Tag: history

Book: Isaac Babel “Collected Works. Volume 1”

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babel_1

The way Jewish Odessans speak is something I find incredibly charming—at least, how it’s portrayed, as I’ve never been to Odessa to see for myself. So, I love what I read in jokes or see in films. Two series have stood out to me for capturing the life of Odessa’s courtyards in such a delightful way.

Liquidation, directed by Sergey Ursulyak and starring Vladimir Mashkov as David Gotsman, is an excellent post-war detective story. Even more memorable than the main character is his friend Fima, brilliantly played by Sergey Makovetsky. Lines like, “Return the stolen goods to the calloused hands! You still have to eat off them!” are unforgettable.

The second series is the lighter The Life and Adventures of Mishka Yaponchik, which also plays as a musical, featuring outstanding musical numbers inspired by the songs of the American Barry Sisters. We know that much of what we know about the legendary Odessa gangster Mishka Yaponchik comes thanks to Isaac Babel, who based his character Benya Krik, the “King,” on him. The series builds on Odessa Stories by Babel, though here Benya is called by his real-life inspiration’s name—Mishka Yaponchik.

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Boris Akunin “The Un-Chekhovian Intelligentsia”

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nechehov

When I read Boris Akunin’s book The Life of Remarkable People and Animals a year ago, I had no idea that it was merely a selection of entries from the author’s blog. Moreover, it turned out to be the second part, and I had completely missed the first one. Then, one day, I came across a familiar-looking cover in my recommendations—aha, so that’s the first volume! Titled The Un-Chekhovian Intelligentsia.

Let me remind you that both books together (which I now know) form a collection of rather short notes by the author about various interesting people and facts, initially published by Boris Akunin on his blog, and later released as a book with the subtitle Short Stories About All Sorts of Things.

Yet, regardless of how much the author may veil it with this “all sorts of things,” it’s quite clear that he is primarily interested in people and their lives. The topics are very diverse: tyrants and geniuses, holiday histories, revolutionaries and the civil war, British spies and love stories… but all of it revolves around people.

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Heather Morris “The Tattooist of Auschwitz”

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Those who have known me for a long time remember that the Holocaust holds a special place on my list of important subjects. I read about it myself, and I tell my children what happened and how it happened. Such things must be remembered. So, not a year goes by without me reading a book on the topic or watching a related film.

No one recommended The Tattooist of Auschwitz to me; I happened upon it on a bookstore shelf, and then my wife read it before I did. Although it’s a novel, it is based on the real-life memories of Lale (Ludwig) Sokolov, who worked as a tattooist in Auschwitz for several years during the war, survived, and eventually moved to Australia.

Heather Morris, the author, merely recorded his memories and turned them into a novel. Before this book, she wasn’t well known, working in a hospital and trying her hand at screenwriting. Then she was introduced to Lale…

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Reza Aslan “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth”

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I am not a religious person; I do not believe in God, and, in general, I am very cautious about any religion. I certainly see a significant difference between a deity and the institution of worship built around it. However, religions are a huge part of modern civilization; they have influenced the development of humanity and continue to do so to this day. Therefore, I have always been interested in what lay at the origins, where various teachings began, and what truth has reached us through the ages versus what is merely interpretation and speculation from later generations.

Christianity is over two thousand years old, and everyone except the laziest knows the canonical story of Jesus, but what truly happened? From a historical perspective, who was Jesus of Nazareth? What took place two thousand years ago? This question is explored by countless researchers, presenting history from various perspectives, sometimes creating masterpieces of literature (Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita is worth mentioning). People try to find logical explanations for the contradictions in this history, as demonstrated in the recently described book The Gospel of Afranius by Kirill Yeskov.

But there are also works by genuine historians based on numerous sources. The book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan is one of them.

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Georgiy Daneliya “Nightmare on Tiptoes”

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koshmar

Georgiy Daneliya is one of the most prominent Soviet directors. I can’t say I love all his films, but his works like Walking the Streets of Moscow, Mimino, Kin-dza-dza!, Don’t Grieve!, Afonya, and Autumn Marathon are iconic, along with Gentlemen of Fortune, for which he wrote the script. And that’s not a complete list.

I once stumbled upon excerpts from his memoirs, but I didn’t pay them much attention until I saw a book called A Passenger Without a Ticket at a friend’s—a memoir by the director about his life. I got interested, started reading, and quickly got hooked.

I finished the book in a few days, and at the end, there was a note: “To be continued.” I thought that couldn’t be a coincidence, so I searched online and found that Georgiy Daneliya had actually written three memoirs, later combined into a single cycle, initially called Chito-Grito (when it was a two-part series) and later released as a single book titled Nightmare on Tiptoes.

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“Union of Salvation”

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soyus-spasenia

My wife and I watched Union of Salvation over the weekend.

The film was supposed to tell the story of the Decembrist uprising of 1825. It was these people who called themselves the “Union of Salvation,” intending to “save” Russia from autocracy—as they understood it.

The sets and costumes were great, and the actors weren’t bad. But the script was a big letdown. The entire movie was just a flurry of people and events. Characters come and go at lightning speed; you barely read a name before the next one appears. And for viewers unfamiliar with the history, these character names mean absolutely NOTHING.

Because there’s no explanation at all. If you haven’t read the history, the whole film boils down to “some random men want a revolution, bring out the troops, shout a bit, and die.”

There’s no clarity on what exactly they want, no explanation of why or how they want to achieve it. No motivation. No explanation of who these people are. It’s like the audience is expected to read a history textbook first and only then come to watch. Luckily, I remember some details of these events—not just the Soviet version that glorified the Decembrists as the first Russian revolutionaries who died for the people (even though they actually didn’t care much about the people).

Even the fact that the Union split into Northern and Southern Societies is mentioned so briefly it’s instantly forgotten. And this split wasn’t without reason. At some point, their ideas diverged significantly on what they wanted and the methods to get there, leading to the division.

So, I was deeply disappointed by the viewing. It’s beautiful, but disappointing due to poor directing, because even with some historical knowledge, I’d still want more than just visuals.

The soundtrack, though, was very impressive. I even listened to it several times afterward. They seamlessly blended in “Walking on Water” by Nautilus Pompilius (which is basically the film’s main theme) and even “Vladivostok 2000” by Mumiy Troll. The arrangements came out very interesting.

My rating: 2/5

Kirill Eskov “The Gospel of Afranius”

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Kirill Yeskov is a paleontologist, and writing science fiction and speculative literature is a hobby for him. The Gospel of Afranius is his first work, written in 1995, for which he received the “Big Zilant” award in Kazan. However, he became widely known to science fiction fans in 1999 with the release of The Last Ringbearer, which completely reinterprets the events of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. I would argue that Yeskov laid the groundwork for this approach in The Gospel of Afranius.

This book is an attempt to view the death and ascension of Christ through the lens of cold logic. The “novella” essentially consists of two parts. In the first, the author tries to assess the known facts and inconsistencies in the story as we know it from surviving sources and the Bible, making it more of an analytical essay.

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Robert G. Fresson “Flying Colors”

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The book Flying Colors: A guide to flags from around the world caught my attention with its title. After all, it’s genuinely interesting to learn why each country has its particular flag and what significance lies behind it. The cover even promised to delve into the history of all these colors and shapes. I was intrigued enough to buy the book in print, which I rarely do these days. But I had no choice, as there’s no digital version available.

The book is quite small, just 112 pages. And even those pages don’t contain much text—there’s a lot of graphic content. Plus, early on, the author introduces little helper figures of different colors (they’re even on the cover, raising flags like American marines). It’s unfortunate, though, that these helpers don’t play much of a role later on. They appear in nearly every illustration, but quickly fade into the background, becoming “white noise” that you barely notice. I had expected each one to serve a unique purpose, but that wasn’t the case.

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Yutaka Yazawa “How to Live Japanese”

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Asia has always attracted the “white man” with its otherness. America, by and large, isn’t that different from Europe these days. There’s almost nothing left of its authentic culture, and everything else has been imported from the Old World, though slightly transformed over time. Russians also differ culturally from Europeans and Americans. But none of these differences compare to how distinct we are from Asian cultures. For millennia, they developed in their own way, and this has influenced their way of life, traditions, and even values.

Modern globalization is blurring these boundaries, and cities like Tokyo resemble other major metropolises in America. However, there are still many things that can’t be changed in just a hundred or two hundred years.

Japan is one of those countries. That’s why it was so fascinating to read the thoughts of someone born in Japan, who then left, only to return to live there again after turning forty.

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Boris Akunin “The History of the Russian State. The First Superpower”

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istpriya-7

Well, I continue to follow the history of Russia as interpreted by Boris Akunin, contrary to the opinion of some acquaintances who think it’s not worth doing.

This volume is dedicated to two emperors—Alexander I and Nicholas I. It covers the time when Russia was already recognized as a superpower, claiming the right to shape the world’s destiny.

Unfortunately, the closer the author gets to modern times, the more superficial the narrative becomes. And it raises more and more questions.

Even the first chapter suffers from uneven storytelling. Alexander is portrayed with quick strokes from different angles, but before we even get a proper description of his reign. We haven’t been told in detail about the significant events of his time, yet those events (the War of 1812, Austerlitz, etc.) are constantly referenced. We are tossed back and forth across decades, and due to this lack of sequence, a full picture doesn’t quite come together.

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