Russian literary giant Pushkin labelled as a peddler of porn

Published on 30/01/2005 00:35

HE IS the all-time giant of Russian literature, who shaped the literary heritage of the world’s biggest country.

But now Alexander Pushkin’s legacy is in danger of being tainted by an argument over whether some of his early work is pornographic, and whether his ‘adult verses’ even came from the pen of the ‘National Poet’.

A collection of his poems has been seized by Russian police as part of a crack-down on "obscene" literature. The move has horrified the nation’s literati in a country where serious literature is a serious business and popular with the masses. Only last week, Moscow’s foreign ministry published a book of poems by the nation’s diplomats.

The verses by Pushkin and another giant of Russian writing, Mikhail Lermontov, have been seized by Russian police in the city of Ivanovo, 160 miles north-east of Moscow.

Prosecutors are now studying the volumes, with the help of literary experts, to decide whether they constitute pornography, which is banned, or erotic literature, which is allowed under Russian law. If convicted, the booksellers could be jailed for up to two years.

The investigation follows a complaint made by Vladimir Cherkashov, the regional leader of the small Russian United Industrialists party - a nationalist party which backs president Vladimir Putin.

Cherkashov, who is himself a poet, told the Russian newspaper Gazeta he was appalled by the content of the books and claimed they were corrupting children. He said: "I saw myself how teenagers opened books and giggled. In every line of these poems there are only words that begin with the letters zh, b and kh," he added, referring to the first letters of a number of Russian swearwords.

Cherkasov also denied that Pushkin could have written the erotic poems in the books. He said: "It is not his style."

The importance of Pushkin, who lived from 1799 to 1837, in the development of Russian literature, is difficult to overstate. Dramatisations of his work, some of which became operas and ballets, are ubiquitous in the Russian media on film and television, and in radio dramatisations and readings. His works include Eugene Onegin, Boris Gudonov, and the Captain’s Daughter.

Schoolchildren are required to learn vast amounts of quotations by heart, and allusions and quotes are sprinkled throughout everyday speech. Russians are astonished when Western visitors admit they know little about the poet.

Pushkin’s position at the top of the Pantheon of Russian literature means that debates about the writer are high on the nation’s agenda.

His writings are cited as one of the main reasons foreigners learn Russian, despite its forbidding Cyrillic alphabet and complex grammar.

Dr Andrei Rogatchevski, a specialist in Russian literature at Glasgow University, said: "He is a giant and Russians are very proud of him and of his writings.

"If you compare Pushkin’s place to that of Shakespeare in English literature or Burns in Scots, Pushkin is, if anything, bigger than they are in his central position in the nation’s literature.

"He invented Russian literature as we understand it today, and the modern literary Russian language. Prior to Pushkin, writers used a very archaic and stylised kind of language modern readers will struggle to understand. Pushkin brought the literary language into a new age."

Rogatchevski said serious scholars did believe that Pushkin wrote erotic verse during the early phase of his career. He said: "It is known that he wrote some erotic poetry, and these verses have been analysed over the years.

"There is no real dispute that the verses are his. If anything, it would be strange if he had not written about the subject as part of his literary development and to show his sheer skill with words. Most other poets have written about it."

In addition to the verses by Pushkin, some poems by Lermontov - who lived from 1814 to 1841 and is believed to have had Scottish ancestors - have also been seized.

In contrast to Pushkin, there is no debate over Lermontov’s erotic verses, which were penned while he underwent a period of military training in St Petersburg.

The prudish dismiss the works as the flailing scribblings of an immature young poet, struggling to get to grip with his art. But the owners of the bookshop targeted by the raid have denied they are breaking the law and say they are "bewildered" by the crackdown.

Larisa Rogozina, a spokeswoman for the company Top-Kniga, which operates the store, said they had checked whether the books were legal.

She said: "We have two expert analyses that say the book series is erotica. If the Ivanovo regional prosecutor charges us, we will defend our position in court." And the nation’s literary establishment has reacted with horror to the move.

Alexander Gavrilov, editor of the literary review magazine Knizhnoye Obozreniye, said: "When barbarians take over, the first thing they do is look with horror at the statues of naked bodies in the main square of the empire. They are making decisions that show Russia is turning its back on its culture."

Prior to the Revolution of 1917, Russian literature had a sexy side among minor poets and in folk-verse. But the erotic angle of Russian writing disappeared from sight during the 70 years of communism.

Despite their antagonism towards religion and ‘bourgeois morality’, the communists had a puritanical attitude to sex.

Sex education was minimal, and films which featured nudity were banned.

Curious young people took to watching films from Yugoslavia, which were racier than Soviet fare, but could not be banned by the authorities because they came from a ‘Fellow Socialist’ country.

Even considering the unhinged reputation of post-communist Russia, where some news bulletins have featured nude presenters in an effort to attract viewers, the country has a straight-laced and restrictive attitude to sex in the media.

Western films dubbed into Russian frequently tone down bad language in the translated versions, with the most extreme obscenities being "translated" into almost comically mild phrases.