LENIN and culture has

been the subect dealt
with in a number of research
works, memoirs and articles
based on abundant docunten-
tary material. In. this brief
sketch I sheuld like to intro-
duce the reader to a few pas-
Sages from Lenin typifying

various aspects of his views on

this question.

The great founder
Soviet state could not and did
not stand aside from any
sphere of the spiritual activity
and cultural development of
the people.

Lenin considered that in
building up a new culture it
was necessary to start with a
critical assimilation of the
cultural heritage of the past.
He called upon the young
people to acquire “an exact
knowledge of the culture cre-
ated by the whole development
of © mankind.” The  cukure
which is growing up in the
Soviet state is “the result of
the natural development of
those stores of knowledge
whlich mankind had accumu_
lated. . .” 4

The Soviet people had to
overcome their cultural back-
wardness, that is why Lenin
paid so much attention to the
question of the struggle for
literacy, a struggle which laid
the foundations for the further
economic and cultural growth
of the country.

“We must try to make the
ability to. read and ‘write serve
the purpose of raising’ the level
of culture, try to make the
peasant learn to read and write
for the purpose of improving
his farm and his state.”

Is the. rapid cultural prog-
ress of that state possible?
Lenin answered.in the affirma-
tive. For “nowhere are the
masses of the people so inter-
ested in real culture as in our
country, nowhere are the prob-
lems of culture presented so
profoundly and so consistently
as in our country.”

In Klara Zetkin’s memoirs
there is a record of her con-
versation with Lenin about art.
Zetkin had a habit of writing
down conversations she had
had either the same evening,
or-the next morning, or at
night; she had a splendid mem-
ory and we can be sure that
her notes preserve for us what
Lenin actually said. In her
notes she quotes Lenin’s actual
words: “Art belongs to the
people. It should strike fits
deepest roots down into the
very heart of the masses. It

should awaken and develop
latent artistic talent among
them.”

@

ENIN’S interpretation of the
popular nature and the hu-
manitarian aims of art must
be borne in mind when consid-
ering his appreciation of clas-
sical -music, in particular his
deep understanding of Bee.
thoven and his lively interest
in the forms of art more ac-
cessible to the masses.

In Gorky’s memoirs we find
this passage: “One evening, in
Moscow, at Catherine Peshka
va’s flat, Lenin sat listening
to Beethoven’s sonatas. “TI
know nothing greater than the
“Atpassionata.”’ I could listen
to it every day,’ he said... ‘It’s
glorious, superhuman music.
And perhaps it’s a bit naive
and childish of me, but I al-
ways think proudly: look what
amazing things people can do!”

Nadezhda Krupskaya says

PAGE 10 — PACIFIC ADVOCATE

of the

enin Traced Roots Of Art To

that Lenin -often asked Inessa
Armand, his “great friend and
a fine musician, to play Bee-
thoven’s Sonata “Pathetique”
for him.

When Lenin was living in
Paris he was fond of visiting
little theatres where the “chan-
soniers”’ commented on current
events in witty couplets.

He loved to listen to Monte-

gus singing the song, “We
salute You, Soldiers of the
Seventeenth!” These soldiers

had refused to fire at strikers.
Lenin himself at this time
used to be always humming a
song that he learned from the
charwoman who came to do his
flat:
“Vous avez
Lorraine,
Mais malgre vous nous rester-
ons Francais.

Vous avez pu germaniser nos
plaines,

Mais notre coeur—vous ne

VYaurez jamais!”

“You have taken Alsace and
Lorraine, but still we are
French. You may germanize
our fields, but never our
hearts!’’)

pris Alsace et

As for literature, in addition
to Lenin’s classic writings
on Tolstoy, there is an enor-
mous amount of material on
literature to be found scattered
throughout his works.

Before the October Revolu-
tion, when Lenin frequently
had to resort to Aesopian
language to outwit. the tsarist
censors; he had redourse to
quotations from the works. of
the Russian satirists (Salty-
kov-Shehedrin, Gogol, Griboy-
tdov, Krylov). A most inter-
esting book, ‘“DLenin’s Library
quotations,” gives some very
valuable data on these refer
ences. Most of them are taken

‘

By Helen Starrova

from Saltykov-Shchedrin. Len-
in introduces them into his
polemics with political oppon-
ents, whom he labels with the
names iof various characters
from Saltykov’s works. Lenin
had a brilliant memory, and
he often introduced quotations
without looking them up in the
original.

Alexander Pushkin was one
of Lenin’s favorite writers.
Nadezhda Krupshaya de-
clared that “he (Lenin) loved
Pushkin best of all.” In an-

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other place, recounting a visit
Lenin paid to the students of
the Higher Art and Technical
Studios, Krupskaya writes that
when Lenin asked “What do
you read? Do you read Push-
kin?’—one of the students
answered that they read May-
akovsky,-upon which Lenin re-
marked: “In my opinion Push-
kin is better.” This does not
imply that Lenin meant to dis-
parage Mayakovsky; it is well
known how keenly he appreci-

ated Mayakovsky’s satiric
verse directed against the
bureaucrats.

Lenin’s analysis of the most
complex aspects of the art of
Leo Tolstoy remains unsur-
passed. He wrote: “The con-
tradictions in Tolstoy’s works.
views and teachings are glar-
ing indeed. On the one hand
we have the brilliant artist
who has produced not only in-
comparable pictures of Russian
life, but also first-class works
of world literature. On the
other hand we have a country

squire’ acting the fool in
Christ. On the. one hand we
have a remarkably powerful,
direct and sincere’ protest.

against social lies. and false-
hood, while on. the other, the
“Tolstoyan,” i.e., the washed-
out, hysterical, cry-baby
known as the Russian intellec-
tual, who beats his breast and
eries: I am vile, I am wretched,
but I am morally perfecting
myself: I do not gat meat any-
more and now feed only on rice
patties.”

Some brilliant pages in Gor-
ky’s memoirs help us to under
stand Lenin’s attitude towards
Tolstoy.

“Once I dropped in on him,”
writes Gorky, “and there on
the table I see a volume of
‘War and Peace.’ ‘Yes, Tolstoy.
I wanted to read over the part
about the hunt. And then I
remembered that I had to write

‘the subtle touches there

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to a comrade. I ean’t
moment for reading. ©
night I read your boo
Tolstoy.’ Smiling, hi
wrinkled iat tle corn
stretched out with obv:-
joyment in his armcha.
dropping. his voice, ec
rapidly: ‘What a coloss:
What an absolute suj.
There’s an artist for yi -
do you know what ‘is st
amazing about him?)
mouzhik’s way of 5
and thinking, the real
hik in him. Before thi-
there wasn’t a genuine.
in literature. Then 5:
up his eyes and looking
he added: ‘Can you pla
one in Europe beside
And himself answeret
one!’ ” :
Equally valuable dat: |
be found in Krupskaya* 4
oirs concerning Lenin
mate of the
thinker
shevsky, of whom he w.
fond. te
“He loved Chernysh |
novel ‘What Is to Be Do :
spite of its naive and |
inartistic *form. I wa
prised to see how carefj
read this novel and noti

ils

it. So far as that ga
loved everything about!
yshevsky, and had “two
of him in his Siberian!
(the album Lenin kept.
his exile in Siberia—t
One of the photos bea-
dates of the birth and di
the writer in Lenin’s ha‘
Lenin had a very higt 31
ion of Herzen. In an
“In Memory of Herzen,”
quoted a passage fron
writer about thoSe-who «
ized and led the reve
December 14, 1825, agair. ‘
regime of Nikolai I:

were real titans, pure :
from head to foot, wi §
aesthetics, going cons
to their doom in ord

arouse the young gen:
to new life and purit |
children born in the mi /

“And amongst those chi

al

wrote Lenin, “was |
himself. The revolt of t©

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