The Moscow State Yiddish Theater: Jewish Culture on the Soviet Stage by Jeffrey s> Veidlinger (review)

Abstract

336 SEER, 8o, 2, 2002 writer,no longerpartof the currentartisticprocess,who continues to produce texts at a phenomenal rate. GeraldJanecek writes interestinglyon the early conceptualism of Lev Rubinshtein's Programmes of Works. Another writerwho may be a classic outside the current mainstream is the subject of Gregory Freidin's'Transfigurationsof Kitsch Timur Kibirov's Sentiments, which he regardsas a farewellelegy for Soviet civilization.The lastarticlein thissection is Vitaly Chernetsky's'losif Vissarionovich Pushkin,or Sots-Artand the New Russian Poetry'. Here, as elsewhere in the volume, the abundant verse quotationslose considerablyin translation. Part Three, 'Sots-Art and Prose' begins with Mark Lipovetsky'salready familiar 'Vladimir Sorokin's "Theatre of Cruelty"', which begins with an attack on the views of other critics, including the use of the term postmodernism for sots-art by such 'postmodernist "gurus" as Boris Groys, Mikhail Epstein and Aleksandr Genis' (p. I67), noting that 'sots-artists themselves prefer to be regarded as conceptualists' (p. I67). Marina Kanevskayaanalysesa centralworkby a well-knowncomic writerin "'The Diary of a Writerfrom Teplyi Stan": TheBeautifulness ofLifeby Evgenii Popov'. Larisa Rudova offersa thoroughreadingof SashaSokolov'smostrecent (last?)novel, 'Reading Palisandria:Of Menippean Satire and Sots-Art', although this reviewer's name is misspelt on p. 21 I. The final article, by Gerald McCausland , 'Viktor Pelevin and the End of Sots-Art' is rather discursive and unfocused. Pelevin himself might well take it equitably, but a spurious bilingualtitle in the article, Chapaev andPustota, reflectsa more generallaxity. Forthe most part, however, thisis an enterprising,stimulatingand thought provoking book, particularly in its first two-thirds. In places it breaks new critical ground and should be of interest to literarytheoreticiansas well as to teachersand studentsof contemporaryRussianliterature. School ofSlavonic andEastEuropean Studies ARNOLD MCMILLIN University College London Veidlinger,Jeffrey. TheMoscowStateYiddish Theater. JewishCulture ontheSoviet Stage. Jewish Literatureand Culture/Indiana-Michigan Seriesin Russian and East European Studies. Indiana University Press,Bloomington, IN, 2000. ix + 356 pp. Illustrations.Notes. Bibliography,Index. [28.50. THE subtitle of this fascinating book aptly describes its contents. As Jeffrey Veidlinger traces the history of Moscow's famous Yiddish language theatre, he simultaneously offers an account of Jewish culture in the Soviet Union from the revolution until the end of the Stalin era. Countering those who believe that the Soviet Union was inherently anti-semitic from the outset, Veidlingerpresentsthe Yiddish StateTheatre as the best example of a vibrant and influential aspect of Soviet cultural life. It was only in the years after World War II, when the Soviet government pushed a chauvinistic Russianbased nationalism,thatJewish culturein all its aspectswas pushed aside. Veidlinger shows the leaders of the Yiddish Theatre as savvy politicians who knew how to manipulate the Soviet state to serve their own ends. The founding father of the theatre, Aleksandr Granovsky, produced brilliant REVIEWS 337 experimental works in the I920S. Each time the theatre was threatened with extinction, Granovsky made reference to the Soviet Union's reputation abroad. He insisted that by protecting the theatre, the Soviet state protected its reputation as a defender of ethnic minorities. This strategywas extremely effectivewith a governmenteagerforforeignapproval,asVeidlingercontends: '[T]he Moscow State Yiddish Theatre remained the Communists' most valuable show piece with which they could prove to the world that the Soviet Union was free of chauvinismtowardany group' (p. I0 I ). When Granovsky defected in I929, the famous actor Solomon Mikhoels took over the leadershiprole. Mikhoels' artisticand political career formsthe heart of this book. A shrewd negotiator, he made compromises with political orthodoxy while simultaneously maintaining the theatre's artistic integrity. Moreover, Mikhoels was able to inject dissident political meaning into the workshe staged. His famous King Learwas a crypticcritiqueof Stalin, argues Veidlinger. Plays based on Jewish history staged in the I930S subtly evoked Jewish nationalism and could be seen to advocate an autonomous Jewish state. During the Second World War, Mikhoels gained international renown as the leader of the Anti-FascistJewish Committee. In this role, he toured the worldto gainfinancialsupportforthe Soviet Union's recentlyenlargedJewish population. This experience eventually served as Mikhoels's undoing. His Jewish nationalismbecame much more outspoken during the war years, and he was unwilling to curb it when the Soviet Union became increasingly xenophobic at the start of the Cold War. Not only did the Communist...