Caucasian chalk circle performance. "Caucasian Chalk Circle" at the Mayakovsky Theater
History of creation
The play was written only in 1945 in the United States and was first staged there - in 1947 by a student amateur theater in Nordtfields (Minnesota). The original version of the play was published in 1948 in the magazine Sinn und Form. In preparation for the production of “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” at the Berliner Ensemble theater, Brecht significantly revised the play in 1953-1954 - in the final version it was included in the collection “Versuche”, published in 1954 in Berlin.
Characters
- Arkady Chkheidze - singer
- Giorgi Abashvili - governor
- Natella - his wife
- Mikhail is their son
- Gogi - adjutant
- Arsen Kazbeki - fat prince
- Horse messenger from the city
- Niko Mikadze and Mikha Loladze - doctors
- Simon Hahava - soldier
- Grushe Vakhnadze - dishwasher
- Lavrentiy Vakhnadze - Grusha's brother
- Aniko - his wife
- Peasant woman - Grusha's temporary mother-in-law
- David - her son, Grusha's husband
- Azdak - village clerk
- Shalva is a policeman.
- The old fugitive - the Grand Duke
- Collective farmers and collective farm women, servants in the governor's palace and other minor characters
Plot
Stage fate
In terms of the number of productions outside Germany, “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” has become one of B. Brecht’s most popular plays. The production of the play at the Royal Shakespeare Theater in March 1962 was recognized not only by the English but also by the German press as “the best London Brecht.”
An outstanding event in theatrical life was the production of “The Caucasian Chalk Circle”, performed in 1975 by Robert Sturua at the Tbilisi Theater. Shota Rustaveli, with music by Gia Kancheli, the performance brought international fame to the director. According to Georgy Tovstonogov, the success of the performance was due, not least of all, to the fact that the director “trusted the author’s determination of the location of the action.” In Brecht's play, the Caucasus is as much an abstraction as China in The Good Man of Sichuan; the country, Tovstonogov wrote, is called Georgia in the play “only to show that it is far from Germany, which the author was primarily thinking about”; but the Georgian director immersed it in the national flavor, abstract images took on flesh and blood: “It was not Georgia “in general” that emerged, not a fairy-tale country, but a specific environment, setting, atmosphere, and most importantly - specific people. This gave the play additional meaning, and the national temperament of the actors charged it with emotion. The combination of the principles of Brechtian theater with the traditions of Georgian folk art gave a result of such impressive power that it turned out to be a wonderful performance, recognized throughout the world and opening a new, modern path to Brecht.”
Notable productions
- - "Berliner Ensemble". Production by B. Brecht, director M. Weckwerth; artist Carl von Appen; composer Paul Dessau. Roles performed by: Azdak And Chkheidze- Ernst Busch, Grusha- Angelika Hurwitz, governor's wife- Elena Weigel, Prince Kazbeki- Wolf Kaiser. The premiere took place on June 15
- - Theater Frankfurt am Main. Staged by Harry Bukwitz, artist Theo Otto. Roles performed by: Grusha- Käthe Reichel (actress of the Berliner Ensemble theater), Azdak- Hans Ernst Jaeger, prince- Ernswalter Mitulsky, singer- Otto Rouvel. The premiere took place on April 28
- - Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Directed by William Gaskill; The role of Grusha was played by Patsy Byrne.
IN THE USSR
Notes
Links
Categories:
- Literary works alphabetically
- Plays of the 20th century
- Plays in German
- Plays of Germany
- Plays of 1945
- Plays by Bertolt Brecht
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
- Caucasian (Stavropol Territory)
- Prisoner of the Caucasus (Kavos)
See what the “Caucasian chalk circle” is in other dictionaries:
Brecht Bertolt- (Brecht) (1898 1956), German writer, director. In 1933, 47 emigrated. In 1949 he founded the Berliner Ensemble theater. In philosophical satirical plays on modern, historical and mythological subjects: “The Threepenny Opera” (post. 1928, music... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
Brecht, Bertolt- The request for "Brecht" is redirected here; see also other meanings. Bertolt Brecht Bertolt Brecht ... Wikipedia
Epic Theater- “Epic Theater” (German: episches Theater) theater theory playwright and director Bertolt Brecht, who provided significant influence for the development of world dramatic theater. His theory, based on traditions... ... Wikipedia
Theatrical and decorative arts- the art of creating a visual image of a performance (See Performance) through scenery, costumes, lighting, and staging techniques. Development Etc. and. is closely related to the development of Theater, drama, visual arts. … … Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Sturua Robert Robertovich- (b. 1938), Georgian director, National artist USSR (1982). Since 1961 director, since 1979 chief director (since 1986 artistic director), since 1980 and director of the Tbilisi Drama Theater. Rustaveli. Among the productions: “Caucasian Cretaceous... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
Sturua, Robert Robertovich- Wikipedia has articles about other people with the same surname, see Sturua. Robert Sturua cargo. რობერტ სტურუა Birth name: Robert Robertovich ... Wikipedia
There are performances that seem not to be performances at all, but a completely real emotional experience of someone else’s life, with a complete disconnection of you from today’s reality and complete involvement in the events that are happening off stage.
That's how "Caucasian chalk circle" on the stage Theater named after Mayakovsky(premiered in April 2016).
The author of the play is Bertolt Brecht - a German playwright, poet, prose writer, theater figure, art theorist, founder of the Berliner Ensemble theater!
The play “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” (German: Der kaukasische Kreidekreis) was written in 1945! And in 1954 it was staged by Brecht in the famous drama theater Berlin "Berliner Ensemble", at the same time the music for the play was written by composer Paul Dessau, also, as you understand, German.
After the performance, when all your experienced feelings are still seething inside you like the Terek River, it is impossible to believe that Brecht is not Georgian, that he does not have Georgian roots, that he has nothing to do with Georgia at all! In 1975, “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” was staged by Robert Sturua at the Tbilisi Theater. Shota Rustaveli, with the music of Gia Kancheli, became the brightest event in theatrical life. And this is understandable - an outstanding Georgian director, Georgian actors, Georgian composer. And Brecht is German! Then there is only one conclusion left - he is a genius, since only geniuses can so deeply, powerfully, reliably feel and describe a culture so far from him.
Scene– Caucasus.
Time– “feudal Georgia” (for reference: “Georgia was part of the Russian Empire from 1801 to 1917. From the 15th to the 18th centuries, Georgia was fragmented and was located between Muslim Iran (Persia) and Turkey”). But time in the play as such is very arbitrary.
Caucasian chalk circle- this is a circle outlined in chalk on the ground, inside which two women step, who will have to fight for the right of motherhood. This is a fictional symbol of righteous justice; it is unlikely that a similar method of justice existed in Georgia. But so be it - a chalk circle. Chalk. On the ground. Child. And two mothers.
The performance proceeds in an ascending manner, from the note “C” to the note “B”. The chronological chain of events unfolds slowly, in detail, in detail.
Scene One: Noble Child
Scene Two: Flight to the Northern Mountains
Scene Three: In the Northern Mountains
Scene Four: The Judge's Story
Scene Five: Chalk Circle
The scenery in the play is three-tiered, and action can take place on each level.
There is a lot of red in the play. Red dresses are worn by the dishwasher Grusha Vakhnadze and Princess Natella Abashvili. The decorations are red. Red symbolizes fire, blood, and danger; it disturbs and excites.
There is a lot of music in the play. Musical performance. The music, as you remember, was written by a German composer. But she... is Georgian. So passionate, bright, sonorous, it feels like Music has a separate role in this performance. In the orchestra pit there is an ensemble whose musicians are dressed in round Svan felt caps. Saxophone, clarinet, trumpet, accordion, bass guitar, etc. sound.
There are many songs in the play - live vocals. Almost all the characters sing (there are microphones on stage), and not just exchange lines.
There is a lot of love in the play. We are always surprised by a delicate flower breaking through the asphalt in its quest for light. So in our life, the most important, powerful, unforgettable thing is love. And maternal love is generally a category that has no definition. Can it be described in words, measured with anything?
The role of the main character Grusha Vakhnadze (peasant woman, dishwasher) is played by Yulia Solomatina. This role was created for her. Or maybe it’s more true - she created a stunning image of the True Mother. She held, riveted, attracted attention to herself throughout the entire performance - and above all with her boundless spiritual dedication, bursting with sincerity. I would even note that for an actress to get used to a role like that can be dangerous. Because there is no line, no border between the stage image and the real person. There is no actress Solomatina on stage, there is Grushe Vakhnadze (peasant woman, dishwasher) on stage. But for us viewers, witnessing such a generous transformation is happiness.
Sometimes you think, what kind of person is she - she can barely walk, she is being followed, she is trembling from the cold, she is hungry, but she forgets about her own hardships and, first of all, gets food for the child, and a mug of milk costs half of her weekly earnings. In theory, the heroine, under the blows of fate, should cry, well, at least a little. How can we cope without tears in her situation? But Grusha Vakhnadze not only doesn’t cry, she also manages to sing! In this man - small, fragile, seemingly defenseless, there lives a love of such strength that you can bask in it like in the sun.
Yes, leave this child - they will kill you now.
Yes, leave this child - eat yourself.
Yes, leave this child - do not bring shame on your head, you are husbandless, they will throw stones at you.
Come on, leave this child - he’s a stranger! Stranger!
…
I bought the program during intermission and didn’t have time to read the names of the actors. Therefore, when the village clerk Azdak appeared on stage, it was clear from the special concentration of attention and from the quiet hall that the master was playing. Yes it was Igor Kostolevsky! Old Azdak is a very difficult character. He is wise, highly experienced, he has lived a long life and has seen a lot, but this man is far from holy, he is thirsty, dishonest, and cunning. Therefore, no one knows in which direction the wind will blow, on which scale Judge Azdak will add weight.
The chalk circle is his decision.
The chalk circle will determine the one who is the real true mother of little Michael.
I liked it Olga Prokofieva as a mother-in-law. I didn’t recognize her either, and even though I didn’t recognize her, I was impressed by the actor’s passion. In general, all the acting works are wonderful. The only thing that didn’t seem very convincing was the character’s portrayal of the role Daria Poverennova(Natella Abashidze), seemed too superficial, excessive gestures got in the way.
The performance finds such a response in the soul, covers such a wave of empathy that the tears flowing down the cheeks at the end is a completely predictable phenomenon.
The Caucasian chalk circle, you have to see it, you have to listen to it... although no... the most accurate one, I still want it. There are performances in my life that hooked me, made me happy, and amused me, and there are those that “I don’t want to let go of,” those that I will go to again and again, pull and persuade everyone who agrees and those who simply fell into my hands and were unable to escape.
The chalk circle has become such a temptation. It cannot be called simple, light or heavy, but how can you breathe after it? And at the same time, I desperately want to dive back into this fantastic whirlpool of living voices and music, those that are drawn in and hypnotized. They are weaving an ancient fabric, intertwining destinies, souls and putting everything in its place, sometimes illogical, but precisely in its madness absolutely correct.
There is no point in retelling the plot, because Brecht does not tolerate " summary previous episodes." How to retell the parable, I don’t have the talent of Sergei Rubenko, the one whose voice created the fantastic world of Georgia, it seemed that you yourself were there, on the Military Road, in the Northern Mountains, the wind scratches your skin and you don’t know who your friend is, but who is the enemy?
Poor Grusha, how your soul hurts, the image created by Yulia Solomatina not only breaks your heart, you are rushing about, either to save her from herself, or from people, or just rush and walk next to her, at least slightly lighten her difficult burden, get lost with her in a ball around the baby, in order to at least somehow protect him from cold water, because even the sky is crying looking at her heroine. After all, how much madness and love is needed to, in the cycle of war, to give up everything and save a child, an absolute stranger, to turn upside down your whole world, all your hopes, just to warm him and feed him. And then, in a moment, you will laugh, just like in life, from love to hate, from grief to joy one step
Kostolevsky was amazed, it sounds funny, because initially you perceive him as a talented and recognized actor, but he was amazed. For me, he has always been a kind of noble, handsome man of blue blood, a darling and a bon vivant, and then a homeless man came onto the scene. Well, not a homeless person, but a rural alcoholic, a swindler and a scoundrel. The first moments were simply incredible, the brain understands that it is Kostolevsky, but inside everything is dumbfounded, the eyes flutter and the sound is “this tramp? It can’t be... well, it can’t.” His Azdak charmed me, here is a mug, a rogue, who by luck ended up in a well-to-do place, starts by paying bribes to an official in the person of himself, but he is incredibly communicative, even corruption in his person is impossible to condemn, one can only admire.
You can praise for a long time, that’s all you need in this performance to be happy, you can talk about the excellent direction, laconic, but this makes even more vivid scenography. Probably the most honest thing will be this... I was lucky with the place, and this is still modestly said, but the actors had an illusory chance to fight off the crazy woman who was ready to rush onto the stage and fall at their feet :) I don’t know how I restrained myself . So the second time I’m definitely going to drag someone along with me so they can hold me by the scruff of the neck.
How unpredictable our lives are! On Saturday morning, renovations began at our house. My day was scheduled hour by hour. Cooking, cleaning, preparing for the arrival of a team of workers, cleaning again, watching TV. In short, I was going to spend Saturday day rushing between the kitchen and the bathroom being renovated and had already prepared a respirator, but I found myself among the elite and elegant audience and I had to inhale the smell of the backstage)))
Thanks to ketosha and God's providence, I was lucky enough to attend the premiere of the theater that I have loved since my youth.
Theater named after Mayakovsky is simply a constellation of famous actors. Igor Kostolevsky, Evgenia Simonova, Anna Ardova - the list goes on and on.
The play based on Bertolt Brecht's play "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" has already been performed on the stage of this theater. Then Galina Anisimova shone in it as Grusha. Many years have passed and now the young and very talented director Nikita Kobelev has returned this iconic play by Brecht to the stage of the famous theater.
The plot is the parable of King Solomon. This is an eternal dispute between two mothers about who loves the child more. But how new it all sounded!
The road movie genre involves an endless road. To the delightful musical accompaniment of the Round Band quartet, young Grusha (Yulia Solomatina) walks along the Georgian military road and carries someone else’s child in her arms. This baby of “noble origin” was abandoned by his own mother - the widow of the executed governor (Daria Poverennova) and taking custody of him means incurring a lot of trouble. But the girl cannot do otherwise.
On the way to his brother in the mountains, Grusha encounters many obstacles and many different people. Some help her, some are indifferent, and some are hostile. But Grusha can no longer give up little Mikhail. He became her son.
The amazing musical fabric in which the plot is wrapped becomes an independent character of the play. Beautiful music accompanies the entire action of the performance. It is impossible to imagine the story without it. At some stage, musicians become actors and go up on stage.
The ensemble cast is so good that it is difficult to single out just one. Of course, I was waiting for Igor Kostolevsky to appear on stage in the role of Azdak. I knew that it would be an extravaganza, but I didn’t know that it would blow me away so much! Azdak's amazing inner freedom, his irony and ability to see through people are conveyed by the actor so accurately that one can only wonder how, well, how does he manage to do it? What Kostolevsky did is a masterpiece!
Young actress Yulia Solomatina is a rising theater star. Grusha loves her, believes, hopes and, in the end, justice triumphs. The fragile, graceful girl is vulnerable and tender, but she so firmly defends her right to love someone else’s child that it becomes clear that no one can bend Pear! And only love can win.
This is a wonderful, amazing, capacious performance. Paul Dessau's music embellishes the story so much that it is impossible to imagine one without the other.
Director Nikita Kobelev is a real talent. The return to the stage of Bertolt Brecht's epic play was triumphant. Brilliant work by actors and director. Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!
An unusual combination of Bertolt Brecht and the Georgian setting. The play was written in 1946 and initially everything was d.b. take place in an abstract city, but then the author made a “curtsy” to the victorious Georgian Stalin... Overall, I liked the performance, although it lasts more than three hours: the first act is almost two hours. The action progresses gradually, the theme of refugees echoes today's. Brechtian expression fits organically into the Georgian madwoman. And in the scene of Kostolevsky’s trial, you just want to scream along with the actors, screaming one by one and quite appropriately. Songs into the microphone are perceived as pure rap. But this is also woven into the fabric of the story with dignity. Not far from us, in the director’s box, Kostolevsky’s French wife, Consuelo, was sitting, and the actor addressed his remarks directly to her. She chuckled in her bass voice. In general, sparks were flying from the stage. Recommended viewing).
I watched the premiere at the Mayakovsky Theater and thought about the fragility of kindness and its incredible vitality. And also about how, through the performance, it main topic, and the ways and means by which it is revealed in this performance itself, one can feel and understand the personality of the director. It is the personality, and not just his style and handwriting.
Nikita Kobelev staged “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” by B. Brecht in jazz style. The musicians played on the stage (or rather, in a small orchestra pit) for the entire three and a half hours. I sat in the box of the benoir, close to the ramp, and could see their faces perfectly. They didn’t just play, but empathized with what was happening and took an active part in the action. With music, appearance, and gestures they created a magical Georgian atmosphere. And terrible events took place: war, murders, severed heads of opponents, a baby forgotten by his mother saving her life, chases, trials and showdowns. But jazz always brought light, gave hope, softened the severity.
There is a lot of red and black in the play, conveying anxiety and misfortune. The main character, a simple dishwasher, a girl with the wonderful name Grusha (emphasis on the last syllable), in a bright red dress. And this dress, like a huge pulsating heart, sometimes beats in the wind, sometimes hides under a black jacket or a rich bedspread. or even completely fences himself off from everyone with a rough, thick padded jacket. Yes, and at the very beginning of the performance there is an amazing scene - Grusha in his red catches a goose - a huge white sheet, and the dance of these two colors, like a symbol of hope and suffering, sets the mood in the right way. Very cool, although I don’t like this word, but it’s fitting here, in this role Yulia Solomatina. She is a symbol of kindness, mercy and yet happiness.
The first act, two-thirds of the entire performance, is eventful, dynamic, a lot of songs, humor (yes, despite everything, humor is appropriate here!), and wonderful, bright scenes. I would like to mention Konstantin Konstantinov, who plays several roles - and each one is a small masterpiece! And the magnificent Olga Prokofieva, a real Georgian mother and mother-in-law. Perfect fit for the role.
After intermission, the performance turns into a benefit performance for one actor, Igor Kostolevsky. His character is Azdak, a village clerk, who, by the will of fate and his roguish character, becomes a judge. I don’t know how much this corresponds to the will of the director, but Azdak turned out to be a kind of everyone’s favorite, a cunning, sometimes fair, very narcissistic gentleman. Although, of course, I can’t imagine how Igor Matveevich could not be everyone’s favorite.
The performance is led by the Narrator, Sergei Rubeko, with a well-trained voice and luxurious fur coat reminiscent of Chaliapin. He sets the right tone for the entire narrative, appears suddenly, disappears into nowhere, but without a conductor’s baton he skillfully and deftly controls this entire “orchestra”.
The ending disappointed me a bit. A wonderful boy: straw hair, a timid look, a timid gait. Why did they put a sword in his hands and give him mannequins of children to “kill”? And how sadly he stood when two women in red began to pull him in different directions, at Azdak’s command... The chalk circle turned out to be very flat and not accentuated. However, this was the first public showing.
The jazz intonation of the performance, the Georgian accent, the color red, the interesting scenography - the performance turned out to be bright and memorable. And it’s good that on stage, as in a fairy tale, good triumphs over evil. Perhaps in life...
Brecht Berthold
Caucasian chalk circle
Bertolt Brecht
Caucasian chalk circle
In collaboration with R. Berlau
Translation by S. Apt
CHARACTERS
The old peasant is on the right.
Peasant woman on the right.
Young peasant.
A very young worker.
The old peasant is on the left.
Peasant woman on the left.
Woman agronomist.
Young tractor driver.
Wounded soldier.
Other collective farmers and collective farmers.
Representative from the capital.
Arkady Chkheidze - singer.
His musicians are great.
Giorgi Abashvili - governor.
Natella is his wife.
Mikhail is their son.
Gogi is an adjutant.
Arsen Kazbeki is a fat prince.
A horse messenger from the city.
Niko Mikadze |
Mikha Loladze |
Simon Hakhava - soldier.
Grusha Vakhnadze - ship!wash.
Three architects.
Four maids.
Cook.
Servants in the governor's palace.
The men-at-arms and soldiers of the governor and the fat prince.
Beggars and petitioners.
Old peasant selling milk.
Two noble ladies.
Innkeeper.
Worker.
Corporal.
Armor "Cudgel".
Peasant woman.
Three merchants.
Lavrentiy Vakhnadze is Grusha's brother.
Aniko is his wife.
Their employees.
The peasant woman is Grusha's temporary mother-in-law.
David is her son, Grusha's husband.
Guests at the wedding.
Azdak is the village clerk.
Shalva is a policeman.
The old fugitive is the Grand Duke.
Nephew of Arsen Kazbeki.
Extortionist.
The owner of another inn.
Tamara is the owner's daughter-in-law.
Owner's employee.
Poor old peasant woman.
Irakli is her brother-in-law, a bandit.
Three fists.
Ilo Shuboladze |
) lawyers.
Sandro Oboladze |
A very old married couple.
Valley dispute
Destroyed Caucasian village. Among the ruins, collective farmers are sitting in a circle, drinking wine and smoking - delegates from two villages, most of them women and elderly men. There are also several soldiers. A representative came to them from the capital
state commission for economic restoration.
Peasant woman on the left (shows). Over there, in the foothills, we detained three fascist tanks, but the apple orchard had already been destroyed.
The old man is on the right. And our dairy farm! Only ruins remain!
Young tractor driver. It was I who set the farm on fire, comrade.
Representative. Listen now to the protocol. A delegation from the Ashkheti sheep-breeding collective farm arrived in Nuku. When the Nazis were advancing, the collective farm, at the direction of the authorities, drove its herds to the east. Now the collective farm is raising the question of re-evacuation. The delegation familiarized itself with the state of the area and found that the destruction was very great.
The delegates on the right nod affirmatively.
The neighboring fruit-growing collective farm named after Rosa Luxemburg (addressing those sitting on the right) makes a proposal to use the former pastures of the Ashkheti collective farm for fruit growing and viticulture. This land is a valley, the grass there is bad. As a representative of the restoration commission, I propose that both villages decide for themselves whether the Ashkheti collective farm should return here or not.
The old man is on the right. First of all, I once again protest against the strict regulations on speeches. It took us three days and three nights to get here from the Ashkheti collective farm, and now you want to hold a discussion in just half a day!
The wounded soldier is on the left. Comrade, we now do not have many villages, not so many workers and not so much time.
Young tractor driver. All pleasures require a norm. Tobacco is normal, wine is normal, discussion is also normal.
The old man on the right (with a sigh). Damn the fascists! Well, I'll speak to the point. I'll explain why we want to take back our valley. There are many reasons for this, but I will start with the simplest ones. Makine Abakidze, unwrap the cheese.
The peasant woman on the right takes a huge head of cheese from a large basket,
wrapped in a rag. Laughter and applause.
Please, comrades, help yourself.
The old peasant on the left (incredulously). What is this, a means of influence?
The old man on the right (to the laughter of those present). Well, what kind of influence is this, Sourab, the robber. We already know you. You're the kind of person who will take the cheese and take over the valley.
I don't need anything from you, just an honest answer. Do you like this cheese?
Old man on the left. Okay, I'll answer. Yes, I like it.
The old man is on the right. So. (Bitterly.) It's time for me to know that you don't know anything about cheese.
Old man on the left. Why don't I understand this? I'm telling you, I like cheese.
The old man is on the right. Because he can't be liked. Because he is not the same as he was before. Why isn't he like that? Because our sheep like the new grass less than the old one. Cheese is not cheese because grass is not grass. That's the problem. I ask that this be recorded in the protocol.
Old man on the left. Yes, your cheese is excellent.
The old man is on the right. It is not excellent, but at a stretch it is average. No matter what the young people say, the new pasture is no good. I declare that it is impossible to live there. That there is no morning smell there even in the morning.
Some people laugh.
Representative. Don't be angry that they laugh, they understand you. Comrades, why do they love their homeland? Here’s why: the bread tastes better there, the sky is higher, the air is more fragrant, the voices are louder, it’s easier to walk on the ground. Is not it?
The old man is on the right. The valley has been ours from time immemorial.
Soldier on the left. What does "from time immemorial" mean? Nothing can belong “from time immemorial.” When you were young, you belonged not to yourself, but to the princes of Kazbeki.
The old man is on the right. According to the law, the valley is ours.
Young tractor driver. In any case, the laws need to be revised: perhaps they are no longer suitable.
The old man is on the right. And that's what to say. Does it really matter what tree stands near the house where you were born? Or what kind of neighbor you have - does it really matter? We want to return, if only to have you robbers as our neighbors. You can laugh again.
The old man on the left (laughs). Why then can’t you calmly listen to what your neighbor, our agronomist Kato Vakhtangova, has to say about the valley?
"Caucasian chalk circle": tragic fates region*
Evgeniy Rashkovsky
Now we can't find a form of resistance
the current people-phobic, let's say, murder,
without returning to the rediscovery of life through death.
We must rediscover life.
This essay is purely general in nature. It cannot make up for reading historiography and sources, nor traveling around the Caucasus, nor real communication with people, nor contemplation of landscapes, architectural monuments and museum exhibits, nor listening to speech, musical and poetic rhythms.
And yet, I think, without some theoretical “logos”, without attempts at theoretical ordering, any human reality that is somewhat complex and implicated in age-old contradictions is simply not given to our consciousness.
And to start the conversation, let me remind you of the climax episode of Bertolt Brecht’s parable play “The Caucasian Chalk Circle”.
By order of the judge, a chalk circle is drawn around the boy Mikheil Abashvili, the son of the governor killed by the insurgents. And two women who claim motherhood - Natela Abashvili, who abandoned the child at a terrible hour, and the kitchen maid Grusha (sic!) Vakhnadze, who saved, went out and adopted the child at the cost of her good name and almost her own life - are invited to some kind of duel. Everyone should take the baby by the hand: whoever pulls the child out of the circle will be the mother...
You inevitably remember this Brechtian episode when you think about the fate of the current Caucasian region: here every locality, every people is torn apart by the contradictions of geostrategic, economic and raw material needs; ethnic, religious and cultural aspirations; ambitions and passions of leadership self-interest. Moreover, each of the peoples of the region is far from a child, passively waiting for their fate to be decided: each has their own - to one degree or another conscious - interests, passions, phobias and fears. And the main thing is the need to survive. Survive with dignity.
Tensile test
The Caucasian region, the conditional northern borders of which lie between the lower reaches of the Don and Volga, and the southern (again conditionally) along the southern borders of the three Transcaucasian republics, is a complex conglomerate of dissimilar languages, anthropological types, religions, social and political traditions, seething with internal antagonisms . And yet, in the history of the peoples of the region there are many common, cross-cutting themes that allow us to conditionally speak about some cultural-historical (if you like, civilizational) community of peoples within the “chalk circle”.
The general and individual fates of this strange isthmus between the Azov, Black and Caspian seas - on faults. On the faults of tectonic plates, continents, climatic zones, great imperial onslaughts and migration flows throughout human history. On the fault lines of East and West. Outside observers have long been and continue to be amazed by the paradoxes of Caucasian characters: constant internal alertness - and sometimes sudden “releases” of internal tension in outbursts of anger or “fits” of generosity; vulnerability - and amazing resilience, tempered over centuries and millennia; increased intra-community solidarity - and a high ability to contact “strangers” and survive among “strangers”...
The current Caucasus region, like a number of other regions, is like a kind of new version of the Third World, which arose from the ruins of the former Soviet Union.
Since ancient times, the main Caucasian ridge, its spurs and foothills have been a desirable object not only for those who were concerned with the tasks of expansion, enrichment (“golden fleece”) and control, but also for those who sought refuge from stronger rivals. Indeed, in the history of the peoples of the Eurasian continent there was no large-scale empire or any large-scale migration flows that would not have left their direct or indirect imprint on the history, ethno-demographic composition and cultural heritage peoples of the Caucasus region. The history of each of the peoples of the Caucasus is the history of life in extreme situations milestone, in situations of natural, cultural, historical, linguistic and state borders. Borderliness and faultlines are an eco-historical constant in the life of the Caucasian peoples. Life in extreme conditions of nature, history and culture. This constant left an undeniable imprint on the characteristic appearance of any of the Caucasian peoples, which often surprises an observer from the outside. This, I partially repeat what was said above, is a combination of seemingly superhuman patience and increased emotional excitability, prudence and artistic passion, the ability to defend one’s aspirations and interests with enviable courage while sometimes being able to commit rash acts with irreparable consequences, rigidity and plasticity, paternalism and individual entrepreneurship.
However, such seemingly paradoxical features of Caucasian characters, if you look closely at real story many centuries, mark some unconscious or semi-conscious (and again designed for centuries) survival strategy. Survival both in the extreme eco-historical conditions of their own homeland, and in the extreme conditions of centuries-old diasporas, when individuals and groups are required to be able to adapt as much as possible to alien environments, without losing their own identity, remaining - both in their culture, and in existence, and in self-awareness - by ourselves.
The extreme conditions of existence in their own homeland cultivated and consolidated a semi-tribalistic way of life. The autarkic nature and, moreover, the deliberate material insufficiency of the mountain-aul economy determined the special status of the Caucasian settlement as fortress villages, that is organization center labor processes, self-defense, taming neighbors or raids on them, settling internal disputes - economic, subethnic, clan, blood. People have lived for centuries and continue to live in a state of incessant patriarchal mobilization. Of course, there were also strips of land in the region that were blessed for life and agriculture (say, Kakheti or the Kuban or supra-Terver chernozems). But living there was all the more dangerous [v] .
Lack of land, scarcity of resources, climatic severity and general insecurity of the ancestral Caucasian life Since ancient times, forced outcomes have been dictated to the Caucasian peoples - from episodic seasonal migrations and otkhodnichestvo to multimillion-dollar stable migrations and diasporization. A number of tribes of the Western Caucasus (Ubykhs, etc.) were generally forced to leave their historical homeland forever in the second half of the 19th century. But for many peoples, the loss of their historical cradle is equivalent to the loss of their ethnohistorical existence. Behind the diasporization of Greeks, mountain Jews and Armenians is the experience of thousands of years, behind the voluntary or involuntary diasporization of Georgians, Azerbaijanis, mountain peoples, Nogais, Meskhetian Turks, Kalmyks - the experience of the last three or four centuries, and even more so the experience of the tragic twentieth century.
In any case, the history of the 19th-21st centuries revealed the dependence of the entire cultural and historical existence of the majority of the Caucasian peoples on a situation of some kind of bipolarity. On the one hand, semi-archaic existence in ancestral territories (with their permanent disadvantage, dangers, ethnic stripes, the struggle for every piece of land, for every pasture, for access to water sources, to forest lands that are shrinking from century to century, to mountain paths), and on the other hand, the need to integrate plastically into the trade, economic, military, managerial and intellectual structures of the countries of dispersion (Iran, Turkey, Russia, the countries of the Middle East, Europe and America). But this duality, bipolarity of the historical existence of the Caucasian peoples has always been for them both a source of vitality and enormous interethnic, interclan, intragroup and intrapersonal tension. And often a source of new forms of orientation in the world, social and cultural dynamics, non-trivial forms of religious and artistic creativity. So, as one of the current researchers points out, the history of the peoples of the Caucasus, including - I would add - its Russian population, is a history not only of mutual displacement, struggle and rivalry, not only of stable antagonisms stretching through decades and centuries - from blood feuds neighbors to ethnic hostility, but also the history of centuries-old mutual adaptations, centuries-old diffusion of ethnic groups, beliefs, languages, methods of artistic expression, life skills.
However, the factor of a permanent test of rupture remains, alas, immutable in the fate of the peoples of the Caucasian super-ethnic regional (or, if you like, civilizational) community. And in the last two or three centuries, these trials have been aggravated by new, internationalized factors in the struggle for access to the resources of nature, power, information and influence.
Russia
The appearance of a Russian actor in the “Caucasian Chalk Circle” coincides with the formation of the Moscow state in the 15th-17th centuries (contacts of John III with the Crimean Khanate and Taman princes, formal vassalization of a number of Adyghe, and later Nogai and Kalmyk tribes, penetration of the Cossacks into the Don and Terek lands ). However, the real and serious onslaught of Russia on the Caucasus was associated with the Westernization transformations of Peter I, with the formation of the imperial military and administrative apparatus, with the growth of the trade, cultural, technological and demographic potential of the Russian Empire. An indirect factor in strengthening the Russian presence in the Caucasus was the activity of outsiders of the empire - Cossack freemen, weakly controlled from the Center, Old Believers and sectarians, socially unsettled lowlifes, exiled revolutionaries. Following the Great Russians, willingly or unwillingly, representatives of other peoples of Russia were drawn to the region: Ukrainians, Germans, Poles, Ashkenazi Jews, Estonians, etc. All these categories of newcomers, with varying degrees of success, tried to occupy certain positions throughout the 18th and early 20th centuries. socio-ecological niches within the “Caucasian chalk circle”, in one form or another to build their own special relationships with the autochthonous population. Be that as it may, Russia’s historical routes ran through the region not only to the Christian Transcaucasus, which without the Russian presence would have been historically doomed, not only to the Near and Middle East, but also to a significant extent to Central Asia and the Far East. And it is no coincidence that Astrakhan, a city near the northeastern borders of the region, turned out to be one of the first Russian centers of specialized classes in Oriental and Caucasian studies. Armenians—Gregorians and Catholics—played a special role in these studies.
Of course, in macro-historical terms, the onslaught of St. Petersburg Russia on the Caucasus was one of many imperial onslaughts, not the first and not the last in the history of the region. The same struggle for borders, bridgeheads and lands, for mineral resources, for control over international strategic and trade communications - however, with a rather strong ideological, idealistic background: to support and save Transcaucasian Christian co-religionists, to eradicate robbery, hostage and slave trade, to introduce elements of the European civilization into the life of the conquered new subjects of the empire. However, what was (with all the loss of former feudal liberties) salvation for the Christians of Transcaucasia turned out to be great tragedy for a significant part of the aboriginal mountain peoples. The latter had to face the modernized military-political machine of St. Petersburg Russia, forced to fight the local semi-tribalistic freemen using state pressure. On the side of the mountaineers were a habitat that was familiar and easy to resist, despair and thirst for survival, and the religious-charismatic animation of jihad; on Russia’s side is modern military art up to environmental warfare (deforestation), modern methods of bureaucratic administration and resettlement policy, sophisticated methods of manipulating local tribes and princelings. So during the Caucasian wars of the 19th century, the annual death toll on both sides reached tens of thousands. As one of the authoritative historians of Russian culture shows, the romantic aura of the Caucasus and the Caucasian wars faded in the Russian consciousness already somewhere at the end of the 1830s: then came the bloody prose of the struggle for bridgeheads, communications, land, ranks and power, the prose of the struggle for one’s own survival and for the survival of subordinates[x] . The adaptation of Russian life and Russian consciousness to the realities of the subjugated and colonized Caucasus was all the more difficult because Russians (as well as all Europeans of that time) had difficulty comprehending the oriental-clan form of social and in many respects cultural organization of Caucasian societies, which permeated not only mountain societies, but also - in many respects - incomparably more developed societies of the large peoples of Transcaucasia, including Christian ones.
The consequences of the Caucasian wars, which were waged by Tsarist Russia, for the local peoples were ambiguous. For a significant part of the mountain population, these wars meant extermination, displacement from fertile lands, and the forced emigration of half a million people to the Ottoman Empire (“Muhajirism”).
The “Russian” Caucasus of the 19th and early 20th centuries knew many sad historical realities: uncontrolled bureaucratic power, corruption, the dominance of local princelings, their quarrels and intrigues, the same land shortage, echoes of tribalist anarchy, religious strife, clashes on agrarian and ethnic grounds, banditry Abreks. But it would be a complete historical injustice to ignore the enormous ordering and creative role of St. Petersburg Russia in the history of the peoples of the region.
The voluntary or involuntary involvement of representatives of the Caucasian and especially Transcaucasian peoples in the all-Russian, and through it, the all-European cultural circle became an important ordering factor in Caucasian community life. The great Georgian poet Nikoloz Baratashvili (1817-1845), who was by no means alien to national restorationist aspirations, wrote:
Exiles present return
He is doing his homeland a favor.
They rush back with knowledge,
The ice of the North melted with the heart of the South.
Under our sky these seeds
They produce a thousandfold fruit from ten.
Where the sword reigned in the old days,
The hand of civil order is visible.
(Translation by Boris Pasternak) .
Be that as it may, the more than half century of relative stability in the region that followed the Caucasian wars (despite the severity of the then social and ethnic clashes, especially in the period between the revolution of 1905-1907 and the First World War) bore amazing fruits: the beginnings of spontaneous industrialization; development of transport and postal communications; the first steps of modern banking; introduction of intensive and highly profitable agricultural crops; cultivation and development of new lands; implementation modern methods and education and health systems; successes in literature and the arts; some guarantees of property rights; the first stages of the formation of local capital and its entry into the spheres of all-Russian and international trade. The fruits of the early modernization of that time could have (and maybe someday, in the future, will have) long-term consequences for the life of the peoples of the Caucasus region.
The study of the literature and spiritual culture of the peoples of the region from the middle of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century helps to understand the historical circumstance that in the bosom of these peoples (precisely under the influence of Russian and European thought) began to take shape objectively designed, if not for centuries, then, in any case, for many decades ahead, special forms of educational creativity. These forms, based on local traditions (in some cases on the traditions of local Christian churchliness and literature, in others on the traditions of Sufi mysticism, poetry and pedagogy), tried to correlate the modernization challenge historically associated with Russian imperial expansion with general humanistic concepts and with a unique heritage local languages and cultures. Such is the rich heritage of Armenian and Georgian poets, such is the journalism of Ilya Chavchavadze (now canonized by the Georgian Orthodox Church) and the Azerbaijani Mirza Fatali Akhundov, such is the legacy of the Ossetian Kosta Khetagurov and the Chechen Kunta-Khadzhi.
Sometimes, for the current hypercritical and disbelieving mind, the works of Caucasian, Eastern or, say, Latin American enlighteners of the 19th or early 20th centuries may seem beautiful and naive. But I think a broader, philosophical view of history forces us to evaluate the problems of this layer of universal human culture differently. The problem of correlating the great achievements and developments of old cultures with the needs of adaptation to a new, dynamic world and with the needs of understanding people who are different from you - with all the variety of its accents - has been and remains immutable.
The ambiguous and tragic experience of the Russian military-administrative presence in the Caucasus turned out to be one of the serious factors in the creation of Russian culture in the 19th - first quarter of the 20th centuries.
Overcoming the stilted, exotic view of Caucasian reality contributed to the emergence of such pinnacle texts of Russian prose as Pushkin’s “Journey to Arzrum” or Lermontov’s “Hero of Our Time.” Caucasian issues (and the associated themes of admiration, analysis, repentance) seem to frame the entire circle of Leo Tolstoy’s work - from “The Cossacks” to “Hadji Murat”. The aesthetic heritage of the peoples of the Caucasus significantly influenced the Russian avant-garde painting of the early twentieth century. And then, if we jump ahead chronologically, to the entire main path of Russian poetry (Mayakovsky, Pasternak, Mandelstam, Tsvetaeva, Zabolotsky), essentially connected with the previous traditions of noble and common culture.
If we talk about Caucasian influences on the highest forms of Russian cultural creativity, then in the most general way this Caucasian experience could be expressed as follows.
One of the most important tasks of art and, more broadly, of the human spirit itself is to understand and perceive another person, unlike me, in a special, centuries-old context of his life, in his unconditional otherness and at the same time in his inalienable and deep his universal human nature. And this experience is an integral part of my thinking, my worldview, my self-awareness, my personality.
However, the multi-valued period of pan-European and Russian belle é poque the beginning of the twentieth century was short-lived and culminated in a period of world wars and totalitarian dictatorships, which stretched almost throughout the entire twentieth century and transferred many of their inertia to the present century. The literature has said a lot about the patterns of this all-European and all-Russian collapse, largely associated with the mismatch of the then productive forces, intellectual and social aspirations, on the one hand, and with the archaic nature of the structures of consciousness, management and power that had evolved over centuries, on the other.
"Red Wheel"
So, the pan-European collapse of 1914 and subsequent years turned out to be irreparable for the peoples of the region in many respects. Moreover, the region itself turned out to be the focus of the megalomaniacal imperial aspirations of the beginning of the century - pan-Turanism, pan-Germanism, Orthodox pan-Slavism, British and French imperialism, as well as the focus of conflicting local national aspirations, fueled by recent revolutionary events in Russia, Turkey and Iran. Millions of lives were taken by the events of the imperialist and Civil wars and the whole multitude of social and ethnic strife associated with these events, the terror of the subsequent dictatorship, collectivization, the terrible events of the Great Patriotic War and the accompanying deportations - according to the archaic principle of collective responsibility - of peoples objectionable to the Stalinist regime. The deportations were all the more unfair because some of the men from the repressed peoples fought in the ranks Soviet army, and repressions against collaborators fell on innocent people - women, old people, children.
Of course, one cannot paint the entire Soviet period in the history of the peoples of the region exclusively in black (or red), since much has been done to develop the productive forces and infrastructure of the region, the foundations of social support for the population have been laid, and some minimum concepts of social justice have been introduced, in one way or another. to some extent supported - albeit one-sidedly, but still supported - the continuity of local cultural traditions. It is no coincidence that the majority of residents of the region, annoyed by all the cruel troubles of the post Soviet era, they remember with nostalgia Soviet times, more precisely, their most seemingly idyllic period - the second half of the 50s - the first half of the 70s. Ordinary consciousness, as well as the consciousness of not fully educated or not entirely conscientious journalists and “scientists”, idealizing the short period of the post-war (in fact, post-Stalin) past and forgetting about all the cruelties and contradictions of world and domestic history, are looking for personal culprits of the historical collapse of the latter two or three decades. However, the fact that this collapse was involuntarily programmed by those internal contradictions of nation-state construction, culture and sociality of the Soviet era, which turned out to be some semblance of an infernal machine under the entire fragile edifice of the Caucasian hostel, most often falls out of the field of view of sworn prosecutors. And here, in my opinion, it would be more appropriate to argue not in terms personal guilt and in terms common misfortune. And in this regard, I would like to highlight at least three significant factors of all-Soviet history, which had such a tragic impact on the entire complex of destinies of the peoples of the region. I would label these interrelated factors as follows:
- the techno-populist nature of Soviet modernization;
- elements of nihilism in culture and politics;
- ethnocratism not just as a principle of nation-state building, but as one of the hidden but defining societal principles of the Soviet era.
Let's talk briefly about these three factors.
Technopopulist modernization
Established in the 1920s in the Caucasus new form imperial organization - Soviet statehood - voluntarily or unwittingly took over from its imperial predecessor, autocratic Russia, the modernization socio-economic, technological and cultural baton. However, if for the Russian Empire modernization activity marked the objective self-defense of the theocratic and class system in the conditions of the then onset of industrial and urban forms of life, then the modernization activity of the Soviet era carried completely different motivations:
- protection of social, power and status claims of the new elite from the lower classes and semi-lumpen lower classes. This elite came to power through the incredible efforts of the revolutionary underground, the civil war, curbing its own people and overcoming its internal strife;
- The utopian project of the “bright kingdom”, which was largely rooted in the ideology of victorious Bolshevism and, moreover, absorbed elements of the egalitarian patriarchal aspirations of the peasant masses, brought together this new elite and the masses subject to it.
This peculiar synthesis of Marxist avant-gardeism with elements of the “sixties” utilitarian nihilism of the century before last and populist aspirations largely determined the spiritual and institutional appearance of the victorious dictatorship. Extreme authoritarianism was combined with ingratiation to the “class instinct of the masses,” that is, to the archaic “ folk wisdom"; the idea of technological efficiency coexisted with a reliance on the rigid and ineffective mobilization of unskilled labor; the cult of history (“historical inevitability”, “historical necessity”) - with the practice of blatant leader voluntarism; military hierarchy - with dreams of equalizing redistribution. And the deepest basic meanings and structures of human existence and self-awareness were fitted into the derogatory categories of “religious prejudices,” “intelligentsia,” “clergy,” “superstructure” and “strata.”
Of course, the Soviet period in the “Caucasian Chalk Circle,” as in the entire vast Soviet state, was marked by enormous achievements in the fields of intellectual and artistic creativity. But these achievements were achieved not so much thanks to the postulates of the dominant atheomaterialist (“Marxist-Leninist”) ideology, but in spite of them. It was rather the internal autonomous dynamics of the “superstructure” and “layer” that were at work here, and, moreover, based on the polysemantic, but often creative and heuristic connection of old cultures with modernizing impulses. This was the case in many humanities (linguistics, ethnography, psychology, philosophy); This was sometimes the case in music, literature, painting, and cinema. And this despite the fact that many of the best representatives of the “superstructure” and “stratum” were repressed, “worked through,” hushed up, and survived into emigration.
But what is important: this socio-spiritual syndrome itself, which I defined as a special syndrome techno-populist modernization , was objectively designed for purely raw materials(and in this sense, nihilistic) attitude towards spaces, towards the riches of nature, towards culture, towards people. Based on the postulates of extreme anti-individualism, such a syndrome carried not unity, but alienation of people, and with it the objective preconditions of negative individualism, criminalization, and rearhaization.
The historical margin of safety of a regime based on this syndrome has been limited. And such a predetermined internal disintegration could not but have a special impact on the fate of various regions of Russia, including the one in question here.
The following two factors of self-undermining and collapse of Soviet statehood in the history of the peoples of Russia and the Caucasus are also largely associated with this syndrome.
Anticulture in power
The utopian rebellion against the heritage of traditional and bourgeois-European (modernist) culture, which was characteristic of the Soviet period, especially its first decades, is sometimes straightforwardly interpreted in terms of conspiracy, evil will. Of course, it is difficult to imagine, without the factor of the evil will of certain individuals and groups who have become in power, such acts of collective vandalism as the desecration of cemeteries, the destruction or demonstrative desecration of monasteries, churches, mosques, datsans and synagogues. The destruction and desecration of temple buildings, which began in the second half of the 20s and continued until the mid-60s (and this despite the ban on temple-building activities), obviously disfigured and made meaningless the entire landscape and urban planning structure of that time.
However, the scope of spiritual tragedies cannot be explained by evil will alone.
It may be more about something deeper semantic and structural crisis of consciousness, when the depreciation of traditional spiritual and cultural values was aggravated by the overlap of quasi-modernization utopian sentiments with the age-old dreams of a traditional person about a wise simplification of life and easy bread. This kind of overlap and mutual stimulation of ultra-modernization and archaistic aspirations determined, according to the Italian philosopher, the formation of that educational-bureaucratic anti-culture, which marked the entire appearance of the already expired twentieth century. And also its trace, which extends into the present century.
In this situation, as Andrei Zubov writes, “the destruction of the main bearers of national identity - the upper classes of the peoples of the Caucasus, as well as emigration facilitated the cultural leveling of the region’s population at the everyday level. Repressions against the intelligentsia of the 20-60s led to even greater simplifying confusion peoples in the 70s and 80s."
Needless to say, Soviet techno-populist modernization contributed to a significant increase in technical competence and formal indicators of the population’s education, and an increase in everyday living standards. However, the ideological priorities of atheism and materialism could not help but ultimately affect the lowering of the general spiritual standard and, consequently, the culture of individuals and the masses, and could not help but turn into preconditions for base nationalism and religious xenophobia.
During perestroika and already in the post-Soviet period, when temple construction was explicitly permitted, the landscapes themselves partly changed for the better. The streets of any of any large settlements became “roads to the temple.” However, the trouble is that the post-Soviet religious boom was accompanied not only by processes of ambiguous reorganization of social and power structures. The inevitable - in the conditions of the collapse of the Soviet system and the redistribution of power and property - the revival of national and religious aspirations, which took place in a situation of suppressed and vulgarized traditions, could not but lead to a sharp drop in spiritual, moral and intellectual standards among the population, characteristic of the 1990s. The weakness and blatant disorder of the state contributed to the transition of the economic activity of a significant part of the population “into the shadows”, into criminal structures.
Moreover, this decline was accompanied by the degradation of the educational and publishing industry, characteristic of the last decade of the twentieth century, the decline in the creative level of a significant part of the scientific and artistic intelligentsia, and the coarsening of a significant part of the clergy. But for any healthy orientation in himself, in his neighbors, in his world, a person must live in some flexible developing system of traditions of faith, thought and creativity, including traditions of renewal. And vice versa, breaks in cultural continuity and rigidity in life relationships are interconnected signs of a triumphant (even if temporarily) anticulture.
Ethnocracy
Again, I have to pose this problem in terms of not so much guilt as misfortune. The roots of the tragedy go back to pre-revolutionary times, when the peoples of the Russian Empire, with their semi-traditional social organization and semi-traditional mentality, were forced to enter an era of new - non-traditional - economic, technological and intellectual relations. It is in this context of high expectations and heated passions that the powerful ethno-national overtones of the revolutionary events of 1905-1907, the subsequent events of the Azerbaijani-Armenian clashes, the events of the First World War and the Civil War can be understood.
The tragedy of the events of the civil war in the Caucasus should be especially emphasized. If the White movement acted under the doctrinaire and unrealizable in the then Russian conditions, in fact, the Jacobin slogan of “one and indivisible Russia,” and national or regional movements, to a greater or lesser extent, depending on the circumstances, were inclined towards the slogans of ethno-territorial separatism, fraught in the conditions lack of land and ethnic stripes with hatred and blood, the Bolsheviks found a special path. The combination of logically incompatible ideas of “world revolution”, “proletarian internationalism” and “the right of nations to self-determination” allowed them, by mobilizing the contradictory social and national aspirations of a significant part of the then Russian population, to win Civil War and in many respects preserve the former imperial integrity. Moreover, relying on a combination of methods of strict imperial centralization and the allocation of formally sovereign and arbitrarily zoned “union republics” and autonomous structures on the “national outskirts”.
The “divide and conquer” method objectively worked here. The creation of a system of national-state formations unconditionally dependent on the Center left to it all the possibilities of a decision-making leader, mediator and arbiter, and to the local party-state elites from among the “titular socialist nations” - some control over arbitrarily formed autonomous territories. Moreover, this was control in conditions of ethnic stripes, lack of land and material resources, unabated ethno-religious passions and rapidly reorganizing clan ties.
Thus, the process of rearhaization and, moreover, the criminalization of the former avant-garde “national cadres”, admitted to the local “personnel policy”, to partial participation in the repressive apparatus, to the redistribution of local resources and subsidies from the Center, to the status of symbolic representation of local cultures (“national form and socialist in content"), was a historically determined matter. The low spiritual and moral level of the Soviet elite, combined with low economic efficiency and the gradual political relaxation of the Center, inevitably gave rise to the process of sociocultural rearhaization. Over the course of decades, the former zealots of proletarian orthodoxy gradually turned into clan-ethnocratic groups bound by mutual responsibility.
The appeal to half-forgotten national and religious not so much values as symbols in the context of growing and, moreover, the most diverse and multidirectional international contacts (with the West, Turkey, Iran, the Arab world, the territory of the former Yugoslavia) turned out to be an irreplaceable resource for local rival elites in the struggle for status , for access not only to the corridors of the Russian Center, but also to international structures. Legal nihilism and armed “lawlessness” became integral accompaniments of such treatment. And former aesthetes and adherents of national heritage easily turned into figures of a military-criminal nature (Zelimkhan Yandarbiev in Chechnya, Jaba Ioseliani in Georgia, organizers of ethnic cleansing in Abkhazia and many, many others).
So one of the grimaces of our recent history is that the path of civil and democratic transformations and entry not just into modernity, but into a particularly complicated postmodern world, which was objectively designed for many decades, turned out to be a prerequisite for some kind of partial spiritual and social regression. And the latter became payment for the simulation national revivals without deep spiritual traditions, historical knowledge and cultural continuity. The situation is all the more dramatic because many post-communist leaders, being flesh and blood of yesterday’s nomenklatura, use the same familiar methods to maintain and strengthen their authoritarian power paternalistic mobilization, including whipping up ethnic and xenophobic passions. And this concerns not only the Caucasus region or the entire complex of post-Soviet “Easts”, but also to a significant extent both Russia itself and the post-Soviet “Wests” (Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Baltics). The same applies to the republics of the former Yugoslavia, and in fact, to all post-communist countries of Europe.
For the former nihilism of Soviet society, for the nihilism of the liberation, as well as nostalgic, claims of the 80s and 90s, for the nihilism of ethnocratic institutionalization, one has to pay in blood, ethnic cleansing, desecration, wandering, bitterness and savagery of millions of people.
There are no immediate prospects for a way out of the tragic ruptures of the “Caucasian Chalk Circle”, and it is unlikely that anyone has ready-made recipes for eliminating this entire complex of contradictions that have accumulated over decades and centuries and have gone too far. But I think I have the right to express some of my thoughts on possible future ways to overcome the crisis.
Our history of the past twentieth century could be described as a time of tossing between the archaism (or, more accurately, traditionalism) of mass consciousness and the ideas of socio-political avant-gardeism. Moreover, avant-gardeism in different versions - socialist, technocratic, nationalist, market. In each of these versions, an anti-cultural, sociocentric element prevailed and continues to prevail, when purely power and status claims in relation to oneself and a purely raw material approach in relation to everyone else are brought to the fore.
Under these conditions, the only alternative to this kind of nihilistic approaches to human reality can only be what I would call cultural reformation, or - in terms of one of my latest works - rediscovery of man . Or the ability to see a person “above the barriers”, in his spiritual connection with other people who are not similar to him, but at the same time in his integral historical and existential originality.
This approach presupposes something more than the ideology of multiculturalism officially professed in many Western countries: what is important is not so much the moment of forced and institutionally ordered cohabitation of dissimilar ethnic groups and subcultures, but rather the conscious principle of internal communications dissimilar from each other, but similar in human nature, in the tasks of ecological survival and in the civil society of people.
This, of course, is not about the recipe, but only about the long-term vector of all-Caucasian, all-Russian, and universal development. Moreover, the general context of life and relations between the peoples of Russia and the Caucasus was formed not only over centuries of cohabitation, but also during the decades of formation of current global relations and connections.
In any case, without the creative asceticism of the now ruined and socially humiliated multinational and multi-confessional Russian intelligentsia, not only the cultural elite, but also the “grassroots” intelligentsia - teachers, lawyers, doctors, journalists, parish clergy (at least those groups of them who are not blinded by xenophobia and self-interest) - the conflict situation in the region and in the country cannot be mitigated and optimized.
The above is not idle intellectual messianism and not abstract good wishes. It's about albeit far from sufficient, but still essential human project current Russian evolution. For the art of rational understanding and spiritual comprehension of man and the world is always in short supply, and even more so in today’s Russia. And if we speak in purely applied categories, then raising the intellectual, spiritual and human level of modern Russian culture over time, one way or another, should have a positive impact on the process of normalizing the life of the peoples of Russia.
In order not to be unfounded, I would like to conclude this article by noting at least two pragmatic aspects of the “cultural reformation” I expect, associated with multinational and multi-religious Russian culture. Russian, although in its original foundations - and this must not be forgotten - Great Russian.
Aspect 1 I would associate it with the cultural support of Russian-speaking minorities of Russian “autonomies” and countries of the near and far abroad - support not to the detriment"autonomies" or sovereign states. And not in “power” or “geopolitical” forms, but for the sake of the civil and spiritual dignity of Russia itself, and the millions of Russians scattered throughout the world and partly ingrained in the economy, life and culture of other peoples. Scattered, but mindful of their historical homeland, culture and language, and objectively called upon to serve to establish mutual understanding between Russia and other, peripheral Russian and foreign peoples. Alas, this “algebra” of interethnic and interstate relations is very far from those hasty and – essentially – revanchist political and geopolitical schemes that now dominate the minds of our elites and the “general public”...
Aspect 2 I would associate it with the even more neglected and careless process of settling the millions of people who have moved and are moving to today’s Russia from the “autonomies” and former Soviet republics.
A significant part of this multi-million human wave of forced migrants (not only Great Russians, but also Ukrainians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Moldovans, Chechens, Meskhetian Turks, Germans and many, many others) are simply poor. To say that they are deprived of the attention of our business, our state, party, church, trade union and all other bureaucrats means to say nothing. Often, these people, regardless of their ethnic “count”, which, fortunately, has already been abolished, face neglect, and sometimes open hostility and persecution in the places of their new settlement. Although it is understandable to compete for status, for handouts, for miserable “living space,” for a corner on a market stall, for jobs, for uncultivated and neglected land. I’m only afraid that this extreme atomization of the majority of post-Soviet people threatens to have a sad effect on the future destinies of the country. The importance of supporting Great Russian repatriates in the territories Russian Federation self-evident. These people returned to their own home, and also to a home with very alarming demographic indicators.
As for the immigration of representatives of other peoples into the current Great Russian regions, over time, the children and grandchildren of these people could become a field of Russian “cultural radiation” (the expression of Arnold Joseph Toynbee) in the current diasporized world - just so as not to encroach on the cultural identity of these people, not to reject them and at the same time not to “forge” them into Great Russians, but to try to make Russian culture open and attractive to newcomers. The forms of future identification of these people are not up to us to decide, but to their children and grandchildren.
The spiritual resources of Russian culture, created over centuries by people of different regions, classes, classes and ethnic origins under the most diverse and dissimilar internal and external, including Caucasian, influences, are still great to this day, although they are undermined by everyday xenophobia and the shameless manipulations of politicians.
This culture is truly a globally recognized gold reserve, the gold currency of Russia. However, this currency, like any world of genuine achievements of the human spirit, cannot lie hidden, but is called upon to operate thanks to the values of humanism (I’m not afraid to say, religious humanism) and citizenship, but not xenophobia and geopolitical nostalgia. And especially in the era of that, in the words of Merab Mamardashvili, “anthropological catastrophe”, when the very “civilizational foundations of the process of life and communication” were shaken.
This idea, I would like to think, little by little, with difficulty, but still reaches our leadership circles. Thus, on September 6, 2001, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin proclaimed from the rostrum of Nalchik state university, that is, in the intellectual center of the capital of the complex, two-subject Caucasian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, a state tolerance program. Of course, cultural states, including tolerance, cannot be decreed, even ex cathedra, and besides, tolerance - ethnic, religious, subcultural - may be necessary, but still an insufficient spiritual step towards normal human coexistence.
True tolerance (do our authorities and our society understand this?) - in the current understanding of this word - is not grumpy and forced “patience”, but something greater and spiritually significant: the ability, while remaining oneself, to some extent comprehend and to feel the special value, the special internal specificity of another person, unlike you.
So the presidential declaration in Nalchik seems to me to be an event that, albeit limited, still has some historical meaning. The leader of post-totalitarian (or, if you prefer, neo-totalitarian) Russia said ex cathedra some human word. After all, the word is also a matter. But the point, I repeat, is not just about state directives or intellectual well-wishes, but about the calling of conflict-torn Russia to survive and realize itself in truly tectonic cultural processes future. And just at a time when millions of people are trying to compensate for the lack of understanding, faith and culture with Baconian idols of ethnonationalism and religious intolerance.
Notes
[i] Gefter M.Ya. From people-phobia to the world of worlds // Phenomenon of people-phobia. Kazan, 1994. P. 6.
It is difficult to imagine the fate of the states and peoples of the Caucasus region without taking into account the history of the peoples who lived or continue to live beyond the current southern borders of the Transcaucasian republics. For example, the Laz living in Turkey represent an Islamized and largely Turkified branch of the Georgian people; the population of Western Armenia during the First World War became a victim of the Ottoman genocide; millions of Azerbaijanis live compactly in northwestern Iran. But the conversation about the lands and peoples adjacent to the current Caucasus region is a long and difficult conversation, deserving a special time and place.
It is hardly legitimate to interpret these features as exclusive properties of the Caucasian psyche. Features of frontier psychology are characteristic of many ancient peoples Europe - highlanders or islanders - who managed to historically survive in conditions of the most severe external pressures, gain a foothold in special ecological niches and, preserving the most powerful elements of traditional ways of life, develop multimillion-strong and highly adapted diasporas in the countries of the Old and New Worlds. Such, for example, are the Albanians, Sicilians, Sardinians, Corsicans, Basques - the great and ancient, semi-eastern outcasts of Europe, Europeans who preceded the cultural and historical formation of Europe itself. I formulated this idea thanks to a conversation (03/02/2002) with the Russian mathematician Andrei Aleksandrovich Agrachev living in Italy.
Cm.: Erokhin V.P., Muradyan R.A., Rashkovsky E.B. and others. Round table: The Caucasus and Russia // Dagestan village: Issues of identity: (On the example of the Rutulians) / Rep. ed. T.F. Sivertseva. M.: IV RAS, 1999. P. 328.
[v] The demoralizing factors of Caucasian society for centuries were bribery and play off of local princes and warriors by stronger and richer neighbors and the transformation of the Caucasus into a kind of field of permanent hunting for slaves. Back in the first half of the century before last, “Circassians” and other “ Caucasian captives"(see: Spencer E. Travels in Circassia, Krim Tartary, etc. A Steam Voyage down the Danube, from Vienna to Constantinople and round the Black Sea in 1836. Vol. 1. - L.: H. Colburn, 1838. P. XVII-XVIII, second pagination; P. VI, first pagination; P. 268-269.
About the conflict between the relative simplicity and archaic nature of the social foundations of traditional Caucasian society and at the same time the subtlety and complexity of religious and artistic culture local peoples, partly compensating for the severity and archaism of their social existence, see the works of A.S. Bashkirova, S.O. Khan-Magomedova, V.I. Morkovina, A.K. Alikberova and others.
Cm.: Petrov A.M. Russian empire and foreign trade foreign Asia// Foreign East: Questions of the history of trade with Russia. M.: VL RAS, 2000; Ivanov S.M. From the history of Russian-Turkish trade in the 17th - early 20th centuries. // Ibid. One could recall in this regard the names of Caucasians - Russian businessmen of the first magnitude: Asadullaevs, Dadashevs, Lianozovs, Mantashevs, Tagiyevs, etc.
As for the poets of Western (“Turkish”) Armenia, they were not spared Russian spiritual, literary and revolutionary influences (V.Ya. Bryusov wrote about this in detail in his works).
Cm.: Rashkovsky E.B. Scientific knowledge, scientific institutions and the intelligentsia in the sociocultural dynamics of Europe, Russia and the Third World: XVIII-XX centuries / Dis. in the form of a scientific report... M.: IMEMO RAS, 1997. P. 19-20.
Notabene. Some of the leaders of the CPSU and the “perestroika” era (Shaumyan, Narimanov, Ter-Petrosyan (Kamo), Makharadze, Stalin, Ordzhonikidze, Enukidze, Vyshinsky, Beria, Karakhan, Katanyan, Lakoba, Bagirov, Mikoyan, Kalmykov, Dekanozov, Aliev, Demirchyan , Primakov, Lebed, Gorbachev, Shevardnadze, Kokov and many others), as well as a number of leaders of post-Soviet communist parties (Kondratenko, Tkachev, Umalatova, Evgeny Dzhugashvili) - all of them come from the “passionate” Caucasus region. But only the most narrow-minded or unscrupulous interpreter can see in this fact some evidence against the peoples of the region. We are talking about something else: this fact indicates that the peoples of the region were and are at the most acute critical points of intersection of the history of Europe, Russia and the East.
See: See: Rashkovsky E.B. Russia and the adjacent East in a cultural perspective // Pro et Сontra. 2000. T. 5. No. 3. P. 149-155.
This issue has been analyzed in many ways in the works of such Orthodox thinkers as N.A. Berdyaev, B.P. Vysheslavtsev and G.P. Fedotov; in the current Russian social science literature, the works of M.A. are devoted to this problem. Cheshkova and G.S. Kiseleva; it is deeply described in the fiction of Nikolai Narokov, Grigol Robakidze, Vasily Grossman, Vasil Bykov, Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
When I was in the villages of high-mountain Dagestan (Tsumadinsky district), the local mullahs told me about cases of demonstrative burning of mosque carpets and books of spiritual content that took place, along with the closure of mosques (see: Rashkovsky E.B. Diary of a culturologist // Dagestan: Village of Khushtada. M.: IV RAS, 1995. P. 23).
Again, my personal testimony (city of Batumi, 1988): the street on which the desecrated and mutilated synagogue stood, as if as a sign of mockery, was called after Karl Marx, known for his fierce hatred of Judaism, as well as Christianity. According to my informant, Georgian poet, translator and public figure Dzhemal Adzhiashvili (1944-2013), in the 90s the Batumi synagogue was restored with the assistance of the Georgian state and re-consecrated.
Let us remember that the story of the destruction, on Stalin’s personal orders, of the medieval temple complex above Tbilisi became the plot basis of Tengiz Abuladze’s film “Repentance” in the early 80s. The final phrase of the film, uttered by the great actress Veriko Andzhaparidze, “If the street does not lead to the temple, what is it for?” It has become popular here in Russia.
See: Bragina E.A. New content of the development problem // Russia and Transcaucasia: the realities of independence and new partnership / Ed. R.M. Avakov and A.G. Lisova. - M.: Finstatinform, 2000. P. 96-97.
Cm.: Eisenstadt Sh. N. Intellectuals and Tradition // Intellectuals and Tradition / Sh. N. Eisenstadt, S. R. Graubard (eds). N.Y.: Humanities Press, 1973.
In the Caucasus, such preservation was not absolute. The Soviet state paid for the alliance of the Russian and Turkish revolutions with the western part of Russian Armenia (the separation of the Kars and Ardahan region in 1921), which tragically affected the fate of hundreds of thousands of people - Armenians, Georgians, Molokans, Doukhobors.
An additional factor in criminalization was the fact that strict adherence to the Soviet system of financial discipline, centralized GOST standards, and staffing schedules did not make it possible to establish any efficient production and provide people with at least a meager minimum of everyday security. Soviet “business executives” had to trick, dodge, and pay off blackmailers from the party and law enforcement agencies (for memoirs about this side of life in the post-war Georgian “outback”, see: M. Zaltsman. I was rehabilitated... From the notes of a Jewish tailor from Stalin’s times. - M.: Russian way, 2006. pp. 232-246). The traditions of current corruption and racketeering in the CIS have a long socialist prehistory.
Human phenomenon.
This cultural-reformation theme was developed in the later works of such thinkers as M.M. Bakhtin, G.S. Batishchev, V.S. Bibler, M.Ya. Gefter, M.K. Mamardashvili, Archpriest A.V. Men. An important part of the works of current Russian thinkers and philosophers S.S. is devoted to the substantiation of this topic. Averintseva, A.V. Akhutina, S.S. Neretina, A.P. Ogurtsova, G.S. Pomerantz.
Rational - in the strict philosophical understanding of this word - is not at all equivalent to practical and manipulative.
Unfortunately, the long-term strategic importance for Russia (specifically for Russia!) of the sovereignty of the republics of the post-Soviet East is not yet fully understood even by many specialists, not to mention the mass of current geopolitical amateurs - their name is legion.
Mamardashvili M.K. Consciousness and civilization // About spirituality. Tbilisi: Metsniereba, 1991. P. 26.
Reprinted with minor changes.
A story about philanthropy and helping one's neighbor on the stage of Mayakovka
This season, the Mayakovsky Theater relies not on quantity, but on quality. There are only two performances per theatrical season on the big stage (the first is “Russian Novel” directed by M. Karbauskis), but in both cases a grandiose, detailed work was carried out.
The idea to stage “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” by B. Brecht came to Nikita Kobelev last summer, when he was selecting material for a new work, having received the go-ahead for the production from the artistic director. Rehearsals began in September, and only towards the end of April the performance finally saw the light of day.
“The Caucasian Chalk Circle” is not one of the most popular and staged plays by Brecht, but the theme of Georgians and the Georgian people is incredibly close to our country, and therefore the play is well received by our audience. However, as the director of the play Nikita Kobelev says, his performance is international, devoid of purely Georgian motives, and first of all he is interested in history. A story about human selflessness, helping one's neighbor in difficult times.
The girl Grusha (Yulia Solomatina), in difficult times of war, takes on someone else’s child and goes through the entire war with him. The role of Grusha is played by Yulia Solomatina, an actress from the leaders of the younger generation of Mayakovites. Solomatina also played a prominent role in Kobelev’s previous play “The Last”. This time she is given a central role in the play.
The role of Judge Azdak is played by the colorful Igor Kostolevsky. An actor who, having passed a certain age, discovered the brilliant talent of a character actor, and with each new job continues, to the delight of the audience, to show and discover new facets of his talent.
Another, most noticeable role in this production is the role of the narrator played by Sergei Rubeko, who plays his first premiere after returning to his native theater. Rubeko's hero is, as it were, the alter ego of Brecht himself, he sets the rules of the game, involves the viewer in the theatrical process, guides him through storyline from the beginning to the very end.
Experienced theatergoers remember the performance of the Mayakovsky Theater from the middle of the last century, where the role of Grusha was performed by the current prima of Mayakovka, Galina Anisimova, and the role of Azdak was played by the outstanding artist Lev Sverdlin. Many people also remember the Georgian production by Robert Sturua at the Tbilisi Theater. Shota Rustaveli, the theater demonstrated this production to Moscow and Leningrad audiences on tour. Finally, the current generation of theater audiences has their own “Caucasian Chalk Circle”.
We bring to your attention photographs of Ilya Zolkin from the performance:
Sergei Rubeko as narrator Arkady Chkheidze
Yulia Solomatina as Grushe Vakhnadze
Igor Kostolevsky as Azdak
Pavel Parkhomenko as Simon Khakhava
Olga Prokofieva as Mother-in-law
Daria Poverennova as the Governor's Wife
Dmitry Prokofiev as the Fat Prince
Nadezhda Butyrtseva plays the roles of an elderly noble lady, an old woman and a neighbor
Yuri Nikulin plays the roles of the Governor, the Old Peasant, the Grand Duke, and the old man
Yuri Korenev plays the Groom, neighbor and 1st soldier
Igor Okhlupin as the Innkeeper
Elena Molchenko plays the roles of the Cook, the Peasant Woman and the Neighbor
Yulia Samoilenko plays the roles of the 1st maid and the Young noble lady
Olga Ergina plays the roles of the 2nd maid, Daughter-in-law and Tamara
Vladimir Guskov plays the 2nd soldier and the Messenger