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Stalinist Westernizer? Aleksandr Arosev's Literary and Political Depictions of Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Michael David-Fox
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Abstract

This article examines variegated depictions of Europe and the west produced in the 1920s and 1930s by Aleksandr Iakovlevich Arosev, an Old Bolshevik cultural official, writer, and diplomat. Arosev traveled and worked in many parts of Europe in the prewar emigration, in the 1920s and early 1930s as Soviet ambassador to Prague and other European capitals, and during the years of the Popular Front as head of the All-Union Society for Cultural Ties Abroad (VOKS). The discussion refracts a much asked question—what new sources say about attitudes toward the Soviet system—through a new prism, depictions of the outside world. Although Arosev's personal diary and unpublished reports on cultural diplomacy with European fellow-travelers suggest an often startling degree of admiration and affinity for the west, higher levels of hostility are expressed in his literary output, mass-produced pamphlets, and especially his letters to Iosif Stalin. Interpreting these disjunctures, David-Fox argues that Arosev took advantage of tensions within Soviet ideology to craft depictions of Europe for different audiences. Until his execution in 1938, it was not impossible for Arosev to be both a Stalinist and a westernizer, but the combination was perilous, painful, and difficult to sustain.

Type
Research Article
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 62 , Issue 4: Tourism and Travel in Russia and the Soviet Union , Winter 2003 , pp. 733 - 759
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 2003

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References

I am grateful to Elizabeth Papazian and Katherine David-Fox for insightful comments and to the participants in the workshop “Observing and Making Meaning: Understanding the Soviet Union and Central Europe through Travel,” University of Toronto, 18-20 October 2002 for lively discussion of an initial draft.

1 Arosev, diary entry from 4 June 1935, published in Ol'ga Aleksandrovna Aroseva and Maksimova, Vera, Bezgrima (Moscow, 1999), 77 Google Scholar.

2 Wortman, Richard S., Scenarios of Power: Myth and Ceremony in Russian Monarchy, 2 vols. (Princeton, 1995-2000)Google Scholar; Kelly, Catriona, Refining Russia: Advice Literature, Polite Culture, and Gender from Catherine to Yeltsin (Oxford, 2001)Google Scholar, which does take the story into the Soviet period. Kelly points out that even at the height of Stalinism, the denunciation of “foreignness” (inostranshchina) was combined with a “secret and extreme pleasure … in Western products” and the west was imagined “as both a civilizing and corrupting force“ (232,236).

3 Since the mid-1990s a noteworthy wing of Russian-language historiography has attempted to study the image of the west in the Soviet Russian popular consciousness, with special reference to party-state propaganda and control over information; see, most importandy, Golubev, A. V. et al., Rossiia i zapad: Formirovanie vneshnepoliticheskikh stereotipov v soznanii rossiiskogo obshchestua pervoipoloviny XXveka (Moscow, 1998)Google Scholar.

4 Paperno, Irina, “Personal Accounts of the Soviet Experience,” Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 3, no. 4 (Fall 2002): 577–610 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 On the one side are those looking at the problem through the lens of “subjectivity,“ including the internalization of 1930s attempts to transform or “reforge” the self (Jochen Hellbeck, “Laboratories of the Soviet Self: Diaries from the Stalin Era” [Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1998], centering on the case of Podlubnyi, Stepan, Tagebuch aus Moskau 1931-1930, ed. Hellbeck, [Munich, 1986]Google Scholar, as well as Hellbeck's various articles) or the articulation of attendant discourses dictating the making of the “new person” ( Haifin, Igal, From Darkness to Light: Class, Consciousness, and Salvation in Revolutionary Russia [Pittsburgh, 2000]Google Scholar). On the other side are those (generally in Anglo-American scholarship) stressing rejection or distance from official categories on the part of “ordinary people” or subaltern groups or (especially in much recent Russian scholarship) on the part of the nonparty intelligentsia. See, in the first instance, Davies, Sarah, Popular Opinion in Stalin's Russia: Terror, Propaganda, andDissent, 1934-1941 (Cambridge, Eng., 1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and, in the second, the reverent treatment of intelligentsia memoirs in Golubev et al., Rossiia i zapad, 158-60 and periodically throughout the text.

6 The importance of generational cohorts has long been noted in Soviet history, most famously in Sheila Fitzpatrick, Education and Social Mobility in the Soviet Union, 1921- 1934 (Cambridge, Eng., 1979). But it was often difficult to study the second element— generational consciousness—especially in the study of individual figures in the prewar era.

7 Glebov, Sergei, Mogil'ner, Marina, and Semenov, Aleksandr, “The Story of Us: Proshloe i perspektivy modernizatsii gumanitarnogo znaniia glazami istorikov,” Novoe literalurnoe obozrenie, no. 59 (2003): 203 Google Scholar. These authors, however, charge that western authors with whom they disagree are soft on the gulag (202-3) and seem unaware that the limitations of discourse analysis they identify were long ago debated by historians of Russia. The authors present themselves as especially attuned to the dangers of slavishly adopting western categories in writing “our history“; indeed, such influences are pervasive in their own language and approach.

8 In Arosev's case we will also see an ethos of self-criticism that in some respects connects him to younger people in the 1930s. For a postwar diary suggesting a gulf between public conformity and personal dissent, see Keep, John, “Sergei Sergeevich Dmitriev and His Diary,” Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 4, no. 3 (Summer 2003): 709–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 See Golubev et al., Rossiia i zapad, 129-31.

10 Dullin, Sabine, Des hommes d'influences: Les ambassadeurs de Staline en Europe 1930- 1939 (Paris, 2001), 75 Google Scholar; see also 68, 76.

11 The most influential voice explicitly discussing the role of ideology understood in this way as central to the course of Soviet history has been that of Martin Malia, starting in The Soviet Tragedy: A History of Socialism in Russia, 1917-1991 (New York, 1994) and finishing, more recently, with his many journalistic pieces. Cf. Kotkin, Stephen, Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization (Berkeley, 1995), 151 Google Scholar, 356. For the influence of Malia's neototalitarian perspective on ideology as a master key to Soviet history, one that can be analytically isolated to explain its unfolding rather than understood as evolving in constant interrelationship with “circumstances,” see Weiner, Amir, “Nature, Nurture, and Memory in a Socialist Utopia: Delineating the Soviet Socio-Ethnic Body in the Age of Socialism,” American Historical Review 104, no. 4 (1999): 1115 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 1119; for rare critiques of Malia's conception of ideology, see Kotsonis, Yanni, “The Ideology of Martin Malia,” Russian Review 58, no. 1 (January 1999): 124–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Priestland, David, “Marx and the Kremlin: Writing on Marxism-Leninism and Soviet Politics after the Fall of'Communism,“ Journal of Political Ideologies 5, no. 3 (October 2000): 377–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 See Arosev's autobiography from the Society of Old Bolsheviks, Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv sotsial'no-politicheskoi istorii (RGASPI), f. 124, op. 1, ed. khr. 80,11. 4 - 14 (“Arosev, Aleksandr Iakovlevich“); Trachenko, Nikolai, “Sled na zemle,” introduction to Arosev, Belaia lestnitsa: Roman, povesti, rasskazy (Moscow, 1989), 3–17 Google Scholar; Popov, V. V., “Arosev, Aleksandr Iakovlevich,” in Skatova, N. N., ed., Russkie pisate.li XX vek: Biobibliograficheskii slovar’ (Moscow, 1998), 1:84–86 Google Scholar. The Soviet-era biography of Arosev by Anatolii Chernobaev, Vvikhre veka (Moscow, 1987), contains a wealth of information on all phases of Arosev's life, but the information is selectively chosen and presented.

13 RGASPI, f. 124, op. 1, ed. khr. 80, 11. 13-14 (“Arosev, Aleksandr Iakovlevich“).

14 Ibid., II. 4-14; Aroseva and Maksimova, Bez grima, 28-30, 32-33, 86; Aroseva, Natal'ia, Sled na zemle:Dokumental'naiapovest'ob ottse (Moscow, 1987), 146–65Google Scholar; Trachenko, “Sled na zemle,” 4-9.

15 RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, ed. khr. 695, 1. 1, Arosev to Stalin, 20 June 1924. On Arosev's work at the Lenin Institute, see Chernobaev, Vvikhre veka, 135-47.

16 RGASPI, f. 124, op. 1, ed. khr. 80, 11. 5 -6 (“Arosev, Aleksandr Iakovlevich“); see also Trachenko, “Sled na zemle,” 7-8; Chernobaev, Vvikhre veka, 30.

17 Dullin,i)” homines d'influences, 9, 76-78, 101-7.

18 Popov, “Arosev,” 85.

19 Aroseva, Sled na zemle, 167.

20 Aroseva and Maksimova, Bez grima, 47. Diary entry from 7 November 1932. See also Chernobaev, Vvikhre veka, 157-58, 166.

21 For a bibliography of his works published between 1920 and 1933, see “Spisok knig A. la. Aroseva, izdannykh pri ego zhizni,” in Arosev, Belaia kstnitsa, 555.

22 Maguire, Robert A., Red Virgin Soil: Soviet Literature in the 1920's (1968; reprint Evanston, 2000), 317 Google Scholar, 319, referring to Arosev, “Na zemle pod solntsem,” Krasnaia nov', 1927, no. 9.

23 Popov, “Arosev,” 85.

24 Levidov, Mikhail, “O piamatsati—trista strok,” Lef 1923, no. 1:247 Google Scholar.

25 Ibid., 84; on the three proletarian writers, Brown, Edward J., Russian Literature since the Revolution, rev. and enl. ed. (Cambridge, Mass., 1982), 110–22Google Scholar.

26 Voronskii, A., Na styke (sbornik statei) (Moscow, 1923), 156–64Google Scholar.

27 Maguire, Red Virgin Soil, 232.

28 Ibid., 93, referring to Arosev, , Zapiski Terentiia Zabytogo (“Strada“): Povest’ (Berlin, 1922)Google Scholar; Popov, “Arosev,” 85. For a different perspective on the “profound ambivalence” of this work, see Gorham, Michael, Speaking in Soviet Tongues: Language Culture and the Politics of Voice in Revolutionary Russia (DeKalb, 2003), 95–100 Google Scholar. I am grateful to Michael Gorham for sharing relevant chapters of the book before its publication.

29 Zavalishin, Viacheslav, Early Soviet Writers (Freeport, N.Y., 1958), 208 Google Scholar.

30 Voronskii, Na styke, 157.

31 Popov, “Arosev,” citing Gorbachev, G., Ocherki sovremennoi russkoi literatury (Leningrad, 1925), 78 Google Scholar.

32 On Krugand Arosev's literary patronage in the 1920s, see Maguire, Red Virgin Soil, 32 Popov, “Arosev,” 84; Trachenko, “Sled na zemle,” 14-16. Both Erenburg novels were published in Berlin by Gelikon in 1923; Trest D. E. was issued the next year in Khar'kov by Gosizdat Ukrainy (which Arosev headed in 1920) and Zhizn’ i gibel’ Nikolaia Kurbova was published in Moscow in 1923.

33 Brown, Russian Literature, 151.

34 Aroseva and Maksimova, Bez grima, 12; Aroseva, Sled na zemle, 225-27.

35 RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, ed. khr. 695,11. 2-4, Arosev to Stalin, 3 December 1929.

36 Aroseva and Maksimova, Bez grima, 84.

37 Arosev, Notably, Senskie berega: Roman (Moscow, 1928)Google Scholar.

38 Gorham, Speaking in Soviet Tongues, 152.

39 Ibid., 153.

40 Arosev, Aleksandr, “Na Zapad,” in Moskva-Parizh (Leningrad, 1925), 3–9 Google Scholar.

41 Cf. the treatment of national stereotypes in Arosev, “Amerikanets v Evrope,” in Arosev, Belaia lestnitsa, 512-24.

42 Arosev, “Na Zapad,” 3.

43 A number of different diary entries, moreover, are cited throughout Chernobaev, V vikhre veka, and in “Aleksandr Iakovlevich Arosev,” Istoriia SSSR, no. 4 (1967): 111-20.

44 Arosev, diary entries from 6 March 1935, 4 December 1935, and 13 August 1936, in Aroseva and Maksimova, Bezgrima, 73-75.

45 Arosev, diary entries from 7 October 1934 and 3 January 1934, in Aroseva and Maksimova, Bezgrima, 74, 79-80.

46 Arosev, diary entries from 5 November 1932, 24 October 1933, 9 December 1933, and 28 September 1934, in Aroseva and Maksimova, Bezgrima, 46, 49, 50-51, 73.

47 Arosev, diary entry from 26January 1934, in Chernobaev, Vvikhre veka, 178.

48 Aroseva and Maksimova, Bezgrima, 84-85.

49 Arosev, diary entries from 13, 16, 22 August 1936, 5 September 1936, and 22 December 1936, in Aroseva and Maksimova, Bezgrima, 73-76.

50 Arosev, diary entries from 6 August 1933, 14June 1934, and 24 October 1933, in Aroseva and Maksimova, Bez grima, 48, 52, 72. See also 63. On the “culturedness” campaign, see Kelly, Refining Russia, 230-311.

51 Arosev, diary entry from [no day] December 1935, in Aroseva and Maksimova, Bez grima, 61-63.

52 Aroseva and Maksimova, Bez grima, 37.

53 Arosev, diary entries from 26 September 1934 and 23 September 1934, in Aroseva and Maksimova, Bez grima, 64-65, 72-73; see also 45, 73, 75.

54 Arosev, diary entry from 26 September 1934, in Aroseva and Maksimova, Bez grima, 65.

55 Arosev, diary entries from 18 July 1935 and [no day] December 1934, in Aroseva and Maksimova, Bezgrima, 70, 66-67.

56 Arosev, diary entry from 7 January 1935, in Aroseva and Maksimova, Bez giima, 67-69. For a full-length consideration of Rolland's Sovietophilia, see Michael David-Fox, “The ‘Heroic Life’ of a Friend of Stalinism: Romain Rolland and Soviet Culture” (unpublished manuscript).

57 Arosev, diary entry from 26 September 1934, in Aroseva and Maksimova, Bez grima, 65.

58 Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv literatury i iskusstva (RGALI), f. 631, op. 14, ed. khr. 3, 11. 2, 4 - 5 (“Stenogramma doklada A. la. Aroseva ‘O vstrechakh i besedakh s vidneishimi predstaviteliami zapadno-evropeiskoi intelligentsii’ 4-go maia 1935 g.“).

59 Ibid., 11. 16-17.

60 Ibid., 1.22.

61 Ibid., 1.20.

62 Ibid., 11. 22-23.

63 Arosev, Besedy i vstrechy s nashimi druz'iami vEvrope (Moscow, 1935), 31-32.

64 Ibid., 13.

65 Ibid., 6.

66 RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, ed. khr. 695,11. 2-4, Arosev to Stalin, 12 March 1929. In the original, the emphasized phrase was written in capital letters.

67 Ibid., 11. 107-8, Arosev to Stalin, 3 March 1934, emphasis in the original.

68 RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, ed. khr. 695,1. 16, Arosev to Stalin, no date [1930].

69 RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, ed. khr. 695, 11. 5-15, Arosev to Stalin, no date [1929].

70 Ibid., 1. 16, Arosev to Stalin, 29 April 1931, emphasis in the original.

71 Ibid., 11. 56-57, Arosev to Stalin, 23 May 1931.

72 Ibid., 11. 59-60, Arosev to Stalin, 31 July 1931.

73 RGASPI, f. 56, op. 1, d. 1013, 11. 1-2 (“A. Arosev, Pred. VOKS. Predsedateliu Soveta narodnykh kommissarov-t. Molotovu, 13 fevralia 1935“); ibid., 11. 3, 4, letters to Litvinovand Ezhov, 17 November 1936; Gosudarstvennyi arkhiv Rossiiskoi federatsii, Moscow (GARF), f. R-5283, op. la, d. 308,1. 47, Arosev to Ezhov, probably May 1936.

74 RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, ed. khr. 695, 11. 156-57, 158-59, 160, Arosev to Stalin, 23 October 1934, 7July 1935, and 22January 1936.

75 RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, ed. khr. 775,1. 3 (“Beseda t. Stalina s Romen Rollanom,“ 28 June 1935); Aroseva and Maksimova, Bez grima, 27-28. For a discussion of all the documentary evidence on the meeting, see David-Fox, “The ‘Heroic Life’ of a Friend of Stalinism.“

76 GARF, f. R-5283, op. la, d. 276, 11. 76-77 (“Sekretariu TsK VKP(b) tovarishchu Stalinu. Dokladnaia zapiska. O propagande sovetskoi kul'ture zagranitsei i razvitie raboty VOKS. 5/3/35“); GARF, f. R-5283, op. la, d. 308, 11. 59-64 (“Proekt dokladnoi zapiski v Politbiuro TsK VKP(b) o VOKS“e“); GARF, f. R-5283, op. la, d. 277,11. 99-104, (“V Otdel kul't-prosvetitel'noi raboty TsK. Dokladnaia zapiska. A. Arosev,” no later than November 1935); GARF, f. R-5283, op. la, d. 276,1. 21, A. Arosev to L. M. Kaganovich, 25January 1935. He wrote to Kaganovich in the familiar ty form.

77 RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, ed. khr. 695,1. 161, Arosev to Stalin, 9 April 1936.

78 Ibid., 11. 162, 164, Arosev to Stalin, 4 August 1936.

79 Ibid., 1. 165.

80 GARF, f. 5283, op. la, d. 342, 11. 41-48, Arosev to Nikita Khrushchev, 22 March 1937; GARF, f. 5283, op. 2a, d. 1, 11. 1-5 (“V. Smirnov, BRIO Pred. VOKS. Sekretariu TsK VKP(b) tov. Andreevu, A. A. 22/111-38“)

81 Aroseva and Maksimova, Bez grima, 86.

82 Arosev, diary entry from 26 September 1934, in Aroseva and Maksimova, Bez grima, 65.