement and look at my art books. I have too many of them. We brought our library here. Many highly talented people accepted the Revolution, thinking about the fate of the poor Russian people. I am now "publishing" an essay about Blok. Aristocrat, esthete, for him, the idea of the people was more important than his own life. What was the result? Forty years of life, and he is dead. How could he know who would be the rulers of the new regime and what would be this regime?
Oh I envy bringing the library, the real treasures!
I got excited because I really love Russian art of that period, the turn of the century and the avant-garde, am a complete sucker for it, really miss Novaya Tretyakovka! Kustodiev of all of them was so surprisingly optimistic to me, lubok and little man things but with such a big heart.
Looking forward to reading your piece about Blok!
I’m now reading “Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad”, the first part of the book focuses on the period between the revolution and WW2, and although there’s nothing new to me in it regarding the regime and I can’t say it’s particularly well written, it’s such a hard book to read, so maddening, makes me so furious, I have to stop and take breaks, which is why it’s taking me forever to get through the book. Just feel such rage, grief and rage again for the people and everything that was done. Speaking of poets, this book makes such a scoundrel of Mayakovsky, he is absolutely despicable in it, I was surprised by how bad.
Who is the author? And what does Mayakovsky have to do with it? He was briefly in Petrograd, reading his poems in Brodiachaya Sobaka, Akmeists' cafe. Blok didn't like his bravado, but he understood his talent. I love your manner of reading books. Love it. How to find this book? Our library is only LClassical literature. That is why I can write about Blok. It's his Diary, Notebooks, his letters, and his poetry. I don't write from myself. Sounds as a wrong English.
It’s this one https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24727079-symphony-for-the-city-of-the-dead
I wanted something for my kid to read on the subject of the siege and the time period that would hopefully be objective, and this was very well-reviewed. The author mentions Mayakovsky in passing, as a contemporary of Shostakovich, moving in overlapping circles (has several pages about him in the book), but you read and think, what a bastard! Describes him as a complete narcissist who enjoyed driving women to suicide and was obsessed with materialist petty things. I’ve never seen such an extreme characterization of him, so was surprised.
I buy most of my books second hand on Ebay, Thrift Books etc.
Ok, I found this book in the Young Adult nonfiction section at our local library, and I will borrow it from them tomorrow. I am curious how this American writer could know everything about Mayakovsky or somebody else. By the way, my name is Larisa, but what is yours if it is not a secret? I am very glad that I somehow came out to your Substack. I already don't even remember how it happened. I am not good at the techniques of Subsrack at all.
I didn't know Kustodiev's story, but was fascinated by his work when I lived in Moscow. I'm a fan of Malyavin, too. Big colours, big girls!
Malyavin, oh бальзам на душу! The really big pieces, with the girls swirling in flashes of red shawls, I really, really love those. The cheeks, energy and life in all of them is mesmerizing. I loved spending time in front of them in Tretyakovka the old building. His mood and colors are unique and very "true".
There’s a great show juxtaposing Arkhipov and Malyavin at Tretyakovka at the moment. I’ve watched snippets and am very jealous of those who went.
One of my favorites of Malyavin’s is https://cdn.tretyakov.ru/mytretyakov/26/0fed60146791d774e05701ce440d2177/thumb/a4bd9e5d4f708e80eecea10d5cbf9175_x1.jpg
And of course the big swirl, the showstopper.
This is a good, short video piece about the exhibition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZVmXuh3wW0&t=7s
It requires a lot of courage to take a stand.