Our correspondent Nina Yakhontova talking to the Company's leader Dmitry
Somov
Boris Alexandrov
The
Russian Army Song and Dance Company, one of the leading companies in this
country, has turned 70.
In the West it is reportedly ranked among such Russia's treasures as
the Moscow Kremlin Diamond Collection, the Hermitage, the Tretiakov Art
Gallery and the Bolshoy Theater.
Many regard the Company's choir as the best men's choir in the world.
Dmitry Somov is sharing his professional secrets with us.
"Do you know what a choir is based on? A balanced sound. Here
is a simple but an interesting detail: why a soloist does not want to sing
in a choir? He sings a couple of songs and leaves and a choir combines
dozens of voices, with no one standing out. All must be in perfect harmony.
These traditions are kept by our veterans. Partly this is why we are in
no hurry for them to retire in the face of all commands and calls from
above that the company should be rejuvenated. Go, the authorities would
say, to the celebrated Tamanskaya division where every choir has a leader,
pick out the best. No, it's not our idea of a choir. A choir requires a
continuous and strenuous effort with a careful selection of voices."
The Company had a very modest start in 1928, with 8 uniformed singers
standing in a semicircle on the stage with one bayan player as an accompanist.
After the singers there appeared two dancers and a reader. This small group,
performing soldier folklore, was created by Professor Alexander Alexandrov
of the Moscow Conservatory, hence the name of the 
Company.
Both the Company's founder and his son, Boris Alexandrov, also not only
a choir master but a conductor and composer as well, led the Company as
it grew and developed. After some time the Company began to perform folk
and classical songs and started going on tours abroad. Its first foreign
country was France, where at the World Exhibition in 1937 the group received
Grand-Prix. To date it has toured some 70 countries, and has to its credit
two thousand numbers in the repertoire and some 200 top-class performers.
But what are these people? Servicemen with artistic skills or professional
artists clad in military uniforms? Colonel Somov, who also plays the piano,
violin and accordion, says they do no exclude the possibility of inviting
a local Caruso from an amateur group in some military unit, but as a rule
their artists must have a higher musical or choreographic education. But
then, where does the army come in? Emerging as an army group, the Company
has ever since been closely linked with the army, its history and the history
of Russia with its repertoire, with all its biography.
"We have maintained close links with military units," says
Dmitry Somov. "During this artistic season alone we have visited the
military districts in the Trans-Baikal region, the Far East and the Northern
Caucasus, and the Northern Fleet. According to the Company's veterans,
there is not a single unit or military garrison where the Company has not
performed in the past 70 years, no matter if there is a concert hall nearby
or not. The artists are ready to perform in a rural club or even sing in
a canvas tent, and, of course, on a clearing in a forest. And it really
matters little for the artists whether it's a clearing or a luxurious brightly-lit
concert hall: their performance is equally superb everywhere."
During their tours abroad they have received the rapturous applause
from their audiences and enthusiastic comment from the press, and released
millions of records. Recently the company returned from Finland, in October
it goes to France on a tour of two months. By the way, the company's repertoire
includes many works by foreign authors.
What questions do foreign journalists ask most often? Dmitry Somov
says:
"Most often they ask us how we manage after the breakup of the
Soviet Union with all songs about the Communist Party, Lenin and communism
excluded from our repertoire. It's no secret that being a state company,
we contributed to all state ceremonies and holidays which always had some
political message to convey. These questions, however, are asked before
the concert. And then it becomes clear to everyone that we hold our own
in art. Now our repertoire includes more classical music and folk songs.
Recently we have prepared pieces of religious music.
"What remains unchanged in our Company is genuine military discipline,
strict requirements for the appearance and morale of the artists, high
artistic level, and immensely high standards as regards the selection of
new members. All this makes the Company so unique.
"It's no secret that the Company is carrying out an important
task, one can say, on government level. I am now in my sixth year as leader
of the Company and during these years I've talked to presidents of four
countries, several defense ministers and ministers of culture, to parliamentarians
and media people. We represent this country abroad, and this is both a
great honor and responsibility."
"WHEN I RETURN"
80 years since Alexander Galich was born
By Olga Bobrova
Russian poet Alexander Galich is buried in a suburb of Paris, in the
St.Genevieve de Bois cemetery. The inscription on 
his
black tombstone says: "Blessed Are Those Banished for the Sake of
the Truth". October 19 marks 80 years since the dissident poet was
born. His verses and songs were never published in his native country in
his lifetime, but everyone knew them nevertheless. He told the heartfelt
truth about the totalitarian regime openly, without fear. For this he was
banished from Russia in 1974, and died in exile. Alexander Galich died
in Paris in 1977.
His songs were more like recitals to the accompaniment of his guitar.
They were taped only by amateurs, since Galich was not allowed to give
official concerts. He sang semi-illegally - in clubs, in small concert
halls, or simply in the homes of his friends. Nevertheless his concerts
were taped by his fans, and the tapes reached all parts of Russia. His
songs were secretly typewritten and spread among friends and acquaintances.
All this began in the 1960s. Stalin's personality cult had already
been exposed, and people felt greater freedom under the Khruschev government
- the time which will later be referred to as the ideological thaw. However
Khruschev was deposed, and the regime toughened once again. Public life
was under depression. Philosopher Lev Ventsov recalls: "Then something
unusual happened. Our culture began to acquire amateur forms. Friends gathered
in small flats not only to relax, but also to express their feelings. Those
were not political gatherings. They acquired political tinge only because
participants in them exercised their right to cultural freedom." Such
gatherings were where Alexander Galich sang his first songs - satirical
songs about officialdom, dramatic ballads devoted to the memory of outstanding
Russian cultural workers - writer Zoschenko, poet Mandelstam, actor Mihoels
- victimized by the Stalin regime. He sang about ordinary people, about
labour camp prisoners, such as the nameless hero of his song "The
Clouds".
What prompted Galich, a well-known scriptwriter and dramatist well
in his forties, to start awakening public conscience and "make judgement
on himself and on his own errors, on his own cursed and saving lightmindedness?"
This will remain a mystery. However the poet's biography indicates that
his road to dissent had not been easy.
In 1941 Galich, a young actor, performed in a sensational play staged
by a youth studio in Moscow. The performers demonstrated unprecedented
sincerity, freshness and expressiveness.
It was the time of World War II. Galich's health prevented him from
going to the front. But he saw the inside of the war, its truth and blood
when touring hospitals with a team of other actors, giving concerts in
hospital trains for the wounded.
In the 1940s and 1950s Galich wrote his first plays - "lyrical
nonsense", as he described them. At the same time he was the author
of a drama, "The Matrosskaya Prison", whose premiere was to open
the new theatrical studio, which later became the famous "Sovremennik"
theater. However the play was banned after its dress rehearsal. The officials
in charge of the country's culture in those years declared that the hero
of a Soviet play could not be a Jew. They paid little attention to the
fact that the play was about a man whose fate was shared by many Russians,
Ukrainians and people from other ethnic groups, that it reflected what
had happened in the country in the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s.
Now the play has been staged by the theater of Oleg Tabakov, an actor
who was participant in the banned premiere.
In the 1950s and 1960s Galich wrote scripts for various films, which
included a comedy, "Reliable Friends", and "In the Seven
Winds" - one of the best Russian pictures about World War II. It was
a film about human feelings - faithfulness, tenderness, loneliness.
1968 saw an event which frightened the authorities. In Novosibirsk,
the biggest city of Siberia, a festival of bards' songs was held. When
Galich presented his ballad devoted to the memory of Boris Pasternak, the
audience rose, silently expressing solidarity with the author, love for
the outstanding novelist and hatred for those who had harassed him.
Soon Galich was expelled from the unions of Soviet writers and cinematographists.
He was virtually denied the opportunity to earn his living. But he had
no intention of repenting. "I have been deprived of my literary rights,"
Galich wrote in his open letter. "But my obligations - to write songs
and sing them - are still with me."
In 1974 the authorities forced Galich to leave his country. "I
am embarking on the sorrowful road of exile," he wrote in his autobiographical
novel "Dress Rehearsal". "I am leaving the Soviet Union,
but not Russia. My Russia will stay with me forever!" To Galich Russia
meant language and culture. The only thing he took along was a collection
of works by the great Russian 19th-century poet Alexander Pushkin.
Since that his voice could be heard only through the radio station
"Liberty". His friend, novelist Yuri Nagibin, recalls: "Galich
was free to sing his songs and publish his verses; he was recognized and
respected, but no one could say that he was happy. He did not complain,
but there was profound nostalgia in his poems."
In his last radio program presented on December 15, 1977, four days
before his death, Galich sent New Year's greetings to his compatriots.
He said: "Our country is amazingly rich and generous. Its mineral
wealth includes every element of Mendeleyev's Table. Only one element is
lacking - happiness. I wish that someone would add this element - happiness
- to Mendeleyev's Table, because we have the right to be happy."
Galich's wish has not materialized yet. But his other dream has come
true: he - a legend - returned to Russia in his songs and verses .
AN 18th-CENTURY THINKER
AND WRITER WHO WAS ALSO A NATURALIST AND AGRONOMIST OF NO MEAN PARTS
260th birthday of Andrey Bolotov
A contribution from Irina Anisova
The old country estate of Dvorianinovo 120 kilometres south of Moscow
is the birthplace of Andrey Timofeyevich 
Bolotov,
an 18th-century Russian visionary whom professional people as diverse as
writers, historians, journalists, naturalists, agronomists and environmentalists
proudly number in their ranks. They all marked his 260th birthday this
month.
That frugal country squire started to promote the commercial production
of potatoes after decades in which the marvel plant served another decoration
of this country's flower beds.
On top of this memorable exploit, he created Europe's first classification
of the varieties of apple tree. Bolotov's artistic obsession with growing
mature apple trees from seed brought the observation of cross-pollination
by bees sometimes being at the root of new strains. A remarkable discovery
which unfortunately failed to win recognition at the time.
An enthusiast of electricity, Bolotov used home-designed 'electrical
machines' to treat infirmities of all kinds.
A self-taught expert in every field, he generously shared his discoveries
in farming, genetics, physics, chemistry and pharmacology with readers
of contemporary Russian journals where he frequently placed articles signing
them 'a country squire'. He was lightyears ahead of his time, though, and
it's only now that full appreciation of his remarkable work is starting
to emerge.
Amid scenic countryside around his estate, Bolotov became an accomplished
poet as well as an aggressive farming manager. The simplest things nature
served a source of artistic inspiration for him. A birch tree near his
house won a description more fit for a beautiful woman in one of the poems
authored by him.
In a natural extension of this love, there came the art of landscaping
of which Bolotov was a pioneering promoter in this country. After turning
his own estate into an envy of all gentryfolk around Moscow and St Petersburg,
he oversaw work to landscape a public park in Bogoroditzk where later even
members of the imperial family often came to enjoy hedgerow labyrinths
and an elaborate network of cascades and fountains with a grotto in the
hub. The inner walls of that remarkable grotto were lined with sea shells
and, in places, with distorting mirrors which made some the less sophisticated
visitors bow to unrecognized reflections of their own selves. The boulders
the grotto was made of reverberated to laughter that followed.
An attraction thitherto unheard of in what used to be a unspoiled country
of rural simpletons.
Although
a recluse, Bolotov stayed in close touch with what was going on in the
world at large. His memoirs, which reveal a literary gift in the author,
read like a chapter of this country's history in the century that saw Europe
shudder to the convulsions of a great revolution in France.
The leading 18th-century Russian publisher Nikolai Novikov seized on
every opportunity to secure the right to put a Bolotov work in print. Unfortunately,
most of what is contained in the 350 volumes of manuscripts that Bolotov
left behind has never saw light.
Interestingly, Andrey Bolotov was the founder of this country's first
repertoire theatre for children. Many of the productions there followed
plays by the same prolific author, Andrey Bolotov.
The life story of Andrey Bolotov reads like a powerful novel of 18th-century
Russia.
After a backwood boyhood with a widowed mother, he joined the army
as was the requirement for a maturing gentryman's son. Diligence and self-discipline
won him quick promotion and restationing from the Baltic provinces where
he started his military career to the capital St Petersburg. All this despite
his constrained circumstances and lack of contacts among the nobility.
In St Petersburg, where Bolotov started to appear at the imperial court
in his new capacity as an aide to a senior statesman, Count Grigori Orlov
offered him a role in a planned coup to depose Emperor Peter the Third
and install the Emperor's wife Catherine instead. Had Bolotov taken up
the offer, he could have won enviable prominence under Catherine the Great.
But he declined it. Just after emancipation of the Russian nobility was
declared, he left Saint-Petersbourg for the ancestral estate of Dvorianinovo
half-way between Moscow and Tula.
Never in his later years did he regret this choice. In a hinterland
rural environment where a different man would quickly degrade and take
to the bottle, Bolotov led an active and regular life of exercise, study
and work. There he got married, his children were born and grown, his close
friends lived. He spent his happiest decades on the estate, with each of
his talents bearing copious fruit.
The 95 years of Bolotov's life spanned the reigns of 3 Russian Empresses
and 4 Emperors.
Through selfless effort by local enthusiasts of the Bolotov breed,
the estate of Dvorianinovo is undergoing spectacular rebirth after decades
of neglect under Bolshevik rule. The hill-top house has been restored to
its former glory, as has the apple orchard where Bolotov carried out his
remarkable experiments with bees.
There are still trees around that existed in Bolotov's time. A 300-year-old
oak which is an established feature of Dvorianinovo's skyline now grows
in close embrace with a young seedling tree. Local people take this a promise
of continuity to generations to come .
A DOCUMENTARY FILM "CATHERINE
THE GREAT"
A documentary about the life of the outstanding Russian Empress in 13
episodes
As the world prepares to make its entrance into the third millenium,
Russia is living through an unheard-of-before social upheaval which has
once again put the entire future of the Russian people on the line. What
are the values we are going to take with us into the next century? This
depends on many things, including the need to take a new look at our past.
To move forward, we need to reconsider the events that literally reshaped
the course of the European civilisation.
The history of the Russian state knows only two Great Emperors and these
are Peter the First and Catherine the Second.
"Catherine the Great" is a documentary about the life of the
outstanding Russian Empress (1729-1796). The 13-part series brings back
the times of Catherine's majestic reign and her remarkable reforms which,
according to contemporary accounts, amazed the Universe and brought about
an unprecedented upsurge in Russsia's economic and military might.
Following is a brief description of the film: Episode One. "Who
Are You, Empress Catherine?" - about Catherine's enigmatic and controversial
personality and the mysteries of her 34 year-long reign.
Episode Two. "The Cast" - about the royal retinue, the friends
and foes of the great Empress.
Episode Three. "A German Princess Arrives In Russia" - about
the childhood years of the future Russian Empress.
Episode Four. "The Mysteries of the Royal Court" - about Catherine's
unhappy marriage to the Grand Duke Pyotr Fyodorovich, who later succeeded
the throne as Emperor Peter the Third.
Episode Five. "The First Lessons" - Catherine gets involved
in Russian court politics.
Episode Six. "The First Victory" - Catherine wins her first
victory against her ill-wishers.
Episode Seven. "The Coup" - about the events leading up to
the 1762 coup d'etat.
Episode Eight. "Ah! Heavy Art Thou, Crown of Monomakh!" -
about the participants in the July 9th palace coup, about Catherine's friends
and foes, her first months in power and about how they killed Emperor Peter
the Third.
Episode Nine. "Lights and Shadows" - about the problems that
plagued the first months of Catherine's reign.
Episode Ten. "A Baptism of Fire" - about Russia's resounding
land and sea victories against the Turks and during the Crimean War.
Episode Eleven. "Her Secret Husband" - relating Catherine's
relationship with Count Grigory Potemkin, their secret marriage and political
alliance.
Episode Twelve. "Favorites" - about the role the Empress'
lovers played in her life, about their fate and place in the political
life of this country.
Episode Thirteen. "The Undisputed Witnesses of Truth" - shedding
light on the many mysteries hidden in Empress Catherine's archives.
The film's scriptwriter and presenter is historian Vyacheslav Lopatin
whose book "Catherine the Second and Grigory Potemkin. Private Correspondence"
which came out last year shed light on many theretofore-unknown sides of
Catherine's life. The documentary was directed by Grigory Ilgudin whose
feature films "The Dissidents" (1991) and "The Long Night
of Menachem Beilis" (1993) have won prizes at a number of international
film festivals. Featured in this film are nearly 300 portraits of Catherine
the Great, her close associates and other leading 18th century politicians.
Some of these paintings from the Hermitage, The Russian Museum, the Tretyakov
Picture Gallery, the Moscow Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, the State History
Museum, the "Tsarskoye Selo" and "Peterhof" museums,
the Kremlin's Diamond Collection and art depositaries have never been displayed
before.
Each episode runs for 26 minutes. Produced by INTER-ROS Company
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