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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
Štajnbek kao najveći humanitarac prošlog veka, odlazi u Rusiju, sa prijateljem fotografom, neposredno nakon Velikog rata. Odlazi da razbije predrasude, da vidi kako živi prosečan narod, onaj koga se prosečni amerikanac plaši, od kog strepi da će ga napasti i zaratiti sa njim. Tamo, naravno uviđa, da su ljudi mahom svuda isti, da se isto tako i Rusi plaše amerikanaca, i da ne žele nikakav rat, već samo da žive svoj život. Roman završava sa mišlju da su ljudi svuda isti, ima i loših, ali onih dobrih je uvek više i oni na kraju preovladaju. Taj nepresušni i jednostavni optimizam i ljubav prema ljudskom rodu su ono što čine Štajnbeka mojim omiljenim stranim piscem.
Takođe, baš mi se dopalo to što je i tada, kao i sada, Gruzija bila savršena zemlja, sa divnim ljudima, prelepom prirodom i najukusnijom hranom i vinom, dragulj Sovjetskog Saveza.
Takođe, baš mi se dopalo to što je i tada, kao i sada, Gruzija bila savršena zemlja, sa divnim ljudima, prelepom prirodom i najukusnijom hranom i vinom, dragulj Sovjetskog Saveza.
I actually really liked this one. It was short, but had some great dry humor that still translates today. In fact, I'll keep some quotes from this one.
My copy only had 212 pages, but still done!
My copy only had 212 pages, but still done!
From 1947, before anyone knew if the Cold War would stick, though relations were tense. They are there for the 800th anniversary of the founding of Moscow:
Coincidentally (or not) I have this week been doing Animal Farm with a class, reading [b:The Tsar of Love and Techno|23995336|The Tsar of Love and Techno|Anthony Marra|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1428086934s/23995336.jpg|43596056], and listening to the TMS lectures on the Cold War, and this all nestles together satisfactorily. The Russian Journal incidentally would make good supplementary reading to support a study of Animal Farm. I'm giving my class this:
Steinbeck and Capa eat and drink their way around Moscow, Kiev, some collective farms, Stalingrad and Georgia, apparently suffering only from the opposite of starvation in Ukraine and some springless vehicles. They are particularly appreciative of Georgia; Stalingrad is the most grueling, with people still living underground (and emerging spotless, or feral) and a fly problem. The tone is lovely: arguably naive, hopeful if apprehensive, warm but unsentimental towards the people "who are like all other people", mocking (principally of Capa and their minder, Chmarsky the Chmarxist) and humane. Steinbeck, in other words.
Coincidentally (or not) I have this week been doing Animal Farm with a class, reading [b:The Tsar of Love and Techno|23995336|The Tsar of Love and Techno|Anthony Marra|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1428086934s/23995336.jpg|43596056], and listening to the TMS lectures on the Cold War, and this all nestles together satisfactorily. The Russian Journal incidentally would make good supplementary reading to support a study of Animal Farm. I'm giving my class this:
Being the guests of Voks, we walked through the public waiting-room and into a side room where there was a dining table, some couches, and comfortable chairs. And there, under the stern eye of a painted Stalin, we drank strong tea until our plane was called.
In the large oil portrait of Stalin on the wall, he was dressed in military uniform and wearing all his decorations, and they are very many. At his throat the Gold Star, which is the highest decoration of Soviet Socialist Labor. On his left breast, highest up, the most coveted award of all, the Gold Star of a Hero of the Soviet Union, which corresponds to our Congressional Medal of Honor. Below that, a row of campaign medals, which indicate what actions he has been in. And on his right breast, a number of gold and red enamel stars. Instead of theater ribbons such as our troops wear, a medal is issued for each great engagement of the Soviet Army: Stalingrad, Moscow, Rostov, and so forth, and Stalin wears them all. As marshal of the Soviet armies he directed them all.
Here we may as well discuss something which bothers most Americans. Nothing in the Soviet Union goes on outside the vision of the plaster, bronze, painted, or embroidered eye of Stalin. His portrait hangs not only in every museum, but in every room of every museum. His statue marches in front of all public buildings. His bust is in front of all airports, railroad stations, bus stations. His bust is also in all schoolrooms, and his portrait is often directly behind his bust. In parks he sits on a plaster bench, discussing problems with Lenin. His picture in needlework is undertaken by the students of schools. The stores sell millions and millions of his face, and every house has at least one picture of him. Surely the painting and modeling, the casting, the forging, and the embroidering of Stalin must be one of the great industries of the Soviet Union. He is everywhere, he sees everything.
To Americans, with their fear and hatred of power invested in one man, and of perpetuation of power, this is a frightening thing and a distasteful one. At public celebrations the pictures of Stalin outgrow every bound of reason. They may be eight stories high and fifty feet wide. Every public building carries monster portraits of him.
We spoke of this to a number of Russians and had several answers. One was that the Russian people had been used to pictures of the czar and the czar’s family, and when the czar was removed they needed something to substitute for him. Another was that the icon is a Russian habit of mind, and this was a kind of an icon. A third, that the Russians love Stalin so much that they want him ever present. A fourth, that Stalin himself does not like this and has asked that it be discontinued. But it seemed to us that Stalin’s dislike for anything else causes its removal, but this is on the increase. Whatever the reason is, one spends no moment except under the smiling, or pensive, or stern eye of Stalin. It is one of those things an American is incapable of understanding emotionally. There are other pictures and other statues too. And one can tell approximately what the succession is by the size of the photographs and portraits of other leaders in relation to Stalin. Thus in 1936, the second largest picture to Stalin’s was of Voroshilov, and now the second largest picture is invariably Molotov.
Steinbeck and Capa eat and drink their way around Moscow, Kiev, some collective farms, Stalingrad and Georgia, apparently suffering only from the opposite of starvation in Ukraine and some springless vehicles. They are particularly appreciative of Georgia; Stalingrad is the most grueling, with people still living underground (and emerging spotless, or feral) and a fly problem. The tone is lovely: arguably naive, hopeful if apprehensive, warm but unsentimental towards the people "who are like all other people", mocking (principally of Capa and their minder, Chmarsky the Chmarxist) and humane. Steinbeck, in other words.
The first time I read Steinbeck, really read Steinbeck, and not yawned in my English Literature class during The Pearl, I was generously offered culture in a teacher’s small office in University. He handed me Cannery Row and it changed the way I looked at everything from then on. I too wanted to live a simple life amongst big characters, I too wanted to experience friendship the way Steinbeck tells of it. For some reason when I’m asked the question, “who is your favourite writer,” his name is the one that casually comes to mind, even though it’s a false presumption; it’s simply impossible to have just one favourite writer. A Russian Journal is different from Cannery Row but Steinbeck is still there, soaking his bad knee in a hot bath, asking people questions about their worlds, poking and prodding into all the similarities that bring humans together despite race, age, and economical status. He writes the way a warm cup of tea feels in the pit of your stomach when you feel cold and desperate. In A Russian Journal we leave for the Soviet Union during the Cold War with Steinbeck and Robert Capa - Steinbeck to write about the world they experience and the frustration of travelling to and around an unfamiliar country and Capa to anxiously take photographs that never seem to satisfy him but which later prove to be more storytelling than you’ve prepared for. Their aim was to get to know the Russian people and hear them talk about their lives and where they came from. Their quest had little to do with the war and more to do with the everyday life of ordinary Russian folk. The Soviet Union must have made its impression on the men because they returned from their travels with full, high Russian-folk spirits, a Stalin-replete mental atmosphere and vodka that their stomachs couldn’t stomach anymore. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book about people where the main course of action was eating and drinking all the time but that was the Russian world when they got to it, a world of joy and community despite the war ruins in the backdrop, despite the silly foreigners asking ridiculous questions and pointing a lens at a world they will barely begin to understand with their elementary and careless attempts. The Russians are people made for the misery of the world because they’re probably one of the few who are able to take it with a basket of black bread, toasting for peace in the warmth of their simple homes. Think about it: when you’re able to go out dancing after working the skin off your hands, and display a blind yet formidable faith in your government, and to do it with great joy in your heart and love for the night, then wouldn’t you say that you’ve reached the epitome of what it means to be flesh and bone? I don’t know but I’d like to believe it, and Steinbeck certainly helps me with that.
Surprised by how funny this was. I believe it accomplishes it’s goal of portraying the people of the former USSR as human - a realization that must be reckoned with on a daily basis with all groups throughout time. Steinbeck’s empathy is simple and at times naive but refreshing nonetheless. Need to read more of his work.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
funny
informative
lighthearted
slow-paced
adventurous
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
Incredibly enjoyable travel read. An unusual, short period of Soviet and American history covered from Steinbeck's very particular point of view.
during the early years of the Cold War era. Steinbeck and Capa visited Moscow, Kiev, Stalingrad and Soviet Georgia.
.Steinbeck claimed that the main fear held by average Russians was not of Stalin but another World War.
.Steinbeck claimed that the main fear held by average Russians was not of Stalin but another World War.
"With the soft music, the lights, and the peaceful river below, our friends again began to speak of the war, as though it were a haunting thing they could never get very far from. They spoke of the dreadful cold, before Stalingrad, where they had lain in the snow and had not known how it would come out. They spoke of horrible things they could not forget. Of how a man had warmed his hands in the blood of a newly dead friend, so that he could pull the trigger of his gun."