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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2017
Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of glasnost has resulted in an astounding flood of hitherto forbidden foreign classics. Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm, Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon, Isaac Bashevis Singer's short stories, and James Joyce's Ulysses were all published during 1988-1989, and D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, Saul Bellow's Herzog, and the poetry of Ezra Pound, Chaim Nachum Bialik, and Czeslaw Milosz have all been promised for 1990.' It is as if permission were given, a list of forbidden books were consulted, translations were commissioned, and the books were published. In the case of Joyce, for example, Gorbachev came to power in 1985 and Ulysses was published in 1989. Surely, it would seem, the Russian Ulysses was a child of glasnost.
The interviews upon which the following article is based were carried out in 1978 and 1988 under grants from the International Research and Exchanges Board. I wish to extend my gratitude to V. Golyshev, N. Kiasashvili, M. Korallov, N. Anastas'ev, D. Urnov, S. Khoruzhii, E. Genieva, and the editorial staff of the journal, Inostrannaia literatura, for their assistance.
1 Orwell's 1984 was first published in a translation by V. Nedoshivin in the Moldavian journal, Kodry 9 (1988): 89–120; 10 (1988): 95–123; 11 (1988): 92–119; 12 (1988): 97–126; 1 (1989): 78–120. A translation by V. Golyshev appeared in Novyi mir 2 (1989): 132–172; 3 (1989): 140–189; 4 (1989): 92–130. Animal Farm came out in Literaturnyi Kirgizistan: “Ferma zhivotnykh” 1 (1989): 101–153. Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer appeared in Inostrannaia literatura: “Rasskazy raznykh let” 4 (1989): 3–44. Koestler's Darkness at Noon came out in Neva 7 (1988) and 8 (1988): 108–148; Huxley's Brave New World was published in E. Zamiatin and O. Khaksli, My, O divnyi novyi mir (Moscow, 1989). For publication of Pound, Bellow, Bialik, and Milosz, see Inostrannaia literatura 4 (1989): 256. For Ulysses, see n. 11, below.
2. For more detail on Joyce in the Soviet Union, see Tall, Emily, “James Joyce Returns to the Soviet Union,” James Joyce Quarterly 17 (Summer 1980): 341–358 Google Scholar; idem, “The Joyce Centenary in the Soviet Union: Making Way for Ulysses,” James Joyce Quarterly 21 (Winter 1984): 107–122; idem, “Eisenstein on Joyce: Sergei Eisenstein's Lecture on James Joyce at the State Institute of Cinematography, November, 1934,” James Joyce Quarterly 24 (Winter 1987): 133–142; and idem, “Interview with Nico Kiasashvili, Georgian Translator of Ulysses,” James Joyce Quarterly (Spring 1990). Also, see my dissertation, Emily Tall, “The Soviet Debate on Modernism in Western Literature 1956–1970” (Brown University, 1974); Struve, Gleb, Russian Literature under Lenin and Stalin, 1917–1953 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971, 269–274 Google Scholar; Cornwell, Neil, “Some Russian Attitudes to James Joyce: The 1930s and Since,” Irish Slavonic Studies 5 (1984): 57–82 Google Scholar; and Neil Cornwell, “Odyssey to Glasnost,” Making Sense [Dublin] (September-October 1989); 23–24.
3. For a discussion of Kafka in the Soviet Union, see Tall, Emily, “Who's Afraid of Franz Kafka: Kafka Criticism in the Soviet Union,” Slavic Review 35 (Fall 1976): 484–503 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The quotation from Suchkov in the text was related to me by Khinkis in private conversation in 1978 and the quotations from Khinkis in the text are translated from his two manuscript proposals to Khudozhestvennaia literatura and from private conversation. In all of this article, all quotations and materials not otherwise cited are from private conversations with the major parties in 1978 and 1988.
4. Portret khudozhnika v iunosti, trans. M. P. Boguslovskaia-Bobrova, notes by E. Genieva, in Inostrannaia literatura 10 (1976): 171–198; 11 (1976): 119–174; 12 (1976): 139–182. Genieva was appointed deputy director of the Library of Foreign Literature in late 1989.
5. Dzheims Dzhois, Lirika, trans. G. Kruzhkov and A. Livergant, intra, by E. Genieva, Inostrannaia literatura 2 (1983): 165–170; Dzheims Dzhois, “Stat'i, dnevniki, pis'ma, besedy,” Voprosy literatury 4 (1984): 169–210. For an account of the centennial including a bibliography of Soviet Joyce translations and criticism, see Tall, “Joyce Centenary in the Soviet Union. “
6. The question arises here of the connection between Khudozhestvennaia literatura's decision to offer Khoruzhii a contract and Gorbachev's accession to power. To judge by dates, there does seem to be a connection: Although the publishing house contacted Genieva in late 1984, the actual contract did not come until May 1985, two months after Gorbachev became first secretary of the Communist party. One might argue that by late 1984 Gorbachev's influence was already growing: He had given the keynote speech at a December meeting on ideology and had also met, as head of a Supreme Soviet delegation to England, with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in that same month. (Following that meeting rumors circulated in Moscow that Raisa Gorbachev had told Prime Minister Thatcher that Ulysses would be published.) On the other hand, Khoruzhii warned privately that one must not “exaggerate the correlation between the attitude of Khud. lit. to Ulysses and the situation at the Very Top. It always takes time for the new epoch to start and for the new leader to form and impose his line in things cultural. So I think that for Joyce and his translator there was no big difference between the last months of Chernenko and the first months of the Gorbachev reign. What influenced Khud. lit. was rather its poor situation and prospects at that time, when all the forbidden literature was still forbidden. Indeed, Ulysses was a recognized and legendary classic and by far not as forbidden as, say, Platonov or Grossman or emigre novels, and so was quite a good candidate for repairing their image. “
7. In an interview that I conducted in his office, Urnov, who is considered a russophile in the current ideological debates in the Soviet Union, offered a curious explanation for why Ulysses was banned in the Soviet Union in the 1930s (after ten episodes had already been released): “Although no one will tell you,” he said, the true reason was that “ Ulysses was considered anti-Semitic,” and publication in the 1930s, when the Soviet Union was antifascist, was viewed as a “political mistake.” Thus, it turns out, in this fantastic interpretation, that Ulysses was not published because the Soviet Union was protecting the Jews.
8. Dzheims Dzhois, “Uliss. Glavy iz romana,” Literaturnaia ucheba 1 (January-February 1988): 174–192. A. Livergant published excerpts from “Cyclops” (episode 12) in Voprosy literatury in 1982, but they were buried in the parody section and the word Ulysses did not even appear in the title: Livergant, A., “Dzhois-parodist,” Voprosy literatury 4 (1982): 258–272.Google Scholar
9. E. Genieva, “Odisseia russkogo Ulissa,” Literaturnaia ucheba (January-February 1988): 170–183; Dzhois, “Uliss. Glavy iz romana,” Literaturnaia ucheba 6 (November-December, 1988): 163–184.
10. Dzheims Dzhois, Uliss, trans. Viktor Khinkis and Sergei Khoruzhii, intro. D. S. Likhachev, notes by E. Genieva, Inostrannaia literatura 1 (1989): 140–186, esp. 1–3; 2 (1989): 127–177, esp. 4–6; 3 (1989): 114–166, esp. 7–8; 4 (1989): 103–163, esp. 9–10; 5 (1989): 157–185, esp. 11. Other episodes will follow. T. S. Eliot, “Uliss, poriadok i mif,” trans. Iurii Komov, intro. E. Genieva, Inostrannaia literatura 12 (1988): 226–228. See also Khoruzhii, Sergei, “Kak chitat’ Ulissa,” Inostrannaia Uteratura 1 (1989): 214–217.Google Scholar
11. See “Literaturnyi mir ob Ulisse,” Inostrannaia Uteratura 5 (1989): 225–229. This article consists of excerpts from criticism by Richard Aldington, Valéry Larbaud, Arnold Bennett, and Ezra Pound
12. For interesting accounts of Soviet translations of sexual passages from western literature, see Friedberg, Maurice, A Decade of Euphoria: Western Literature in Post-Stalin Russia, 1954–64 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1977 Google Scholar, and Proffer, Carl, Soviet Criticism of American Literature in the Sixties (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Ardis, 1972)Google Scholar, and idem, The Widows of Russia and Other Writings (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Ardis, 1987). For prerevolutionary censorship, see Choldin, Marianna Tax, A Fence around the Empire: Russian Censorship of Western Ideas under the Tsars (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1985)Google Scholar.
13. “Tema dlia diskussii: Erotika i literatura,” Inostrannaia literatura 5 (1989): 232–242. This issue includes a translation of Lawrence's article, as well as essays by L. Petrushevskaia and I. Poliakov.
14. Likhachev, D. S., “Slovo k chitateliu,” Inostrannaia literatura 1 (1989): 141–142.Google Scholar
15. The Russian translation is based on the controversial new edition of Ulysses: Ulysses: A Critical and Synoptic Edition, 2 vols., prepared by Hans Walter Gabler (New York: Garland, 1984). The word love, which appears in this new edition, does not appear in the 1922 edition, and specialists have argued that it does not belong in the new edition either.
16. Should be 2 February 1922.
17. Should be 1935.
18. Khinkis was mistaken; there is no such article.
19. For a bibliography of Soviet Joyce criticism and translations through 1983, see Tall, “Joyce Centenary in the Soviet Union,” 107–122.
20. Should be 1969.
21. Odysseus, trans. Aloys Skoumal (Prague: Odeon, 1976).
22. The Litfund is a welfare and benevolent organization for members of the Soviet Union of Writers. It organizes trips, runs vacation lodges and bookstores and does other similar tasks.
23. One “author's sheet” is about 65 pages.
24. Should be nos. 1–3 and 9–12.
25. Should be no. 1 (1934) and no. 5 (1935).
26. Zhivoi is a key word in Russian and Soviet aesthetics, in which a true work of art is likened to a living organism as opposed to a mechanical collection of parts.
27. The term khudozhestvennyi means “fulfilling the requirements of art,” one of which is being “alive.”
28. Grossman is the author of the perestroika bestseller Zhizn' i sud'ba. It is written in traditionally realistic style.
29. “Inykh uzh net, a te daleche,” Eugene Onegin, chap. 8, stanza 51.
30. Sergei Aleksandrovich Osherov was born in 1931 and died of cancer around 1979. He received his candidate degree in classics from Moscow State University and later worked as an editor and translator from Latin.
31. Simon Markish (b. 1931), literary critic and translator, son of the Soviet Yiddish poet, Perets Markish, who was murdered by the Soviets in 1952. The younger Markish, who was a good friend of Khinkis, left the Soviet Union in 1970 and now lives in Switzerland.
32. The anticosmopolitan witch hunt of the late 1940s was waged against anyone who was viewed as “excessively” prowestern or who stressed western influences on Russian culture. The west was denounced as decadent and everything Soviet was glorified.
33. The Twentieth Congress of the Soviet Communist party in 1956 at which Khrushchev denounced Stalin.
34. Under Gorbachev zastoinoi has become a catchword for the Brezhnev era.
35. See Tall, “Who's Afraid of Franz Kafka. “
36. Aleksandr Tvardovskii (1910–1971) was a poet and editor of the liberal journal Novyi mir during 1950–1954 and 1958–1970. In his memoirs Liudi, godi, zhizn', Ilya Ehrenburg (1891–1967) introduced new generations to twentieth century Russian and western writers and artists who had long been banned from Soviet publications.
37. Khinkis had been summoned by the KGB after he had proposed an alternative slate for elections to the Union of Writers. He recalled that he had said that the present members were old and needed to have time to write books.
38. Zek stands for the letters z and k and is an abbreviation for zakliuchennyi.