Fun Facts: Russian Art Scene

Katya's Fun Facts: Russian Art Scene

Katya's fun fact of the week: The 1920's in Russia was home to a burgeoning arts scene. Despite Lenin's distrust of modern art, and his harsh - sometimes deadly - attacks on anyone he deemed to be creating counterrevolutionary works, the burst of artistic exuberance following the Revolution resulted in one of the most fertile artistic climates in world history. In her adopted home of St. Petersburg, Katya, a devoted if uneducated fan of the arts, would have heard the music of Dmitri Shostakovich, seen the films of Sergei Eisenstein, heard readings of poetry by Anna Akhmatova and prose by Boris Pasternak, watched the plays of Mikahil Bulgakov, and, of course, seen the works many, many more artists, both lesser and greater.

Under Stalin, Shostakovich was denounced, his music often banned. He survived by promising to change his musical style over and over again. He took to sleeping outside his apartment door with a packed suitcase so that when they came to take him away, it would not disturb his family.

Sergei Eisenstein was denounced, and ordered to cease production in the middle of his three-film epic, "Ivan the Terrible". He was never allowed to complete another film.

Anna Akhmatova's husband was killed and her son arrested. Her poetry was banned, and she was denied the right to obtain food, forcing her to live on the charity of others to the end of her days.

Boris Pasternak's writings were banned. He was called an "anti-Soviet underminer of Socialist Realism." He lived under the continual risk of being sent to the Gulag.

Mikhail Bulgakov's plays were banned. He was forced to write in secret, and died young.

They were the lucky ones. Many - like Mandlestam, Tsvataeva, Gamilyov - were sent to the Gulag to die, hounded into suicide, or simply stood against a wall and shot.

"They kill what they do not understand."

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