On connaît la musique. La vie culturelle au temps du siège de Leningrad dans La Vie d’un homme inconnu d’Andreï Makine

Abstract

The present article focuses on the representation o f the cultural life during the siege of Leningrad (1941-1944) in Andrei Makine’s eleventh novel. Analysing the portrait of the block ade created by La Vie d’un homme inconnu (2009) in the light of historical works and personal writings, I demonstrate that despite its a pparent wish to contest the official version of the blockade Makine ends up endorsing some of the myths established by Soviet propaganda. He thus emphasises the Leningraders’ heroism, altruism and high level of culture, representing the blokadniki as active defenders of the city rather than helpless victims of both the atrocious conditions imposed by the siege and Stalinist terror. Consequently, alt hough the novel may seem to belong to the canon of historiographic metafiction which systematically questions official historiography an d gives voice to those excluded from making and writing History, a c areful reading of the Franco-Russian author’s eleventh work of fictio n reveals its conservative — not to say reactionary — character, even if La Vie d’un homme inconnu may be challenging another dominant discourse regarding the Soviet Union’s role in World War II, namely that forged in the West.