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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

The Unrehabilitated Art of a Vanished Country 

10 November, 1998 - 00:00

The October 1917 Russian Revolution begot not only that unique state
"of workers and peasants" but also a special school of art. Now this state
is no more. And what of its art?

The Lenin Museum is no longer on what we know today as Yevropeiska Ploshcha
(European Square). I do not say this is a bad thing. What I personally
regret is that, apart from the revolutionary leader's shirt its display
included 400 works of art, 1,200 prints, over 200 sculptures, and 17,000
pieces of printed matter, including about 300 unique printed miniatures
of Leniniana, also a collection of carpets dedicated to Lenin, including
unique handmade works from Central Asia and Azerbaijan, and porcelain and
cut-glass vessels. What has become of all these exhibits? The Day asked
Ms. Nina Sheiko, former head of the Lenin museum stock, now responsible
for the Ukrainian House stocks.

N. S.: When we realized that the time of the Lenin Museum was
up we continued to display what was here, but we sent all the original
items to the Ukrainian House's stock. As for the museum management, its
previous and modern membership showed no intention of dumping any of the
items on display, but there was public opinion: passions were unleashed
as soon as perestroika began. I remember a rally when a coffin was brought
and they demanded that we bury Lenin, even though symbolically, meaning
that we would have to dump everything remaining on display. No one even
bothered to consider the possibility of handing what we had over to other
museum stocks. As for the Lenin (Ulianov) House Museum (incidentally boasting
antique furniture and a unique library), it was torn down and the items
of display transferred to the Kyiv History Museum stock.

Q: What about the interesting items on Lenin Museum display?

N. S.: Our collection was an extremely multifaceted one. Apart
from items dedicated to the main theme, we had a large number of other
works. In real life much depends on certain creative individuals, their
taste and possibilities. We had not only socialist realism, but also avant-garde,
folk-decorative art, and simply good solid realism. We have works created
by Rokytsky, Pavlenko, Zhukov, Vasyliev, Ivanov-Akhmetov, Andreyev, Krebel,
Pinchuk, and Nikushin, the latter famous for his Pushkin series. Of course,
one could call them all Soviet court painters. So they were, so what? Only
topnotch artists were accepted there. Take Ilya Repin. He painted both
the Russian emperor's portrait and "Volga Boatmen", didn't he?

We also had canvases by Stalin's "court artist" Nalbadjan (which, together
with the other Stalin series, had been kept off display since 1956); we
had works portraying Nikita Khrushchev, also kept in the special reserve
since 1964. Too bad. I think they should all be displayed. For example,
we have a unique carpet made by Vovchenko titled "The Stalin Constitution."
Looking at it, seeing Stalin on the podium with white lambs playing at
his foot, people dancing the fiery Caucasian lezginka, one is instantly
reminded of that epoch, a peculiar combination of servility and enthusiasm.
Bad or good, we had it, didn't we? This is something all those scolding
us for preserving all these works of art and secretly craving the restoration
of socialism, should realize in the first place. We preserve them only
from the point of view of their undeniable artistic and historic value.

Q: Has anyone offered to buy any of these unique exhibits, considering
that socialist realism is quite in demand on the world market?

N. S.: At the beginning of perestroika we were visited by a sharp
looking pair of young men interested in sculpture and miniature printed
matter. I remember being offered $50 for a little book of the series back
in 1991.

We are not planning to offer anything for auction, because our items
are truly priceless. We hope that the time will come when all ideological
restrictions are lifted and we will be able to display everything we have.
We have modern museum expositions featuring emperors, tsars, and kaisers.
These are regarded as objets d'art, not as propaganda of monarchy.

PS: I asked six-year-old Marharyta: "Do you know a man named Lenin?"
She replied without the slightest hesitation, "Sure. He is the President."
"The President? What President?" my voice was not as steady as I had meant
it. "The French President, of course," the girl told me. Thank God she
does not think of him as the president of one of those trust companies
we have, I told myself.

Our children are growing up fast, on the same land but in a different
country, learning the same ABCs, except that when they spot red flags at
a distance they shout happily, "Look, Mom, another McDonald's!" In a word,
the point is who is trying to revive socialist realism and for whom.

 

 

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