Subject
Leighton: Soviet Underground VN (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITORIAL NOTE: The author of the note below, Lauren Leighton, a
well-known Slavist, offers an account of his experiences with a group of
young Leningrad literati in the late 60s and early 70s. Professor
Leighton wrote to Nabokov about his experiences. Nabokov's replies may be
found in his _Selected Letters 1940-1977_, ed. by Dmitri Nabokov and
Matthew Bruccoli, pp. 431-32 (March 14, 1968) and p. 490. July 12, 1972.
Many of the young Russians mentioned are now well-known writers and scholars.
---------------------------------------
In 1966 I was privileged to meet members of the second generation
of Young Leningraders (Molodye leningradtsy). In 1969 they and
others were rounded up by the KGB, two were sent to prison,
others to remote places or to military service. Later, Kostya
Azadovsky was sent to the Kolyma and Misha Meilakh to a camp in
the Urals. Some emigrated in the 1970s and 1980s--Dima Bobyshev,
Efim Slavinsky, Sasha Nakhimovsky, Slava, Lora, and Irina
Paperno. A few remained in Leningrad-Petersburg--Tonya
Slavinskaya, Albin Nekonechny, Misha Meilakh, Kostya Azadovsky,
Yura and Ira Kleiner. Boris Vakhtin and Sergei Dovlatov died.
I used to keep all these and other names secret--I would rather
have cut my tongue out than compromise these friends. Now that
Russia has joined the normal world and Russians get to eat a bale
of hay with the rest of us, it no longer matters. A fictional
essay (vymyshlennyi ocherk) on that literary underground of long
ago can be found in the journal _Descant_, circa '69-'70.
###Naturally, many of the Young Leningraders were Nabokov fans.
Misha Meilakh went to the Urals for possessing Nabokov novels;
Slava Paperno once had the largest collection of Navokoviana in
Russia (see the article he wrote with the late John Hagopian ["Official
and Unofficial Responses to Nabokov in the Soviet Union" in
_The Achievements of Vladimir Nabokov_, ed. George Gibian &
Stephen Jan Parker. Ithaca, 1984]), and also the fictional essay
"Slava Snabokovu" by Larry Gregg in _A Book of Things about Nabokov-, ed.
Carl Proffer, Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1974). Some of
us at a kitchen table once put together a fictional letter to
Nabokov. Later, in the United States, I actually wrote a letter
to Nabokov which was a response to his stated conviction (not
merely hope) that he would someday be read freely by Russians and
be a part of a free Russian literature and an attempt to let him
know that some Russians who were fortunate enough to read him
agreed that he would be freely read in Russian someday. I don't
know how strongly we believed him in those dark, hopeless days,
but, of course, his conviction has proved true.
####I did not venture to take my correspondence with Vera
Nabokov to Russia, but I conveyed it verbally to as many friends
as I could, and it meant a great deal to them. They were
especially touched by her and Nabokov's concern that we take care
about the dangers of Soviet power. It meant much to them, also,
that the Nabokovs appreciated hearing that someone in Russia knew
and cared about them.
####Actually, the advice to take care was beside the point. On
the one hand, we did take care; and "Soviet paranoia" probably
made us more anxious than we had reason to be. On the other hand,
it was hardly a difficult matter for the KGB to know who
associated too freely with foreigners; in 1969 the Young
Leningraders paid dearly for that normal behavior, and they did
later, too.
####From the Nabokovs' point of view, probably, we were young and
dumb, which we probably were. Sometimes it's hard to believe what
it was like in those days, and my students, who now associate
freely with anyone they please in Russia, think I'm talking about
some distant planet. That's to the good, of course. It's better
to live in a world where to read Nabokov is a perfectly normal
thing, rather than one so dark that such behavior is exceptional.
well-known Slavist, offers an account of his experiences with a group of
young Leningrad literati in the late 60s and early 70s. Professor
Leighton wrote to Nabokov about his experiences. Nabokov's replies may be
found in his _Selected Letters 1940-1977_, ed. by Dmitri Nabokov and
Matthew Bruccoli, pp. 431-32 (March 14, 1968) and p. 490. July 12, 1972.
Many of the young Russians mentioned are now well-known writers and scholars.
---------------------------------------
In 1966 I was privileged to meet members of the second generation
of Young Leningraders (Molodye leningradtsy). In 1969 they and
others were rounded up by the KGB, two were sent to prison,
others to remote places or to military service. Later, Kostya
Azadovsky was sent to the Kolyma and Misha Meilakh to a camp in
the Urals. Some emigrated in the 1970s and 1980s--Dima Bobyshev,
Efim Slavinsky, Sasha Nakhimovsky, Slava, Lora, and Irina
Paperno. A few remained in Leningrad-Petersburg--Tonya
Slavinskaya, Albin Nekonechny, Misha Meilakh, Kostya Azadovsky,
Yura and Ira Kleiner. Boris Vakhtin and Sergei Dovlatov died.
I used to keep all these and other names secret--I would rather
have cut my tongue out than compromise these friends. Now that
Russia has joined the normal world and Russians get to eat a bale
of hay with the rest of us, it no longer matters. A fictional
essay (vymyshlennyi ocherk) on that literary underground of long
ago can be found in the journal _Descant_, circa '69-'70.
###Naturally, many of the Young Leningraders were Nabokov fans.
Misha Meilakh went to the Urals for possessing Nabokov novels;
Slava Paperno once had the largest collection of Navokoviana in
Russia (see the article he wrote with the late John Hagopian ["Official
and Unofficial Responses to Nabokov in the Soviet Union" in
_The Achievements of Vladimir Nabokov_, ed. George Gibian &
Stephen Jan Parker. Ithaca, 1984]), and also the fictional essay
"Slava Snabokovu" by Larry Gregg in _A Book of Things about Nabokov-, ed.
Carl Proffer, Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1974). Some of
us at a kitchen table once put together a fictional letter to
Nabokov. Later, in the United States, I actually wrote a letter
to Nabokov which was a response to his stated conviction (not
merely hope) that he would someday be read freely by Russians and
be a part of a free Russian literature and an attempt to let him
know that some Russians who were fortunate enough to read him
agreed that he would be freely read in Russian someday. I don't
know how strongly we believed him in those dark, hopeless days,
but, of course, his conviction has proved true.
####I did not venture to take my correspondence with Vera
Nabokov to Russia, but I conveyed it verbally to as many friends
as I could, and it meant a great deal to them. They were
especially touched by her and Nabokov's concern that we take care
about the dangers of Soviet power. It meant much to them, also,
that the Nabokovs appreciated hearing that someone in Russia knew
and cared about them.
####Actually, the advice to take care was beside the point. On
the one hand, we did take care; and "Soviet paranoia" probably
made us more anxious than we had reason to be. On the other hand,
it was hardly a difficult matter for the KGB to know who
associated too freely with foreigners; in 1969 the Young
Leningraders paid dearly for that normal behavior, and they did
later, too.
####From the Nabokovs' point of view, probably, we were young and
dumb, which we probably were. Sometimes it's hard to believe what
it was like in those days, and my students, who now associate
freely with anyone they please in Russia, think I'm talking about
some distant planet. That's to the good, of course. It's better
to live in a world where to read Nabokov is a perfectly normal
thing, rather than one so dark that such behavior is exceptional.