Russian Freethinker Deals with Stalinism: “Stalin Is Not yet Completely Dead”
At the age of 43, Artur Solomonov, a Russian writer, theater critic and playwright, was named ‘a new Dostoyevsky’ by the German newspaper Tageszeitung. In his first novel, ‘Theatrical Story’ (2013), the theater stays pars pro toto for society and the readers are confronted with the author’s sharp non-conformist attitudes, social critique and a fine psychological analysis. The novel has already had three editions with rave reviews from respected Russian cultural personalities. To stage the novel in a theater was not easy, the author recalls, as it deals critically with the intervention of the Russian Orthodox Church in secular affairs. Yet, since the very first performance in Moscow in 2015, Solomonov’s ‘Theatrical Story’ has been played to a full house.
I met the celebrated artist this winter in a downtown Tbilisi café. Solomonov was also here two years ago to write his new play depicting Russia’s Stalinist past and its continuing consequences. He received permission to carry out research in the Communist Party Archives in Tbilisi.
“When I was examining the archives, I became terrified at how little value human life had back then, and how in today’s Russia this is repeating itself,” he said. “I cannot understand people who say Stalin is their hero--people who use completely unacceptable calculations: on one hand millions of innocent victims were tortured, enslaved and subjected to violence and humiliation; they lost their dignity, health and lives. On the other hand, there was colossal construction, the war was won and the State became powerful. This logic is diabolical—and we know its author.”
His new play ‘How We Buried Stalin,’ is ready, and is a brilliant piece that makes us both laugh and tremble with horror. The action takes place in a present-day theater in Moscow during a rehearsal for a new play about Stalin’s death. The creative process is interrupted by a “man from the Ministry” who brings a message from the Russian President asking them to change the play: Stalin shall not die, and there must be no amusing scenes in the play.
A drama ensues as the actors, the Director, who also plays Stalin, and the playwright gradually become “Stalinized” and slowly morph into the characters in the drama: violence takes place on stage as espionage and conspiracies emerge and a first prison cell is established. After the play is altered, the author can’t recognize it, and ‘the man from the Ministry’ arrives again to announce that the President will soon stage the play himself.
Solomonov says he intentionally wrote a tragic farce and the main idea was “the criminal plasticity of the human psyche, and how people, in certain conditions, are ready to reproduce the most treacherous practices of the Soviet past. It becomes obvious that the past has not gone away and that it takes possession of the present and even stretches out into the future. This play is about how easily a person becomes a tyrant, and how conveniently the environment allows him to.”
The author admitted he is afraid it won’t be possible to perform his new play in Russia. In recent years, although his homeland has changed a lot and there is no direct censorship except for the official media, you still cannot criticize the government or say anything bad about Stalin. On State television, for example, Stalin and other official rulers cannot be shown as funny, weak or dying. “And, of course, the irrational plays an immense role. There is a superstitious unwillingness by the authorities to be reminded of their mortality, or even of the mortality of their ’distinguished predecessor’. In fact, Stalin is still not completely dead.”
I asked Solomonov why he is not afraid to deal with such a sensitive topic and he responded: “I’m worried about topics that now fall into taboo category: the relationship between individuals and the State; the problems of religious worship, the relationship between the artist and the government; and an endless, almost theatrical hypocrisy in all spheres of life.”
“In every country, a person trying to engage in creative work is in conflict with generally accepted values; however, only in a few countries of the civilized world do you get punished for what you express. This is a very important moment for all contemporary artists in Russia; our words are gaining momentum again and they can have an effect that is impossible in an uncensored state.”
He added, “Today, every artist decides for himself what consequences he or she is ready for. At the same time, there is no total persecution of dissidents in Russia. The situation is tricky: artists must decide for themselves where the red flags are, where the real danger begins.”
Despite all the difficulties Russian artists have been facing due to (self-)censorship, there are still some highlights and breakthroughs in Russia’s cultural life. Ilshat Mukhutdinov, a young theater director from the city of Buinsk, Tatarstan, has dared to perform one of Solomonov’s plays called ‘God’s Grace.’ It won second prize in the 8th Biennale for Dramatic Art in London as the best political and social play, and was performed on March 7 in the Buinsk Drama Theater. The play depicts a kind of “Soviet Union of the future”. Although the characters live in a world of fear, mistrust and denunciation, they long for love, but no relationships come about because no one trusts anyone.
Taking into account all recent tendencies in the current Russian political and social situation, Artur Solomonov says he sees a huge threat to Russia’s future development: “If the number of taboo topics increases and criticism, satire, or even irony are perceived as an “enemy’s invasion,” then we will again find ourselves in the situation Soviet art went through. In the dramatic arts, this was called “the struggle between the good and the best” because nothing could be wrong in a beautiful country. How it all ended for this “beautiful, infallible country,”we all know. So, overall, my goal is to not to leave problems unnamed or unrevealed; otherwise they will develop destructively, even pathologically.”
By Tatjana Montik
Photo by: Robert Vartanov