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10/1/1984 - I. Introduction; II. Arrival and living quarters; III. Changes; IV. Moscow theatre by Nancy P. Condee

INSTITUTE OF CURRENTWORLD AFFAIRS Moscow State University Moscow U S S R I October I Introducion II Arrival living quarters III Changes IV Moscow theatre I Introduction I think opening paragraphs first report something about readers given their diversity To extent I recipients report consist Trustees Fellows Members Institute Current World Affairs academic admini strative colleagues friends interested subscribers variety professions including foreign service journalism international family including three stepchildren spent months living Moscow Some cluding perhaps Soviet officials point access reports fluent knowledge Russian experience Soviet Union others knowledge language fleeting knowledg interest culture As result diversity aspects repor inevitably interesting others given reader certain facts everyday evident someone lived socialist society incomprehensible readers unless explained detail Issues within contemporary poetry example minor interes casual reader deserve discussion section monthly report readers minority I common ground interesting accessible recipients report I attention heterogeneity audience since affects manner which material presented Arrival Living Quarters Let begin brief description arrival Moscow Our Luf hansa plane Sheremet Airpor Frankfurt The passpor officials polite curious would Reagan where I learned Russian I Russian people formalities proceeded usual until I noticed I standing remaining customs behind American cowboys wearing lizard carrying rifle cases They grinned assured would hours customs They planned spend weeks hunting Nancy Condee Fellow Institute Curren World Affairs Assis Professor Russian Wheaon College studying contemporary culure cultural politics Sovie Union E Itai mountain region Central Asia I planned spend living dormitory Moscow Sta University It occurred gradually appalled reason being customs I theirs As their customs officials microscopic analysis rifles rifle cases licenses carry rifles forth young customs official jerked oyeur assigned paltry baggage Eager reurn rifles processed papers quickly amitted officially U S S R Eleven Americans smallest number years living working Moscow State University Lenin Hills southwes Moscow We single slightly wider armspan seven perhaps about We share shower oilet other person The contents consists tables chairs daybed bookcase water carafe radio station Ne share teakettle wastebasket neighbor Cooking facilities burner stoves ironing board table refrigerator available forty eight people section wings Normally additional twenty these kitchens University building closed repairs extra unoccupied The Americans scholars other capitalist countries countries kapstranY bureaucratic parlance aesigne fourteenth fifteenth floors University While rrangement matter particularly Nesterners before Soviet friends tends isolate Nesterners whose Russian language ability limited determined outside comfortable terrarium Western European social mores This clustering kapstrany researchers makes easily ienifiable oussians variety reasons befriend Westerner after Each elevators these floors Soviet Eas Europeans acutely conscious Western clQthing satchels briefcases reminde floors represent another The cafeteria cavernous basemen University lding places where worls mingle Despite drawbacks lines advance lines receive limited starchy cafeteria provides majority living place where The varies dinner evening becomes tomorrow breakfast whether mashed potatoes For meals The first course includes choice choice sausage eggplan caviar salad radish cucumber salad cream Soups usually include borshch cabbage The courses offered suffed peppers cabbage mushrooms cream meatballs chopped fried potatoes buckwheat kasha As combat shortages Thursday declared Fish Day Blessedly consists overcooked mackerel mystery called Russian speaking readers English bllny omlettes cheese patties s_Yrnlki In addition being meals inexpensive combined first course course bread usually under dollar One fundamental paradoxes culture coexistence facts importance placed difficulty obtaining I suppose could argue paradox necessarily follows other In spite however evidence marshalled whether economic allocation resources solal shortage people willing employed cooks busboys waiters historical peasant attitudes growing history famine condi Y having finally gaine restaurant marked No Seats Aailable disover empty dining Russian insistence feeing Russian insistence feeing Es orlan Leaf prestige communicate others Someone feeding The University building itself larges building world capacity height I seven Moscow buildings which Americans ignoring original design monstrosities refer Stalinis wedding arohi The central sories wings nineteen stories Fanasically decorated rostral columns porticoes Socialist Realis sculptures earnes students early fifties various clock shaped dials measuring emperature humidiy discernible facts daily resembles backdrop Emerald City Oz I contains about houaand dormitory several cafeterias restaurant movie swimming bookshops kiosks sores lecture entire central administration offices University meeting halls people Boh magnifioen oppresfive great distance Stallnis symbol auhorlty knowledge IIl Changer Coming lived exended periods course looks signs change continuity This seventh U S S R having school I sumer camping through Belorussia RUssia Ukraine Mo david prolagea I months research scholar oscow Sae Universi Xnsiu ofWorlLiterature grant frome7n ionalResearchanExchanges Board IREX I course ifiIcul changes discerns course stuffed cabbie cutlery heavier owhich beyond general conclusions society immediate lived reality oreover havingeenhereonlyoweeksatheimeofthis writing Ie yetawohmorehdomeonelusionsbasedonNemory 8oseion If heopticsofSoetienfs oolleeshere perhapsinhesavatha IselfwIdbeable which elleoal comityhoh heIsyears Some iendsepessimistic othersopimisic Ispeo arelof8dd reliable Some ehange however pronouncedt young women dress manner which closely eoespn Western Pleated skirts ailoed velve aokes oordoroy slacks replaced highlypriseesernJeansrolle8upsixtoeigh inches heankle cause consideration could afford II kinds European running shoes shion Be valuable accordingo young Sovle friend Yugolslav version Sovie consumer demands esern clothing often produce combinations which Uesern observer understandable reerenoe however incompatible never heless heavyoI warmers sneakers favorite inations Of other changes could catalogued parieula interests metro anneunoemea system aiional piece fiendly advice designed asaume raise level urnos Following usual reoorded female voice warning passengers closing announcing station Osorozhno dveri makryvaiusia leiuahohala stantsila recorded voice periodically chimes informing presumed audience translatable Russian expression which means something embracingeverythingiom house ohere country customary women elderly people The announoemen iself significant Russians ooueeus Aerioans ielding their seats define however women deflniien suspect What interests which cultural advice pivileged means nouncemen expeienced ssengers rather means announce means impllci plicit linkage etiquette ional specifically RUssian norms The foreigner abides country foreigner impor Russian Areal Rus mannered concepts P xnaly interests louisa notion public etiquette easily coexist extreme acceptable public rudeness elbows Into sudsy islng departing passengers rises offer women perfectly capable andinE duming brief Ad woman likely entered manne Once inside however civillzIon continues IV Nosoow hetre Nu scovi seriously tickets edoesn espeak RUssiofygtickets seneneewIdbeaiallyoec espeaks precisely ofoaing 72IWasorTeo edfor hisWes eoacyin Theii catiis oalpe infla inNewYorkorWashlnon rather ivesco workeTsacain esdother actsemore imports money ticket determining herywill desired Here Russi proverb Ins hunted hundred iends imeis oblei aimeis odzei comesintoits Outside every theatre crows stand asking extra tickets The questions often begin metro blocks heare Inside heatre every fille including seats which block aisles exceptions performances begin As Sovie dinner companion hurrying along remarked I Aeroflo Mnow Despite enthusiastic audience however contemporary Soviet theatre emporary poetry impoveri comparison prose This explains frequency which playwrights novels short stories material which write adaptation The material finished piece Ing Inrii Trifonov story The Exchange Obmen example provides basis Story around which build production I provides ready audience eager performance prose heard about obtain The difficulty course curren Srend adaptations which works ransformed theatre apparen concern relationship between conen original manner presentation presumed audience The novel stage extraordinarily literalis conception which communicates Ultimately which overvalues content remains staunchly ignorant llurii Trifonov contemporary Soviet fiction writer His story The Exchange which appeared Soviet journal World December adapted stage produced Ta Theatre generally considered innovative Moscow heatre thanks largely founder former director Iurii Liubimov WeaVe I popular balladeer actor Vladimir Vysotskii One Taganka entrance still phoographs Vyso Visitors bringing flowers front phoographs around theatre every Taganka formance I attended since death implications given become parodlstic Socialist Realis story playwright asserts might bottle The value decanting prose bottles brings virtually unobtainable pieces contemporary literature public discussion transforming isolated reading social experience where issues discussed wider circle those readers fortune hundred friends original Unfortunately wider audience theatre goers slightly larger circle urban intelligentsia original novels squirrelled their apartments A Moscow acquaintance teenage having The Red Black exclaimed frien Wasn great And about A fundamental problem ignorance friend maintains could wanted The result areading public whose contact controversial pieces fiction maintained through eries blind mediations which unfortunately controversial Of adaptations which funning Taganka production Trifonov The Exchange reflects interest presentation narrative drama different problems fiction Despite dramatic literalism contemporary novel writer Chingiz Aitmatov attracted considerable attention oec0w I Would discuss briefly concluding report Accorimg Kirghiz legend young prisoners capture Central Asian tribe Zhuan zhuan transformed warrior laves means unusual excruciating torture piece stretched camel ahered shaved prisoner As camel Skin dries tightens around skull forming impenetrable Hairs shaved cannot pierce camel backward scalp As result prisoner undergoes complete memory concerning family ehnic traditions These slaves calleds warriors carry violence without protest One version legend tells woman Naiman Ana whose isappeare presumed After search disoovere prisoner Zhuan zhuan already transformed mnkur She painstakingly tried restore 2Kirghizia fifteen republics Sovie Union I slightly smaller Wes Germany population mostly Turco Mongol about million It located 8oviet Central Asia bordering Sovie republics Kazakhs Uzbekistan Tazhikisan People Republic China Its economy largely agriculural cotton karakul sheep industry mining ferrous PC I memory repeating father Donenbai Learning presence Zhuan zhuan ordere young mankur murder Dying transformed white still flies steppes region9 whose Donenbai Donenbai still attempts remind mankur heritage The legend aiman Ana forms central theme The Day Lasts Longer H ndred Years I_L veka_d itsia_ which makes premiere Written novel Kirghiz writer Chingiz Aitmatov aapted stage dramatist A H Mam betov Both original novel focus enormous interes Russian reading public number reasons First excellent written member national minority sidered uncivilized uneducated members urban Russian telligensia Second outspoken efense importance ehnic consciousness Kirghiz Russian preserving human vlues According readers outspoken other national minorities Ukrainian Estonian example permitted Be Third I think important addresses theme which increasing vitality Sovie literature namely theme memory preserving remains future generations Whether broad appeal theme traced aging process Soviet generation thirties traced cross enerational search roots ethnic religious revlutionary whether explainable terms reaction a4ains contemporary technological incursions primacy memory cultural compass human behavior dominates contemporary literature prose poetry drama 3Chingiz Aimatov Sheker Kirghlzla lingual novelist successful bringing ethnic oulure Russian readers which makes intriguing palatable His father Party official victim Stalinism After completing education veterinary technical school Aimatov began write short stories first which began appear print From ended Literary Institute osoow university level institution writers His important early works Dzhamilia collection T No Steppes Later Works include The White Seamshi Be ly_iPr_o_d_ W playwright Mukhamedzhanov Aitma novel Day Las L Hundre Years appeared November issue journal N published Molaia huoshestennia pulishin house In novel title Sidin BT explicitly privileEe Kirhis sense chauvinism It rather stresses prlmaoy IPo Ai matov The Day consists double narrative unlikely combination Kirghiz custom Soviet science fiction The developed these stories Edigei railroad worker about death erupted burial friend worker Kazangap Edigei concern Kazangap buried according Kirghiz custom meets unexpected obstacles boorish indifference Kazangap Russified family squabbles which override solemnity occasion finally refusal authorities permit urial Kazangap traAitional burial ground surrounded launching The second story novel alternating first concerned space fligh launched space center which Edigei velled Functioning veiled description orlcal Russian xenophobia second story astronauts discovery highly developed extraterrestrial civilization their success makin friendly contact ground control ensuing decision astronauts permanently contact Earth In development these stories which parallel other tracks merge finally horizon Aimatov presents interesting structural convergence The first story traditional Kirghiz burial frustrated modern technology indifferent Kirghiz custom As result unthinkable happens returns cemetery buried makeshift grave The astronauts second story peaceful contact alien civilization frustrated cultural insularity provi ncialism ground control Here unthinkable occurs stron excluded human contact buried alive space The legend passing several anecdotal moments becomes charged ethical significance touch ultural heritage Kazangap educated importance preservation propoga ground commanders second story engage transforma m8nkur_ deprived custom ritual finally element recognizable human Invulnerable inhuman these characters stand opposition heroes whose vitality redefined powerlessness While clear Aitmatov sympathies lament losses Kirghiz inevitable losses internationalist future Since draft report I theatre repertoire Like Moscow hearsay could anything nothing Perhaps there accurate inform rural traditions whatever legends buril rituals kinship structures implicitly literature integral human inclusion repor I would welcome comments corrections sugges recipients report I workin withou abundance Western research reference Sovie material I could understand years My mailing address Nancy Conee IREX Press Culture U S Embassy Box M elsinki Sincerely Received Hanover