Being Soviet: Identity, Rumour, and Everyday Life Under Stalin 1939-1953 (58 page)

Soviet musicians and artists also deployed the various ‘tactics of the
habitat’ in response to the shifting rhetoric of Official Soviet Identity in this era. Prokofiev’s written response to the 1948 attack on his music accepted the charges of formalism, which ‘must have been caused through contact with certain Western currents’.
^{107
His Classical Sym-}
phony, which was his next major work, was a saccharine pastiche of Mozart-like tunes that perfectly matched up to official requirements. The element of ‘performance’ is so strong within the composition that some observers even wondered whether it was an ironic gesture to his critics.
^{108
Shostakovich also toed the line, making a point of complain-}
ing about ‘tiresome American journalists’ after his 1949 trip to the USA.
^{109
Soviet jazz musicians also learned to ‘perform’ the correct}
sound in this era, purging almost all jazzy tunes from their repertoires.
^{110
Leonid Utesov, eliminated the ‘non-Soviet’ elements in his set, and}

^{104
Inf. RGASPI f. 17, op. 132, d. 160, ll. 47–52.}

^{105
Inf. Ibid., d. 205, l. 26.}

^{106
Krementsov,}
Stalinist Science
, 225–8.

^{107
Let. RGASPI f. 17, op. 125, d. 636, ll. 142–5.}

^108
Werth,
Russia: The Post-War Years
, 373–5.

^{109
Inf. GARF f. R5483, op. 21, d. 111, l. 132–42.}

^{110
Mem. S. Chernov, ‘Istoriia istinnogo dzhaza’,}
Pchela
, 11 (St Petersburg, 1997).

188
Being Soviet

continued to play throughout Stalin’s last years. When Oleg Lund-
strem’s ‘Shanghaitsy’ were arrested following a particularly ‘hot’ perfor- mance at the Moscow Metropol in 1948, they relocated to Kazan. In the slightly more relaxed environment of the provinces, they were able to carry on playing some of their Big Band favourites at the House of Officers. ‘Gulag jazz’ also became a common phenomenon in this period, with artists like Eddie Rosner becoming local favourites amongst officials in far-flung regions such as Kolyma.
^{111
All these performers,}
even Lundstrem who probed the threshold of legitimacy more boldly, adapted their sets and learned to ‘perform post-war Bolshevik’. How- ever, when the opportunity arose they were keen to expand the borders of legitimate Soviet music once again. Only weeks after Stalin died, Utesov launched an attack on the dullness of Soviet music and called for a rehabilitation of the saxophone and Duke Ellington.
¹¹²

However, when the opportunity presented itself, Soviet musicians
did more than simply perform the officially mandated sound. Utesov retained one jazzy piece within his set, the satirical
Song of the Unem-
ployed American, that mocked the decadence of life in the USA. The tune was often requested as many as three times as an encore, and its success demonstrates that the ‘tactic’ of
bricolage
operated even in

Stalin’s last years.
^113
The
Song of the Unemployed American
fused

Utesov’s personal tastes with popular fondness for wartime sounds but
contained it within an officially acceptable format: the result was a carefully choreographed hybrid style. When the crowd repeatedly re- quested the song, they also showed an awareness of the balancing act in process. It was performed, like many acts of
bricolage
, for the audience more than for the Soviet power. The song both performed official rhetoric by satirizing American society, but also engaged in
bricolage
by demonstrating an awareness of the audience’s preferences.

Avoidance and reappropriation were also widespread ‘tactics’ of
engagement amongst Soviet creative figures, like their scientific colleagues. The head of the Composers’ Union, Khrennikov, used his personal authority to protect a whole swathe of music critics who were attacked in the Anti-Cosmopolitan Campaign.
^{114
Soviet artists also deployed the}

^111
Starr,
Red and Hot,
225–8.
^{112
Ibid. 235–6.}

^{113
Chernov, ‘Istoriia istinnogo dzhaza’.}

^{114
K. Tomoff, “Most Respected Comrade ... ”: Patrons, Clients, Brokers and Unof-}
ficial Networks in the Stalinist Music World’,
Contemporary European History
, 11.1 (2002), 60–2.

Subversive Styles? 1945–53
189

‘tactic’ of avoidance to such an extent that there was creative paralysis in
some artistic sectors. A number of writers at
Literatura i Iskusstvo
decided that it was better not to publish at all following Zhdanov’s 1946 attack on
Leningrad
and
Zvezda
. N. Gladkov also concluded that he would ‘not give anything to the theatre since the demands are too high’.
^{115
In 1948 the}

composer V. O. Vitlin admitted he could not see any ‘formalism in the
opera of Muradeli’ and wondered ‘will I also be considered a formalist?’
^{116
This fear of producing unhealthy work was most widespread in cinema.}
Soviet film production was so limited in the late 1940s that the govern- ment had to resort to showing foreign-made movies once again. Party reports blamed lack of organization and quality scenarios, but it is clear that fear of criticism had encouraged the ultimate act of artistic avoidance: producing nothing at all.
¹¹⁷

Some Soviet artists were also able to reappropriate the post-war
ideological campaigns and exploit them for unintended outcomes. Shostakovich deployed the ‘tactic’ of reappropriation exquisitely when he refused an invitation to perform at an American Peace Congress because some of the repertoire suggested by his hosts had been criticized in the 1948 formalism decree. When news of this reached Stalin and Molotov, they personally intervened to reverse certain aspects of the decision and Shostakovich agreed to travel. Shostakovich had reappropriated the Peace Campaigns in order to undermine the campaigns in art or music.
^{118
Lachinov, a member of}
the Russian National Orchestra, also attempted to exploit the oppor- tunities presented by the attack on Muradeli by appealing in March 1948 for greater prominence to be given to traditional instruments and styles such as those he played.
^{119
Alexander Werth also suggests that}
the manner in which Zakharov and others attacked the ‘Big 4’ (Shos- takovich, Prokofiev, Khachaturian, and Shebalin) in 1948 reflected their personal ‘hatred, intrigue and envy’.
¹²⁰

This description of Soviet scientists and artists deploying the ‘little
tactics of the habitat’ has emphasized the strategic nature of this kind of behaviour. However, this is not to suggest that Soviet scientists and

^{115
Sv. RGASPI f. 17, op. 125, d. 459, l. 23.}

^{116
Sv. Ibid., d. 636, l. 167.}

^{117
RGASPI f. 17, op. 132, d. 427, ll. 52, 74–9.}

^{118
Tomoff, ‘Most Respected Comrade . . . ’, 42–4.}

^{119
Let. RGASPI f, 17, op. 125, d. 636, ll. 184–95.}

^120
Werth,
Russia: The Post-War Years
, 362.

190
Being Soviet

artists were entirely immune to the language of Official Soviet Identity.
At least some Soviet scientists understood their work as part of a global contest with foreign researchers. This seems to have been particularly the case amongst those working on the bomb project:

For all who realised the realities of the new atomic era, the creation of our own
atomic weapons, the restoration of equilibrium became a categorical impera- tive. (Al’tschuler)

We believed our work was absolutely necessary as a means of achieving a
balance in the world. (Sakharov)

The security of the country and patriotic duty demanded that we create the
atomic bomb . . . The ancients had a point when they coined the phrase ‘If you want peace, prepare for war’. (Dollenzhal)

Others such as Adamskii spoke in similar terms of the ‘consciousness of
performing a most important patriotic duty ... ’, whilst Kurchatov often signed his memoranda, ‘soldier Kurchatov’.
^{121
The post-war}
Soviet identity, which emphasized the struggle between Soviet and foreign science, provided genuine motivation to at least some Soviet scientists. When they deployed the ‘tactics of the habitat’, Soviet scien- tists and artists were not resisting, or stepping outside of, but rather embedding themselves within the environment of Soviet life. They were experts in Stalin-era living. When the official line on foreign culture and science changed, they fell back upon the tactical skills which had played a role in the development of many of their careers. Those who had only limited experience of Soviet life, such as the residents of the newly acquired western territories, were much more likely to behave untactically and expose themselves as non-natives of the habitat.

Post-war Official Soviet Identity and the wider population

The distinction between the intelligentsia and wider population in the
post-war USSR was by no means total. However, it is clear that many ordinary citizens were not forced to engage in the same kinds of tactical behaviour in response to the early post-war ideological campaigns. Metal workers were not forced to root out Mendel-Morganists from their midst. The new version of Official Soviet Identity had a limited impact on their everyday lives before 1948. However, after 1948, with

^{121
Holloway,}
Stalin and the Bomb
, 204–6.

Subversive Styles? 1945–53
191

the crackdown on jazz, the new wave of films about Russo-Soviet
scientific heroes, and the struggle to eradicate ‘kowtowing’ before the West, the new version of Official Soviet Identity began to have an impact beyond the scientific and artistic elites. Style, taste, and attitudes to American cars, rather than research and repertoire, were the battle- grounds on which these campaigns were fought on a popular level.

The Official Soviet Identity of this period, which asserted that Soviet
civilization was superior to the capitalist West, had a profound influence over the thinking and behaviour of many Soviet citizens. This point was brought home in the unguarded comments of some female Soviet basketball players who visited France during the summer of 1946. The touring team conducted a spontaneous interview with
Elle
maga- zine without their commissar present. The absence of a commissar was no guarantee that the interview contained the women’s unguarded perspectives. However, the substance of the interview was embarrassing enough for
Pravda
to demand that
Elle
publish an apology for falsifying