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By Olga Bobrova
"Man and his Environs" is the title of a new major work by the prominent Russian writer Fazil Iskander. Many will find it strange, others will see the wise and ironical side of it. Speaking of the writer's work and personality these days when we mark his 70th birthday, we take this title as a clue to his work.
What kind of people will uphold high moral principles at whatever the cost, who will resist the destructive forces that have broken loose in the 20th century? In Russia we traditionally call such people the intelligensia. According to Fazil Iskander, these are the people "with whom spiritual values are as tangible as material things". Such was the scientist and human-rights activist Andrei Sakharov, such are the writer and public figure Alexander Solzhenitsyn and scholar Dmitry Likhachyov. Certainly, Fazil Iskander belongs with these people too. Saturated with good-natured humour, his novel "Sandro from Chegem" depicts the life of the Abkhaz, a small Caucasian nation the writer himself comes from. Iskander describes this life as he memorized it when a child, as it was reflected in myths, jokes and popular legends, and handed down from generation to generation. The writer Tatiana Tolstaya says with admiration: "Sandro from Chegem" is the last full-blooded book of Russian literature of the outgoing century, the last, though a shattered dream, the last wave of hand from a ship disappearing in the distance."
Fazil Iskander writes poetry and prose. His work can appear as a large three-volume novel or a three-page short-story. Among the many characters he has created there is the folkloric Uncle Sandro, the symbolic characters in the philosophical tale "Rabbits and Boas", the sweet boy Chik, who appeares in many of the stories, or satirical characters in the novel "The Constellation of Kozlotur". Since his debut in 1952 as a student at the Literary Institute in Moscow, the writer has published more than two hundred works. Having lived most of his life in Russia, Iskander is in his element with the Russian language. His work has been often translated into foreign languages and published abroad. This earned him international recognition and many Russian and foreign literary prizes. It's gratifying that literature of classical traditions continues to be highly assessed in the world. As for the writer himself, he has never doubted this. At the opening of his anniversary exhibition at the Russian State Library in Moscow, the writer said: "Nowadays some writers are trying to establish themselves by taking up some new formal trends, say, modernism or postmodernism. These are all vain attempts. In a historical perspective such literature can only hold a reader's attention for one minute because it lacks pshychological truth and depth. The classical writers produced original literature because they had a deep insight into human characters and could reveal the truth about them. The absence of this truth is irreplaceable. The eternal law of art - the joy of recognizing the truth - can never be annulled." Fazil Iskander is confident that one cannot give up these eternal laws of life as obsolete. He believes that "the whole 20th century is an epoch of the crisis of global conscience. And since the humanitarian intelligensia are mostly linked with the idea of conscience, they need it today more than ever before. They are adamant when it comes to moral issues. Individual conscience is the basis of any society. Not the economy. And I believe, governments should be formed of high-class humanitarian intelligensia. Only then will it be able to carry out high-level policies, policies without intrigues but friendly and open-hearted." Some may dismiss these words as naive dreams. But Fazil Iskander is no dreamer. He is a realist and a wise man, too. And he can understand better than many what is wrong with human-beings. He can explain this in an unexpected and ironic way, the way only he can do this. Here is a classical example from his prose: "If you want to make subtle humour your tool, you've got to go to the extreme pessimism, glimpse the dark abyss to make sure there is nothing in it and then slowly come back. The trace left by you as you go back will be real good humour." .
 
 


SEARCHING FOR THE AMBER ROOM

 

By Alexander Vinogradskaya
Lovers of art used to refer to the Amber Chamber as the eighth wonder of the world. More than 50 years ago during World War Two the Chamber disappeared from the Emperor's Palace near St. Petersburg leaving no trace. Continuous efforts to find the priceless relic have produced no results. To this day the fate of the Chamber remains one of the darkest mysteries of the 20th century.
So, what was it that made this treasure of world culture so unique? In the early 18th century the Prussian King Frederick I ordered a cabinet decorated with amber mosaic panels and pictures. His heir, King William I, delighted with the victory of the Russian army over the Swedes at Poltava, gave the amber cabinet to Peter the Great. The Russian Emperor, in his turn, presented 55 giant-soldiers to William I, who was keen on having such soldiers in his guard.
In the mid-18th century the Amber Chamber became a priceless asset to the Palace at Tsarskoye Selo near St. Petersburg. Since then it constantly acquired new amber artworks: vases, cups, mirrors with amber frames, pictures.
In the fall of 1941 in a matter of hours Nazis soldiers dismantled the Chamber and took it to Konigsberg, currently Kaliningrad, on the Baltic Sea, and put it on display for a select public in the city's ancient castle. At the end of the war before retreating the Nazis packed the treasures and hid them in the basement of the castle. Since then this wonder of the world has been shrouded in mystery. The story of its disappearance is so complicated that so far no one has managed to solve its mystery.
For half a century the search for the Amber Chamber has been conducted on the territory of the Baltic countries, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Germany but to no avail. There are a variety of versions as to its disappearance. One says the amber treasures burned in the castle's basement during an air attack on Konigsberg. Another insists that the Chamber lies on the seabed in a sunken ship. Still another version suggests that it is safely hidden. But where? In a bricked-up cellar, in a bunker? On Russian, Polish or German territory? No one has any idea.
The Amber Chamber has long become an apparition, a mirage that continues to attract explorers. One of these, the Muscovite Vadim Mikhailov has been many times to the abandoned cellars of Kaliningrad looking for the treasure. It takes a lot of effort and strength to go through the underground structures. "Under the city's central part there stand German airplanes," Vadim says. "At the end of the war when Konigsberg was blocked by Russian troops, the Germans flooded all the basements. It's very difficult to come closer to them now as they are all covered with water. It was a tele-robot that spotted the airplanes. No one has the precise plan of the premises, which might give us a clue as to how we should work there. All the approaches to the deeper sections of the underground are bricked up and most likely mined. They are very dangerous. I have managed to explore part of the underground Kaliningrad. We examined all of the upper sections and some of the middle part, which is partly mined. Some of the deeper sections are fully blocked up. Some spots, however, can be approached from the surface. We opened secret hatches and broke open the pavements of the city's streets. This allowed us to penetrate deeper inside, where everything is flooded. The greatest mystery lies in the structure of the floodgates. We have no clue to them so far."
It remains to be seen whether this clue is ever found.

 
 
 
 

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