Capitals, Oligarchs and Cats

Moscow & St. Petersburg

1900-1920: Art, Life & Culture

John E. Bowlt (Vendome, $50)

This lushly illustrated volume captures the artistic explosion that was Russia’s Silver Age. From Blok and Akhmatova, to Stravinsky, Bakst, Repin, Pasternak, Vrubel and Meyerhold, the first two decades of the 20th century were a time of exciting and colorful artistic experimentation in Russia. As Bowlt (a member of this magazine’s Advisory Board) writes in the introduction: “there was something unique and unrepeatable about the Russian Silver Age. It acknowledged the new art and science of the West, but tailored them to local exigencies so as to produce an effervescent cocktail...” 

With thematic chapters exploring everything from ballet to Symbolism (and of course the glowering backdrop of revolution and imperial decline) and a thoroughly enthralling collection of photography and artwork (650 illustrations in all), Bowlt has assembled an uncommonly beautiful and useful reference on an era which too often is overshadowed by the hurricane of repression that inundated it.

We will never see anything again like the Silver Age, not in Russia, nor anywhere else. But, thanks to this new work, we can walk through it again, albeit at our almost incomprehensible historical remove.

I Was a Potato Oligarch

John Mole (Nicholas Brealey, $17.95)

As a rule, I do not review books which replace their capital R’s with Russian Я’s. I find it to be a rather reliable predictor (along with, say, matryoshkas) that hokiness lies between the covers. 

Thankfully, I forgot that rule for a moment and picked up John Mole’s memoir of his years working to set up a fast food chain in Russia. Laced with a refreshingly dry and self-deprecating wit, it is chock full of the sort of odd characters and unbelievable events that make a story worth telling.

Mole mostly keeps the story from getting too personal, and his relaxed style becomes welcoming, once it grows on you. Admittedly, there is too much “proverb-dropping,” as well as several forced attempts to wittily encapsulate cultural differences. But this is offset by Mole’s willingness to disclose the fullness of his naivete.

In the end, when he sticks to his principals and chucks the whole project rather than make a Faustian deal, he is rewarded from an unexpected quarter, tying the story up in almost fabular fashion, reminding that success usually comes through a mixture of bull-headed persistence and cosmic luck.

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Doctor Seuss (Russia Online, $15.95)

A Great Time

Masha Shurin (White Stag, $19.95)

With the approach of the holidays, I had to highlight these two wonderful new children’s books. Seuss’s classic Cat in the Hat is presented entirely in Russian, with the familiar illustrations and an original translation by Vladimir Gandlesman. While nothing could ever approach the Seussian original, any excuse or means to expand the doctor’s influence to new audiences should be welcomed. And this fun translation stands up well on its own merits.

A Great Time is an original collection of bilingual poems by a Russian-American, with bright, fun illustrations, which together convey themes of hope, friendship, civility and sharing. A great gift for a Russian-American child.