Subject
VN, Oleg Mikhailov, and the Emigre community
Date
Body
EDITOR's NOTE. Swedish Nabokovian Svetlana Polsky continues to send
NABOKV-L clippings from the Russian press -- in this case from _Kulisa_,
the cultural section of Nezavisimaya Gazeta, #11 (June 11, 1999.)
Both items are interesting indications of the ambivalence many Russians
have for VN.
The most curious is critic Oleg Mixailov's "Idol of our Youth. My
perception of VN began to change from a letter from Boris Zaitsev."
Mikhailov has the distinction of being one of the first to write about VN
in the Soviet press. His attitude was "guarded" and set the official tone:
Nabokov was a stylist but a decadent snob who suffered from his
isolation from his native land. Nonetheless, Mikhailov did much to
introduce VN. I confess that I was always curious about Mixailov. How much
of his "position" was political prudence and how much personal -- if the
two can be separated.
His short article in "Kulsia" is most informative. Mixailov was,
his article says, a member of the the sixties generation numbering many
young poets, jazz musicians, and scholars among his friends. One of them,
Leonid Chertkov, who co-authored with O.M. the brief Nabokov entry in the
_Kratkaya literaturnaya Entsiklopedia_ (v. 5 [1968]), was later arrested
for an "anti-Soviet novel and poetry." Oleg Mixailov, thanks to the
relative liberalism of the time, was in correspondence with Parisian
Russian emigres and received from them many emigre editions including
those of Nabokov. In spite of his initial enthusiasm and proselytizing,
he later cooled toward Nabokov under the influence of the emigre writer
Boris Zaitsev, who, like many of the emigres, felt Nabokov was a flashy,
soul-less virtuoso. Zaitsev's negative feelings were reinforced when
Nabokov (no longer Sirin) visited Paris after the publication of LOLITA
and seemed (to some of the emigres) to distance himself from his Russian
past. This attitude among the emigres came to a crescendo with the
publication of Zinaida Shakovskoy's _V poiskax Nabokova_ [In Search of
Nabokov]. She presented an inscribed copy to Mixailov. Reflecting the
emigre views, Mixailov accomplished the rather remarkable feat of
publishing an essay on Nabokov entitled "Vernost'" in the conservative,
nationalist journal _Nash Sovremennik_ in 1974 -- long before public
discussion of Nabokov was permitted.
The entire episode is a curious example of a convergence of the
attitude of the Soviet government that blackballed VN because he was
vocally anti-Communist and the old Parisian emigre literary community
(equally anti-Communist) who felt that Nabokov had abandoned his Russian
heritage (and somehow sullied the national honor).
----------------------
Dr. Polsky'a second clipping is equally instructive. Written by Nina
KHrusheva (!) in New York, and titled "Nabokov pod Steklom" [VN under
glass], it is an account of various VN centennial activities in New
York -- especially the NY Public Library Exhibition. The thing that
catches my eye here is that Ms Khrushcheva's attitude and tone are more
than slightly reminiscent of Zinaida Shakovskoy's and Oleg Mikhailov's.
After 30 years, the image of the "shallow, anti-Russian Nabokov" still
remains strong among both Russians at home and abroad.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
NABOKV-L clippings from the Russian press -- in this case from _Kulisa_,
the cultural section of Nezavisimaya Gazeta, #11 (June 11, 1999.)
Both items are interesting indications of the ambivalence many Russians
have for VN.
The most curious is critic Oleg Mixailov's "Idol of our Youth. My
perception of VN began to change from a letter from Boris Zaitsev."
Mikhailov has the distinction of being one of the first to write about VN
in the Soviet press. His attitude was "guarded" and set the official tone:
Nabokov was a stylist but a decadent snob who suffered from his
isolation from his native land. Nonetheless, Mikhailov did much to
introduce VN. I confess that I was always curious about Mixailov. How much
of his "position" was political prudence and how much personal -- if the
two can be separated.
His short article in "Kulsia" is most informative. Mixailov was,
his article says, a member of the the sixties generation numbering many
young poets, jazz musicians, and scholars among his friends. One of them,
Leonid Chertkov, who co-authored with O.M. the brief Nabokov entry in the
_Kratkaya literaturnaya Entsiklopedia_ (v. 5 [1968]), was later arrested
for an "anti-Soviet novel and poetry." Oleg Mixailov, thanks to the
relative liberalism of the time, was in correspondence with Parisian
Russian emigres and received from them many emigre editions including
those of Nabokov. In spite of his initial enthusiasm and proselytizing,
he later cooled toward Nabokov under the influence of the emigre writer
Boris Zaitsev, who, like many of the emigres, felt Nabokov was a flashy,
soul-less virtuoso. Zaitsev's negative feelings were reinforced when
Nabokov (no longer Sirin) visited Paris after the publication of LOLITA
and seemed (to some of the emigres) to distance himself from his Russian
past. This attitude among the emigres came to a crescendo with the
publication of Zinaida Shakovskoy's _V poiskax Nabokova_ [In Search of
Nabokov]. She presented an inscribed copy to Mixailov. Reflecting the
emigre views, Mixailov accomplished the rather remarkable feat of
publishing an essay on Nabokov entitled "Vernost'" in the conservative,
nationalist journal _Nash Sovremennik_ in 1974 -- long before public
discussion of Nabokov was permitted.
The entire episode is a curious example of a convergence of the
attitude of the Soviet government that blackballed VN because he was
vocally anti-Communist and the old Parisian emigre literary community
(equally anti-Communist) who felt that Nabokov had abandoned his Russian
heritage (and somehow sullied the national honor).
----------------------
Dr. Polsky'a second clipping is equally instructive. Written by Nina
KHrusheva (!) in New York, and titled "Nabokov pod Steklom" [VN under
glass], it is an account of various VN centennial activities in New
York -- especially the NY Public Library Exhibition. The thing that
catches my eye here is that Ms Khrushcheva's attitude and tone are more
than slightly reminiscent of Zinaida Shakovskoy's and Oleg Mikhailov's.
After 30 years, the image of the "shallow, anti-Russian Nabokov" still
remains strong among both Russians at home and abroad.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.