COMMUNITY

Say what you want about Russia – there’s one thing that I hope never changes in this country, and that’s the way in which poetry remains relevant to public life.

Presidential candidate Vladimir Putin reminded me of as much when he stood at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow and quoted an 1837 Mikhail Lermontov poem about Russian soldiers dying at the Battle of Borodino, which is usually referenced as the bloodiest day of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia.

Analysts are already having a field day as to what the Lermontov quote means in the context of Putin’s campaign – whether or not it’s alarmist, whether it signals strength or, indeed, severe doubt about the future of this nation. But as a literature geek, I was reminded of the big role that poetry plays in public life in Russia.

In this election cycle, writer Dmitry Bykov’s popular “Citizen Poet” project has made for a wonderful mixture of poetry, politics and current affairs. And when people want to make a point about, say, how disappointed they are with education reform, they just whip out the text to a classic Russian poem and loudly complain about how most high-schoolers nowadays have no idea as to who the author is.

Poetry and music are frequently mixed together in the work of rock star and prominent opposition figure Yury Shevchuk, while the Soviet-era children’s poet Agnia Barto is often humorously referenced as a prophet, due to her portrayal of a boy named Volodya who never misses a photo opportunity.

All of this is, undoubtedly, a good thing. In the United States, eloquence is frequently read as a sign of weakness or elitism, and poetry is largely a marginalized art form. I can’t imagine a current American presidential hopeful, whether Republican or Democrat, getting up in front of a stadium full of people and wowing them with some lines from Walt Whitman, who was as quintessentially American as Lermontov was quintessentially Russian. A stadium is for machismo, after all! It’s where athletes take to the field! You can’t be down there using fancy words! You’ll look like an idiot! In their daily lives, Russians tend to exhibit machismo much more than Americans do. I think this actually explains why so many Russians are suckers for verse, actually. It acts as a kind of psychological balance – and eloquence furthermore legitimizes toughness.

Russian bard Bulat Okudzhava once painted a touching, nostalgic portrait of Russian military officers during the days of the Russian Empire:

“It’s twilight, in the countryside, a flute’s nervous voice

They’re riding late

The emperor is on the horse in front, in a blue caftan

A white mare with brown eyes, with a black mane

A red blanket. Wings behind his back, as if on the eve of a war

After the emperor, the generals are riding

Generals of his escort

They’re swathed in glory, covered in scars, just barely alive

After the generals, come the duelists, the adjutants. Their epaulets are shining.

They’re all beautiful, they’re all talented, they’re all poets.”

Although Okudzhava wrote his song in 1974 (the translation is mine), history tells us that in Imperial Russia, being a poet did not preclude being a badass. Lermontov himself was a military officer, for example, and was killed in a duel. The same is true of Russia today.

This is why the language of poetry and the language of politics are so frequently intertwined. It’s not that people don’t mind poetry – they expect it.

In Moscow, riding up the escalator at Mayakovskaya metro station, named for poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, one reads poetry inscribed onto the domed ceiling above.

“And the sky, in the smoke, has forgotten that it is blue,” one of the inscriptions reads. The metro passenger, upon reading it, immediately longs for the sky outside – whether blue, or smoky, or otherwise.

Mayakovsky, yet another badass, also lived in an uncertain time for Russia – and his poetry was both artistically and politically relevant. For those who remember, he ended his days tragically. Nowadays, his verse serves as a reminder that beauty and danger don’t just coexist in public life in Russia, they’re frequently indistinguishable from one another. 

Natalia Antonova is the deputy editor-in-chief of The Moscow News. To read more of her columns and blogs, go to http://en.rian.ru (RIA Novosti in English) and www.nataliaantonova.com