Newsgroups: soc.culture.soviet
Subject: Re: Bulgakov a Soviet writer? ppffttt!
From: verbit@brauer.harvard.edu (Mikhail S. Verbitsky)
Date: 18 Nov 92 20:56:52 EST
Organization: Sozialistische Patienten Kollektiv

It was quite pleasant to read the article by Timur Ruban,
and I mostly agree with stuff he wrote. Nevertheless, I
would like to make some corrections and additions.

	Timur Ruban wrote:
>From:         "(Patricia Schwartz)" <margaret@GLAS.APC.ORG>

>>Somebody on this net (I can't remember his name but I think
>>he is studying criminology HOW APT) committed the most
>>grievous sin of counting Mikhail Afanaseyvich Bulgakov
>>as part of SOVIET culture.

	First of all, I see no need to write You with capital
	letter in the Usenet article. Especially if the recipient
	is less than polite herself.

	[ deletions ]

>  Studying Organized Crime (my field of interest)-
>is as much important as bullshitting on the nets, especially in US, where You
>have a lot of that staff. 

	Well. in xSU, especially in Kiev, there are more.
	More than elsewhere, I'd say :(


>>Oh right. And Anne Frank was an important Nazi writer.

> I am afraid that in Your rage You are mixing Apples and Oranges.  I give some
>time to find better arguments.  Take Your time - it's a tough cookie.

	Don't make people laugh, Timur. That's like to ask Mu...
	er... Sedar about arguments.


>  And, indeed, Osip Mandelshtam was great Soviet poet.  Or, better, just GREAT
>poet, who lived his life the way any decent human being should - no matter
>Soviet, Indian or American.

	Every serious researcher on Mandelshtam admits that
	October Revolution was a major influence on a poet,
	and created an chaotic, surreal poet from
	a neoclassic writer. Wanna reference?
	Basically, the personalities of the author
	of Kama ("Sred' narodnogo shuma i spekha")
	and "Bessonnitsa, Gomer, tuguie parysa"
	are completely different, as well as the
	versification itself. Late Mandel'shtam
	verse takes more from Zoshchenko and
	Zabolotsky (well, Derzhavin, too) than 
	from Homer and Racine - early idols.
	
	BTW, the best research on the influence of revolution
	on the language of Mandel'shtam I've read
	belongs to Benedikt Sarnov.

>I have read some of the things You have mentioned.  Indeed, he was not Stalin's
>favorite - far from it.  

	Huh? Stalin watched his play "Dni Turbinykh"
	*almost each time* it was on - tens of times,
	totally. He completely admired Bulgakov
	as a writer, and expressed the admiration
	lots of times. E. g., he said that the only great
	Soviet playwright is Bulgakov, though he
	is anti-soviet author. Only the intrigues
	of Bulgakov colleagues and his open reluctance
	towards Communism prevent Bulgakov from
	becoming the officially best Soviet playwright
	(as Pasternak was officially best Soviet
	poet in 1934-38). Any new Bulgakov
	piece was branded as anti-Sovietic
	by his concurrents from Writers Union even if their
	ideology leaders from TsK have nothing
	against it: the archives of Politburo (!!!)
	proceedings on Bulgakov were recently printed.
	
	Bigotry is someone's tendency to disregard facts
	when they are not in support of his(her,its) views,
	so I don't think that what I just wrote will
	have some response from aforementioned people.


>  I do not see any point in this discussion.  You are always welcome fell which-
>ever way You'd want.  Even more, You are always welcome to close Your eyes at
>the examples in American culture (London, Twain) who wrote about negative sides
>of the society, criticizing it, but being part of it at the same time.  They
>ARE still American writers, great American writers, though different from the
>pocketbook junk You can by on the Broadway.

	Do you really think your opponent has 
	some idea what do you mean?

> He is part of our society, without
>which he would never appear as Michail Afanasyevich Bulgakov, author of
>"Zapiski Vracha", "Master i Margarita", "Molier", etc.  And neither You, nor
>any power in the world can change it.

	I'd distinguish between "Zapiski", which are clearly product
	of the same mentality which produced Chekhov and Veresaev
	(who wrote their own ones) and "M&M", which is a creation
	of the same epoch as Zoshchenko, Platonov, Kharms and Zabolotsky
	(and another great writer, Yakov Golosovker). IMHO, *this*
	was the greatest epoch in Russian culture, and it is clearly
	Soviet is its language and thematics.


>>PS I am not trying to insult the honest artists who happened to
>>survie the Terror, but I think most of them were either
>>anti-soviet or in-spite-of-soviet!

	Sure! Any American writer worth anything was
	anti-American of in-spite-of-American! BTW, some
	of poets recently who published their lyrics
	on this bb clearly don't belong to either of these 
	categories...

>Maybe not with respect, but at least trying to be polite,
>Timur

	I have no idea why?
	
	Misha.