*A reference to the writer Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn (b. 1918).
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he really is is superstitious. I personally don't care. It's rather funny, though sometimes quite sad.
For instance, I was saddened by Yudina. She was a marvelous musician, but we never became close friends, it wasn't possible. Yudina was a decent person, a kind one, but her kindness was hysterical, she was a religious hysteric. It's embarrassing to talk about, but it's true.
Yudina dropped to her knees or kissed hands at the least provocation.
We studied together with Nikolayev and sometimes it was very embarrassing. Nikolayev would make a remark and she would fall to her knees. I didn't like her clothes either, those monastic robes. She was a pianist, not a nun. Why walk around in a habit? It seemed immodest to me.
Yudina was always telling me, "You're far from God, you must be closer to God." Nevertheless, she behaved rather strangely. Take this story, for instance. Von Karajan came to Moscow, it was a siege, tickets were impossible to obtain. Police, mounted and on foot, surrounded the entrance. Yudina sat down in front of the theater and spread out her skirts. Naturally, a policeman came over to her. "You're disturbing the peace, citizeness, what's the problem?" And Yudina said, "I'm not getting up until I get into the concert."
Can a religious person behave that way? I was told that Yudina began reciting Pasternak's poetry from the stage at a concert in Leningrad. Of course, there was a scandal. And the upshot was that she was banned from performing in Leningrad. Now, why all the grandstanding? Was she a professional reader? No, she was an extraordinary pianist, and she should have gone on playing the pianoforte. Bringing happiness and solace to people.
I once ran into her in a cemetery, bowing to the ground. She said to me, "You're far from God, you must be closer to God." I waved her off and went on. Is that true faith? It's just superstition with a tangential connection to religion.
Stalin's superstition also touched on religion. This is apparent from many facts that are known to me and I'll tell a few. I know, for example, that Stalin had a predilection for people from the clergy. I think the reason is clear. Our teacher and leader had been a seminarian, and I think it's worth mentioning. He entered a religious school as a child, graduated, and went on to study in a Russian Orthodox seminary. Of 1 88
course, Stalin's Brief Biography* states that what they studied primarily in this seminary was Marxism. But I'll permit myself to doubt it. It was probably a seminary like any other.
And therefore, in his youth, when impressions are strongest, Stalin had all the religious stuff beaten into his head by his ignorant teachers.
And the future teacher and leader of these teachers was afraid of them and respected them, as a student should, and Stalin carried this fear and respect for the clergy throughout his life.
Stalin deeply admired Alexander Konstantinovich Voronsky, a marvelous literary critic, a man who truly appreciated art and who created the best magazine of the twenties, Krasnaya Nov'. The most interesting works of literature that appeared were published in Krasnaya Nov'. It was the Novy Mir of those times, but probably more vivid and exciting. Zoshchenko was published in Krasnaya Nov', for example.
Voronsky came from the clergy, his father was a priest. Stalin always took him along when he went to the theater, and particularly to the opera. He would call Voronsky and say, "Let's go to Boris Godunov. " Stalin tried to listen to what Voronsky had to say.
Voronsky was a Trotskyite, but that didn't bother Stalin. The semi
. narian respected the priest's son. But Voronsky didn't want to submit to Stalin, so Stalin had him exiled to Lipetsk, and then called him back to Moscow-an unheard-of occurrence.
"Well, now do you see that you can build socialism in one country?
You see that I've built socialism in Russia ?" Stalin said to Voronsky.
All he had to do was nod his head and he would have been Stalin's adviser once more, but Voronsky replied thus: "Yes, I see that you've built socialism for yourself in the Kremlin." Stalin ordered, "Take him back."
Stalin tried a few more times to save. Voronsky, but nothing worked.
Voronsky was very ill in a prison hospital. Stalin came to see him, to convince him to repent before death. "Go to hell, priest," Voronsky rasped with his last few ounces of strength. Voronsky meant that he
•A Brief Biography of I. V. Stalin was one of the two bedside books of every Soviet citizen in the postwar period (the other was A Brief Course in Party History). It is known that Stalin wrote such phrases into his own biography as "with a genius for perspicacity Comrade Stalin guessed the enemy's plans and thwarted them" and "the guiding power of the Party and the state was Comrade Stalin." These two books were quoted and referred to at every appropriate and inappropriate occasion.
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refused to confess before Stalin, and he died in prison, unbroken. A man like that can probably be respected.
But sometimes I think that perhaps it would have been better if Voronsky had agreed with Stalin then about socialism. After all, the point was academic, Stalin just needed him to agree with him. It didn't change socialism in Russia in any way. And what if the leader and teacher had gone on listening to Voronsky's opinions, particularly in music? The life of many of us would have been quite different.
On the other hand, nothing can be predicted with any confidence in these matters. The leader and teacher had the psychology of an Oriental satrap: If I want to, I'll punish, if I don't, I'll show mercy-with an extra added dollop of madness.
As for music, he naturally didn't understand a damn thing about it, but did respect euphony, again as a result of his seminary training.
Stalin was irritated by "muddle instead of music," and he was skeptical toward noneuphonious music like mine. And of course, the leader and teacher was a great lover of ensembles, for example, the Red Army Chorus. This is where our musical tastes diverge completely.
I want to remind you of Stalin's attitude toward fathers of the church. My good friend Yevgeny Shvarts told me this story. Everyone knows that you can't appear on radio if your text hasn't been passed by the censor. Not one, but almost ten censors, each of whom signs. If the papers aren't signed, no one will let you near a microphone. Who knows what you might say to the whole country?
And then it was decided that the Metropolitan of Moscow* should give a talk on radio. I think it had something to do with the struggle for peace. The Metropolitan was to speak to the faithful, a sermon calling on them tojoin the struggle. This interested the Great Gardener. The Metropolitan arrived at the radio station and walked straight up to the microphone. They grabbed him by the sleeve and pulled him away. "Your Eminence, where's the text of the speech?" The Metropolitan was taken aback. "What speech?" They began explaining that they meant the . . . well, not the speech, but the whatever-you-callit . . . . In other words, if the Metropolitan was planning to speak now, where was the approved and signed text?
The Metropolitan, they say, took umbrage and stated that he never
*One of the highest ranks in the Russian Orthodox Church.