Oleg Yefremov, an outstanding actor and theatre producer, Director
of the Chekhov Art Theatre in Moscow, died on May 24 at the age of 73.
His death is an irreplaceable loss to Russian theatre.
Oleg
Yefremov's life and career is inseparable from Moscow's Art Theatre set
up by the great Konstantin Stanislavsky in the early 20-th century. Since
his student years at the Art Theatre's school-studio Yefremov took Stanislavsky's
conception of acting as his personal credo and remained faithful to it
when together with a group of fellow graduates founded Sovremennik during
the so-called ideological thaw of the 1960s. Sovremennik immediately became
one of Russia's most popular theatres.
Talent, conscientiousness, responsibility - these and other qualities
Yefremov undoubtedly possessed were taken into account by a group of veteran
actors, most of them still remembering Stanislavsky, when in 1970 they
offered Oleg Yefremov to become the Art Theatre's Chief Director. Who else
but Yefremov with his respect for traditions, boundless energy and new
ideas could pull the Art Theatre out of stagnation and officialdom, they
asked. He didn't deceive their expectations. Then in 1987 the theatre's
company split and two Art Theatres emerged. Yefremov and his supporters
kept the original stage. Their theatre took the name of Anton Chekhov.
Yefremov's productions of "Uncle Vanya", "Three Sisters",
"The Gull" and other plays by Chekhov are well-known in Russia
and abroad.
Oleg Yefremov led the Chekhov Art Theatre to its centennial anniversary
celebrated last year. He preserved and developed the basic principles of
Stanislavsky's theory. Speaking on the eve of the Art Theatre's centennial
birthday, Oleg Yefremov said:
It's a great mistake to think that Stanislavsky's system is outdated,
because its key principle is infinite development.
Yefremov's artistic career began in 1945 when mankind was celebrating
the end of World War II. Remarkably, his last role in the cinema was the
part of a war veteran in a film devoted to the 55-th anniversary of the
victory over Hitler fascism. Is it a coincidence? May be. But perhaps it's
his last message to us, his legacy to future generations.
THE 95-TH ANNIVERSARY OF
THE BIRTH OF MIKHAIL SHOLOKHOV
By V. Zherdeva
May 24 marked the 95-th anniversary of the birth of Mikhail Sholokhov,
the author of the famous epic novel "And Quiet Flows The Don"
that won him a Nobel Literature Prize. The novel, published by installments
from 1928 through 1939, was a real sensation. 60 years later it still remains
one of the crown pearls of the 20-th century Russian literature.
The
dramatic story about the life of a Don Cossack, Grigory Melikhov, was translated
into dozens of languages. In the 1960s Sergei Gerasimov's screen adaptation
of "And Quiet Flows The Don" literally shocked viewers.
In Soviet times Sholokhov's works - "And Quite Flows The Don",
"Virgin Soil Upturned", "Tales of the Don" and "Man's
Destiny" - were studied in schools. Textbooks on portrayed him as
a great Soviet writer patronizing young talents. With the beginning of
"perestroika" in the late 80s there appeared lots of publications
questioning Sholokhov's authorship of "And Quite Flows The Don"
and accusing him of political time-serving.
Says Natalia Vygon, an expert in the 20-th century Russian literature:
"Mikhail Sholokhov arouses lively interest among readers and researchers
of his heritage. During "perestroika" debates around the authorship
of "And Quite Flows The Don" caused a flurry of speculation.
Later when rough versions of the disputed novel finally came to light,
an objective, aesthetic approach to Sholokhov prevailed. Written by Sholokhov's
own hand, the rough versions of "And Quiet Flows The Don" put
an end to fierce arguments about its authenticity. Admittedly, the majority
of critics never doubted it. A comparative study of "Tales Of The
Don", Sholokhov's early work that heralded the appearance of a new
rising star on the literary horizon, prove that both "Tales Of The
Don" and "And Quiet Flows The Don" were written by the same
author. They have stylistic and other features in common."
Sholokhov was a true master of the word. His vivid, colourful descriptions
of the life and ways of the Don Cossacks , their centuries-old traditions
mingle with deep reflections on the future of Cossacks and the essence
of life. Combined in one person were a writer, ethnographer, folklorist,
historiographer and philosopher. In a preface to the English translation
of "And Quite Flows The Don" Sholokhov wrote: "I am not
the least confused by the fact that my novel is being perceived as exotic
in Britain. I would be happy if behind the description of the life of Cossacks
alien to Europeans the readers saw the colossal shifts in everyday life
and human psychology brought about by the war and revolution". It
was Sholokhov's super task to investigate the changes taking place in the
depths of mass consciousness. He was notorious for his fierce struggle
against dissidents. But at the same time, he narrated a true story about
the horrible price that had been paid for social changes. Now that ideological
storms around him abated, the humanistic essence and aesthetic value of
his works are becoming strikingly obvious. Photo from the book "M.
Sholokhov" Moscow 1971
MUSEUM COLLECTIONS LOOOTED
IN GROZNY
By S. Andreyeva
200 paintings by European, Russian and Chechen masters - that's all
that was left from two large collections of the Ethnic History Museum and
the Fine Arts Museum in the Chechen capital Grozny. According to the head
of the Moscow-based Grabar restoration center Alexei Vladimirov, what makes
this barbarism particularly appalling is that people destroyed their own
culture. There were few such cases in history. After Johar Dudayev, Chechnya's
first President, came to power, he ordered that all unique artifacts -
ancient silverware, weaponry, jeweler - be transferred from the Ethnic
History Museum to the republic's National Bank. On its way to the bank
the collection strangely disappeared.
Says Alexei Vladimirov: "The Ethnic History Museum has been mercilessly
looted. Up to now the destiny of archeological finds dating from the 7-th
century, remains unclear. Now we have practically nothing featuring that
period of the Chechen culture. By preliminary estimates around 30 thousand
items have disappeared."
The same unhappy lot befell the Fine Arts Museum in Grozny. 200 canvasses
- all that remained from the museum's collection of 3 thousand paintings
- arrived at the Grabar restoration center in a terrible condition. Under
the Dudayev and later Maskhadov regimes there was a specific attitude to
pictorial arts. "The depiction of human beings is prohibited by Islam",
Vladimirov explains. "That's why paintings depicting men and women
suffered worst. Men have their eyes pricked out or shot, and the portraits
of women were badly cut. Some paintings cannot be restored. By now we have
managed to restore 80 canvasses."
In the middle of the 1930s the Soviet government decided to set up
a museum of fine arts in the Chechen-Ingush Republic. The Hermitage and
Russian museums in St.-Petersburg and Moscow's Tretiakov Gallery contributed
paintings and other items related to the North Caucasus. The museum's collection
boasted hundreds of works by Caucasian masters. Now the museum has ceased
to exist. The majority of paintings have vanished without trace. Moscow
restorers are trying to save what has been left. In autumn the restored
paintings from the Grozny Fine Arts Museum will be displayed at the Tretiakov
Gallery.
INTERNATIONAL PEN-CLUB MOSCOW
CONGRESS
On May 22 the international PEN-club began its regular congress in
Moscow. Founded by the British writer John Galsworthy in 1921, the PEN-club
is the only international writers' association in the world that unites
literary personalities from more than 120 countries. It campaigns for free
literature and helps writers suffering persecution. The Russian department,
set up in 1989, owes its appearance to the Andrei Bitov, Fazil Iskander
and Yevgeny Yevtushenko. At the congress carried out under the slogan "Freedom
of Criticism - Criticism of Freedom" Russia will be represented by
well-known writers and poets: Andrei Bitov, Andrei Voznesensky, Victor
Astafiev, Bella Akhmadulina, Victor Yerofeyev and others. Foreign guests
include more than 300 writers, poets and critics from 73 countries, among
them Gunter Grass (Germany), Robert Blay (USA), Jacque Daras (France),
Jean Emanouel Clancier (France), Anna Blandiana (Romania).
Russian writers have accumulated rich experience of a struggle for
the freedom of speech waged during Soviet times. It was not until Gorbachev's
"perestroika" that they finally got it. Writers are no longer
persecuted and sent to jail for ideological reasons. But there are countries
where the freedom of speech is suppressed by authoritarian and military
regimes. The PEN-club has a special committee dealing with persecuted writers.
Its chairman Eugene Shulgin of Sweden described the Moscow congress as
an event of landmark significance aimed to attract attention to the plight
of more than 1000 writers and journalists throughout the world, serving
jail terms for their convictions. Shulgin hopes the time will come when
the committee will have nothing to do .
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