Literature & Cinema - Moscow - page 429

Explore Moscow alongside Professor Woland, Bohemoth and Margarita using the inter-
active map at www.masterandmargarita.eu .
Literature of Dissent
While Stalin's propaganda machine was churning out novels with titles such as How the
Steel Was Tempered, the literary community was secretly writing about life under a tyranny.
Many accounts of Soviet life were printed in samizdat (underground) publications and
secretly circulated among the literary community. Now-famous novels such as Rybakov's
Children of the Arbat were published in Russia only with the loosening of censorship under
glasnost (openess) . Meanwhile, some of the Soviet Union's most celebrated writers were si-
lenced in their own country, while their works received international acclaim. Dr Zhivago,
for example, was published in 1956, but it was officially printed in the Soviet Union only 30
years later.
Boris Pasternak (1890-1960) lived in a country estate on the outskirts of Moscow. Dr
Zhivago's title character is torn between two lovers, as his life is ravaged by the revolution
and the civil war. The novel was unacceptable to the Soviet regime, not because the charac-
ters were anti-revolutionary but because they were apolitical, valuing their individual lives
over social transformation. The novel was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958,
but Pasternak was forced to reject it.
Mikhail Bulgakov (1890-1940) was a prolific playwright and novelist who lived near
Patriarch's Ponds. He wrote many plays that were performed at the Moscow Art Theatre,
some of which were apparently enjoyed by Stalin. But later his plays were banned, and he
had difficulty finding work. Most of his novels take place in Moscow, including Fatal Eggs,
Heart of a Dog and, most famously, The Master and Margarita.
The post- glasnost era of the 1980s and 1990s uncovered a huge library of work that had
been suppressed during the Soviet period. Authors such as Yevgeny Zamyatin, Daniil
Kharms, Anatoly Rybakov, Venedict Erofeev and Andrei Bitov - banned in the Soviet
Union - are now recognised for their cutting-edge commentary and significant contributions
to world literature.
Written in 1970 by Venedict Erofeev, Moscow to the End of the Line recounts a drunken
man's train trip to visit his lover and child on the outskirts of the capital. As the journey pro-
gresses, the tale becomes darker and more hallucinogenic. Moscow Stations, by the same
author, is another bleakly funny novella recounting alcohol-induced adventures.