Russkie evrei v Velikobritanii. Stat'i, publikatsii, memuary i esse by M. Parkhomovsky A. Rogachevskii (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS I35 revisionistbias weakens, ratherthan reinforces,his arguments.For example, the quotations from French Revolutionary songs in Nikolai Miaskovskii's Sixth Symphony are cited merely as evidence of 'common ground' (p. I73) between composers affiliated to the Association for Contemporary Music (ASM) and proletarian composers who regularlyexploited this material.Yet the musical context of these quotations may well suggest a quite different conclusion: they are woven into one of Miaskovskii'smost tragicworks, and followedby a Dies Iraequotation and an old Russianfuneralchant (seeDavid Fanning:'The Soviet Russian Symphony' in Robert Layton, ed., A Companion totheSymphony, London, I993, pp. 295-96). Issues of bias aside, this is still a study that no-one interested in Soviet culture would want to be without. Although most of Edmunds's sources are published, some archivalmaterial mostly unpublishedarticlesand printed music has been used to supplement the considerablebody of information collected from Soviet journals of the I920S and early '30s. It fleshes out informationin the chapterson proletarianmusic in BorisSchwarz'sMusicand MusicalLifeinSoviet Russia, I9I7-Ig8I, enlargededition, (Bloomington,I 983) and Levon Hakobian's recent Musicof theSoviet AgeI9I7-1987 (Stockholm, I998) in fascinatingdetail, and goes some way towardsachieving the author's goal of eliciting admiration for many pioneers of mass culture. Musical examples, though frequentlyinadequatelypresented, are especiallyvaluable, and may well provoke further investigation. One brief citation of VasilievBuglai 's Starinnaia pesniapro bratsa-soldatika ('Old song about a soldier-boy') (p. I83) is enough to indicate cross-fertilization between mass song and mainstream symphonic music: the song's opening went on to become a key theme in the firstmovement of Shostakovich'sFifthSymphony. In spite of occasional authorial asides, this is primarily a solid reference book which avoids a strong narrativeapproach, and it is none the worse for that. It is marred by typographicalerrors- scarcelya page is unaffectedand poor referencing(readersare directed 'above' and 'below' but never to a specific page). A few omissions are likely to be frustrating:Edmunds refers several times to a surveywhich is never named (p. I37) and to the 'circlesof friends' attached to RAPM (Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians) (p. I36) without explaining what these were. But this was researchwaiting to be done, and many scholarswill be gratefulforEdmunds'sintelligentdigestof stillrelativelyobscureRussian sources. Department ofMusic PAULINE FAIRCLOUGH University ofManchester Parkhomovsky, M., and Rogachevskii A. (eds). Russkieevreiv Velikobritanii. Stat'i,publikatsii, memuagy i esse.Russkoe evreistvov zarubezh'e,vol. 2 (7). Russian Jewry Abroad, Jerusalem, 2000. 55I PP. Illustrations. Notes. Indexes. Priceunknown. LIKE its predecessorsin this now substantialseries, Russkie evrei v Velikobritanii packsin a largeamount of information,a good deal ofwhich willbe unfamiliar at least in detail even to scholars with a special interest in the Russian I36 SEER, 8o, I, 2002 emigration. After an introductionby the editors and a forewordby Professor Marc Raeff, the body of the book is divided into seven sections, devoted successively to 'The First Among Equals', history, literature, journalism, memoirsand essays,scholarship,and art;togethertherearethirty-threeitems. The title of the first section refers above all to Sir Isaiah Berlin; besides an essay on him by Henrietta Mondry it includes one by him on Aleksandrand Salomeia Halpern. The other firsts among equals ('First'is a plural in the Russian title)are the Pasternaksisters,the subjectof two essays,one by Nikita Lobanov-Rostovskiiand the other by Evgenii Pasternak.The historysection begins with Boris Frumkinon Aron Liberman (I845-I880), the pioneering Jewish Socialist.Then comesAron Cherniakon ChaimWeitzmanin England, the years concerned being I904- I9 I8 and again during World War Two. AfterWeitzmancomes V. E. Zhabotinskii,whose Londonyears(I 915- I8 and I934-40) are discussed by Era Mazovetskaia and Tat'iana Gruz. Mariia Lobytsynaconcludes this section with an essay on Ivan Maiskii and Maksim Litvinov;both of them were in the London political emigrationbefore I9 I7, and Maiskiilaterreturnedas Soviet ambassador.The literaturesection opens with an essay on S. S. Kotelianskii by Ol'ga Kaznina, and continues with a particularlywelcome pen portraitof David Magarshakby Andrei Rogachevskii . There is then a survey of Mark Aldanov's views on England (they were banal) by Ekaterina Rogachevskaia, and a rapid survey of Il'ia Erenburg's various visits and predictable responses by Viacheslav Popov. Vadim Kreid fillsa gap in Roger Hagglund'sworkby tellingthe storyof GeorgiiAdamovich in Manchester;how many Russianistsknow that...