BOOKMARKS verapavlova.us Vera Pavlova’s Official Web site
RUSSIA NOW 05
www.cdi.org/russia/johnson Johnson’s Russia List
www.russiaprofile.org Unwrapping the Mystery Inside the Enigma
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www.nabokov.com Books, Films, Reviews and More About Vladimir Nabokov WWW.RBTH.RU Reflections
REMEMBERING
Bibliophile
VLADIMIR NABOKOV
DRAWING BY DMITRY DIVIN
George Feifer recalls his interview
with Nabokov for the Sunday Tele-
graph in 1976, and dissects his im-
If There Is Something To Desire
pressions of the man and the writer
thirty four years later.
VERA PAVLOVA IS A BEST-SELLING POET IN RUSSIA WHOSE COL-
LECTION, "IF THERE IS SOMETHING TO DESIRE," HAS FINALLY BEEN
GEORGE FEIFER
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY HER HUSBAND. HER COMPACT PO-
SPECIAL TO RUSSIA NOW
EMS CARESS AND ASSUAGE. THEY ALSO BURN, AND BRILLIANTLY.
Here’s a confession about last No-
vember’s publication of Vladimir NORA FITZGERALD tability of certain solitude re-
Nabokov’s “The Original of Laura
RUSSIA NOW
turns, she compares loneliness
(Dying is Fun),” that unexpected lit- to a rapist. “Begged him / Do
erary event. While tempting friends Vera Pavlova's taut, often erot- not fall asleep / But he did, and
who have better taste than mine, it ic poems probe the intensity in the dark of the night loneli-
left me stuck with less appetizing am- of her feelings and murk of her ness took hold of me, like an
bivalence about its supremely idio- interior life with ferocity: “Your incubus / Furious and rough
syncratic author. More than that. Even arms are the sleeves of a strait- was the onslaught of unchaste
if Nabokov’s unfinished last novel jacket / A life vest to stay hands.”
whose existence became known in afloat.” That this poem is di- Pavlova can’t help but beck-
2008 doesn’t add to his reputation, rected at her husband and on the spirit of Anna Akhma-
it’s towering enough to shame me translator, Steven Seymour, tova, whose early collections
for not being among his passionate heightens the intimacy of “If were also about love, jealousy,
fans. There Is Something To Desire,” guilt and torment. Akhmatova,
But might that admission be toler- Pavlova’s first collection of po- an epic beauty in her youth,
ated as a timid tread in the giant’s etry translated into English (Al- wrote poems that were tight,
footsteps? I mean not as a writer but fred A. Knopf). Pavlova is a best- short, and deceptively simple
as a champion disparager of other selling poet in Russia (a bit of in their precise meter. Joseph
writers. That’s not to request equal
DRAWING BY DMITRY DIVIN
an oxymoron in America) and Brodsky’s words about Akhma-
time for myself, which would sug- has an almost cult-like follow- tova apply to Pavlova too: He
gest comparing God’s gift to scram- ing. She is a devastating beau- once wrote that Russians
bled eggs, as I think Russians still say. ty; in interviews, she wears her learned Akhmatova’s poems by
Still, his piercing disdain for much- vulnerability without appear- heart to help them weather the
praised rivals, as he saw them, gives at reception suggested we meet in see journalists? Why did he bother admire, especially “Pnin,” “The De- ing addled. Her talent and drama of their own life and
me the courage to come clean here one of its bars at three o‘clock or so with interviews at all? Because, he re- fense” and the “Lolita” that mixed beauty has been passed on to their own history. This could
about my failure to adore much of and talk for about two hours. He plied, he always had things on his comedy with the angst of loss: nov- two college-aged daughters, be said of Pavlova today. Brod-
his brilliant but precious oeuvre. timed his entry into the elegant room mind that should be made available els that stirred emotion as well as and they have been photo- sky also wrote that Akhmatova
Vladimir Vladimirovich had scant to the moment the appointed hour to readers—which he did, whatever prompted appreciation of their writ- graphed as a trio in the pages wrote poems as if she was av-
compassion for authors he judged began and would leave, almost in questions were asked. As for accept- er’s scintillating gifts. In extended ret- of Russian Elle. On their web- erage, just like everyone else.
less talented than himself. To say, for mid-sentence, when the minute hand ing only written ones and replying rospect, I also now enjoy his playful- site, Seymour appears like a bal- Pavlova’s persistently person-
example, that he panned Aleksandr of my watch ticked to 5 p.m. The the same way, he made the best case ness in person that made that writing, last to sirens. On paper, he is al verse is spoken in the voice
Isaievich when we discussed the lat- host wished me a courteous good- I’ve heard for that precise procedure with its double entendres, skillfully deft, precise, loving and never of everywoman: She invites her
ter doesn’t convey how his lips pursed bye and disappeared. as opposed to conversational free as- obscure references, trompe l’oeils and precious. He has become Pav- readers into her private world,
at what he considered Solzhenitsyn’s Not a minute of our 120 togeth- sociation. If the dream he told his winks to the erudite, too clever for lova’s conduit to the English- at the same time reminding us
historically important but otherwise er so much as hinted at spontane- wife in the morning was but a first my liking then. speaking world. that we are all sensuous crea-
inferior writing. Actually, good words ity. If I had to sum up the behavior draft, he explained, why should he The photographer with whom I At times, we wince with her tures raging against loneliness
about others rarely left those aristo- of the writer, teacher, critic, celeb- subject himself to the vagueness and did my story insisted that our sub- as she revels in self-pity, “You and mortality. She documents
cratic lips. He was even less kind to rity and celebrated collector of but- possible misinterpretation of unre- ject, mistaking me for English be- will step out and get cigarettes her raging for us:
Andrei Sinyavsky and other splendid terflies during my audience with him, hearsed exchange? cause I was writing for a British mag- and realize I have aged / Lord “The voice. The handwriting.
contemporaries, and he dismissed the it would be fastidious. Distant with Nothing unrehearsed. Nothing re- azine, wore tweeds for our interview. what a pitiful, tedious panto- The gait.
likes of Boris Pasternak and Anna perfect, not to say formal, politeness, vealing of anything but professional I still don’t know about that, but on mime.” Other poems suggest Maybe the smell of my
Akhmatova, who wrote some of the he seemed to place as much impor- feelings, let alone of anything inti- my train returning to Geneva, I wised she is composing words while hair.
best Soviet literature, with near con- tance on precision in his person as mate. Although the Soviet officials I up to a few of the verbal tricks he’d still on her back, alone, after That’s all. Go ahead, resur-
tempt. Nor did a few of the great on structure and style in his writing. interviewed during that period would played on me and realized I’d never lovemaking. When the inevi- rect me.”
-
19th-century writers—Turgenev, Dos- The fastidiousness extended to warn- have seemed to have had much more get them all. Was he teasing me
toyevsky, Nekrasov, sometimes Tol- ing editors, soon to include mine, reason to stay buttoned up, they, when he put returning to tennis and
stoy—escape his scorn. A fine young that interviewers twisted one or an- compared to him, fairly spilled over traveling to London to have some
scholar I consulted in preparation for other of his statements, phrases or with emotion. However, his detesta- suits made high in his plans for the
meeting him in 1976 summed it up words, getting him exasperatingly, tion of the U.S.S.R. that showed at coming years? One of my questions
The Expat Files
as “Nabokov rarely spoke well of any- inexcusably, dastardly wrong. What its every mention surely came less was about a statement of his that
one.” compelled him to protest so much from what he saw as the inability of biography can produce no closer
Some of the mighty scorn was ex- about so little? No doubt the same Soviets to keep their lies or their ba- likeness to its subjects than maca-
Hymn to Him
pressed to me those two years after instinct that animated the exquisite nalities to themselves than from fam- bre dolls. Was his answer a warning
Solzhenitsyn’s expulsion from the So- care he took with his words, spoken ily history. His father, a liberal lawyer to my editor and me? “The biogra-
NOWHERE DOES THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES PLAY OUT MORE VIVIDLY
viet Union, when I had a talk with as well as written. and journalist, became a secretary pher is apt to become a macabre
THAN DURING RUSSIA’S DUAL CELEBRATIONS FOR MEN AND WOMEN.
the luminary in question here, who All interviews with him had to begin in the Provisional Government that doll himself if he does not accept,
remained quick-witted and penetrat- with submission of written questions. governed, sort of, between the Feb- meekly and gratefully, to comply several gutsy great aunts and
ing of gaze and opinion at age 77. If he approved them, he’d see the ruary and October Revolutions of with all the desires and indications great-great-grandmothers, who
The venue was the posh Palace Hotel interviewers only after answering in 1917. Two years later, the wealthy, of his still robust subject—or those served, with distinction, in the
that overlooks Lake Geneva from writing too. The answers—published distinguished Nabokovs had to flee of wise lawyers and hawk-eyed Red Army as border patrol
Montreux, where Nabokov, no lon- exactly as written, their copyrights their St. Petersburg mansion and heirs.” The master wanted to remain guards, field medical officers
ger teaching at Cornell University, resting with him—would constitute nearby grand estate. elusive, except to himself. Good for and behind-the-lines guerilla
liked to spend months in a cottage the bulk of the given articles, leaving Thirty-four years after our meeting, him!
-
fighters in Occupied Ukraine.
on its grounds. If his choice of his the give and take of any later chat what do I think of him now, when Nevertheless, Feb. 23 remains
second residence wasn’t at all Rus- with him to no more than fill in with I’m almost the same age as he was George Feifer wrote Message from devoted exclusively to the men
sian, he himself seemed even less so. color and explanations, if needed. then? Somehow, I remember more Moscow in 1968. His latest book is of Russia, who are all obliged
A note in my box when I checked in Why, then, did he take the time to of his work that I did enjoy as well as Breaking Open Japan. DRAWING BY DMITRY DIVIN to defend the Motherland as
part of their mandatory military
JENNIFER EREMEEVA service.
RUSSIA NOW On its current Web site, the
RUSSIAN STUDIES REVIVAL
Russian Consulate in Houston
A friend has just figured out the offers helpful guidance on the
double entendre humor in re- celebration of Men’s Day: On
ferring to my Handsome Rus- this day, it says, the entire mas-
sian Husband as HRH. culine population, from boys to
ON CAMPUS
“You know,” she said, “that old men, receives special greet-
can also stand for His Royal ings and presents. Women have
Highness. Like Prince Wil- a wonderful opportunity to con-
liam.” vey their warmest and kindest
The moniker HRH is eminent- feelings to the loved ones and
A surprising rise in the popularity of effort to perceive them outside the ly applicable to Russian men, to indulge them with sings (sic)
Russian language studies has oc- traditional otherness that Westerners who are all brought up by their of attention and affection.
curred on American college cam- often associate with Russia: the un- mothers believing that they are, Translation women: shop,
puses. Mark Teeter ponders how settling we/they and here/there dis- indeed, royal scions and there- cook, clean. Lather, rinse, re-
we can seize the moment without it tinctions abetted by both baseless ste- fore above plebeian and un- peat.
falling off once again. reotypes (bears in the streets) and manly concerns like housework. HRH, in mufti, is not a force
frustrated shorthand summaries (rid- In Russia, they are still teaching to be reckoned with on the do-
MARK H. TEETER
dle, mystery, enigma). A lot more Home Ec to the girls and Shop mestic front, although he does
THE MOSCOW NEWS American students are making such to the boys, with no reform in open wine bottles, which, along
an effort these days. sight and certainly not regard- with driving a car, is what well-
Russian-American relations have im- The field of Russian studies at U.S. ing the impending gender-spe- brought-up Russian men con-
proved over the past year. Or so said higher education institutions was cific public holidays. In place of sider man’s work. I once begged
Ben Rhodes, President Barack Obama’s largely limited to “brave beginnings one messy, gender-neutral love him to empty the dishwasher.
deputy national security adviser, in a [by] a few isolated Slavic scholars” fest on Feb. 14, Russians are He sighed deeply, went to the
recent foreign policy briefing. Rho- before World War II, when the U.S.- suiting up for the very separate sink and stood, his back to
des believes the United States now Soviet alliance triggered a sudden Men’s Day (Feb. 23) and its me.
enjoys “constructive working relations need for intensive Russian language companion, International Wom- “Darling,” I said quietly.
with Russia” after a period of and area studies courses. By 1946, en’s Day (March 8). “What,” he barked, turning
DRAWING BY DMITRY DIVIN
“drift,” Itar-Tass reported. some 190 U.S. colleges offered Rus- I’m a Russian historian, so I around to glare at me.
This is basically correct, although sian, just in time for the onset of the like to delve into the origin of “Just that, the dishwasher,
for “drift” others might have used a Cold War to put a serious damper on And yet, lo and behold: Last month sponsible for this recent surge, the national holidays. Men’s Day has you know, is the appliance on
more graphic term, such as “down things. This downturn was followed the journal Inside Higher Ed reported point now is not to waste it. If Amer- a full and characteristically over- your left.”
the drain.” In any case, Americans can by another mighty upswing after the on a new upsurge in the field. Pro- ican Russian studies can forswear its blown name—The Day of the HRH and Dedushka won’t be
look back over a year of their nation’s Soviet Union’s Sputnik launch in 1957, fessors from an encouragingly broad roller coaster past and consolidate Defenders of the Motherland— emptying anything except a
international conduct without visibly when a panicked U.S. Congress fund- selection of institutions were quoted the new gains—with charismatic and it celebrates the 1918 rout bottle of premium whiskey this
wincing. While relations with Russia ed Russian studies at unprecedented identifying both old and new criteria teaching and more exchanges—then of Kaiser Wilhelm’s forces by the week as we women convey our
are still some ways from the reset so levels; by 1968 nearly 32,000 Amer- to explain a steady rise in enrollment a formidable new wave of American just-that-day-drafted Red Army. warmest and kindest feelings.
hopefully articulated last February, they ican college students were taking Rus- in Russian language and related cours- Russianists may indeed be in the The name eventually morphed I’ve bought HRH a new super
are in any case moving again. sian. es since 2006. making. from Red Army Day, to Day of sonic corkscrew, Babushka (Vel-
America and Russia can now afford But the field slowed down again If careers in intelligence, the mili- At the risk of marvelling at the the Soviet Army and Navy, and vet's grandma, of course) has
some guarded optimism about their with the numbing stagnation that tary, business, philology and the arts obvious, the great diplomats, schol- in 1995, as part of a re-brand- the sweet Sovietskoye Cham-
relationship. For beyond cautious as- marked the Brezhnev era, that is until make traditional sense, other reasons ars and popular practitioners of this ing campaign to drop Red from panskoye warming up in the
surances at the Ben Rhodes level and perestroika and Gorbymania inspired now cited include sports law (“to deal century— the new George Kenn- everything, ended up as Day vegetable steamer and Velvet
the apparent good chemistry between the century’s final Russian studies with Russian hockey players”); ex- ans, James Billingtons, Hedrick of the Defenders of the Moth- is on dishwasher duty, so we
Obama and Medvedev, there is evi- boom in the late 1980s. After that, changes (“I got to go to Russia in Smiths and David Remnicks—are erland. In HRH’s family, we take are all set to indulge our De-
dence emerging from U.S. college alas, over-expansion caught up with high school”); a newly cool Russo- more likely to appear when there the 23rd of February very seri- fenders with the royal attention
campuses that American interest in the discipline: Demand for Russian geekiness (“this video game I play are more opportunities for them to ously indeed, since we are a mil- and affection they deserve.
things Russian is on the rise again— language courses fell off, then flat- has a lot of Russian in it”); and sig- do so. And the sooner they show itary family: HRH and Dedush- But I refuse to sing.
-
and this after not one but two de- lined at many institutions; sections, nificant influence from immigration up, the more assuredly we’ll move ka (my daughter Velvet’s
cades of decline. programs and whole departments (“our neighbors are Russian,” “my toward the real, sustainable, broad- grandpa) both served as offi- Jennifer Eremeeva is a long-time
This is a heartening prospect for a were closed. The field went into a hockey coach is Russian,” “my best based reset that is already several cers in the Red Army, as did resident of Moscow, about which
people eternally sensitive to what out- downward “drift” (ring a bell?), from friend is Russian”). decades overdue.
-
great-uncle Boris, and several she blogs at www.rbth.ru/blogs/
siders think of them. Muscovites in- which there did not appear any ob- Good for us, and good for Russia, others, dating right back to that and www.dividingmytime.
side and outside the Kremlin appre- vious salvation: Who needs Russian surely. Whatever admixture of Push- Mark H. Teeter teaches English and Red Letter Day in 1918. Inter- typepad.com. She is currently
ciate it when foreigners make an studies in the 21st century? kin, Putin and Pasha-next-door is re- Russian-U.S. relations in Moscow. estingly, this list also includes working on her first book.
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