Figes - Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia

The title of Orlando Figes' book, Natasha's Dance (2002), is derived from a scene from Tolstoy's War and Peace, that depicts a privileged young countess, Natasha, as she first discovers her 'Russianness" when invited to dance in a simple peasant cottage with an endeared Uncle. As Figes recounts, "Are we to suppose, as Tolstoy asks us to in this romantic scene, that a nation such as Russia may be held together by the unseen threads of a native sensibility?" (Kindle locator #125) The question here is if there is such a thing as Russian consciousness or if there are only impressions from folklore, religion, beliefs, and habits that have accumulated over generations?

Figes' recounting of Russian history from the 18th through to the middle of the 20th centuries incorporates many different artistic voices (Karamzin, Pushkin, Glinka, Gogol, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Repin, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninov, Diaghilev, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Chagall, Kandinsky, Mandelstam, Akkmatova, Nabokov, Pasternak, Meyerhold, and Eisenstein) who were; authors of novels, poets, painters, architects, urban planners, dancers, and musicians. Because of my own interest, the last category (music) will be the primary content summarized in this review.

Although numerous cities and regions of Russia were introduced by Figes, it was St. Petersburg (successively called Petrograd, Leningrad, and now back to St. Petersburg) that stands out. St. Petersburg was the vision of Tsar Peter the Great who established St. Petersburg at the western edge of Russia so that it would face Europe and would, through its architecture and art, both emulate and surpass Europe's dominance in all things creative. Peter the Great's aspiration seemed to capture the imagination of Russians, and artists in particular, who "took it upon themselves to create a national community of values and ideas through literature and art." (locator #145)

St. Petersburg was a central location to advance art and it was a catalyst for other aristocrats who had vast numbers of serfs and who built and acted in serf theaters and played in orchestras for the entertainment of the elites. The style of the monumental buildings erected on these estates was Italian and the early Russian composers were equally inspired by the Italian style (Glinka, Tchaikovsky, and Stravinsky among them). A French influence emerged somewhat later and was equally impactful, resulting in the adoption of French as the 'language of the court' until late in the 19th century.

The unfortunate reality of the period of Tsars from Peter the Great through Nicholas II (the last Tsar) was that the privileged elites were given so much power over the serfs and peasants, power that would eventually be challenged in political and activist movements. The 'Decembrists,' who believed that every human should be accorded worth and dignity, emerged from encounters with western countries that were beginning to democratize in the early 1800s. The liberating views of the Decembrists led to idealizing the lives of peasants, celebrating childhood as an important and impressionable time, and incorporating folkways into art, particularly in music.

Prokofiev's The Ugly Duckling (1914) and Peter and the Wolf (1936) are examples of the delightful attention given to children's entertainment and learning. The "Mighty Five" Russian composers (Balakirev, Ckui, Musorgsky, Borodin, and Rimsky-Korsakov) adopted folk music and incorporated distinctive Russian elements (tonal mutability, heterophony, and use of parallel 5ths, 4ths, and 3rds) into their music, with Musorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition reflecting and defining this style. Stravinsky, was the first Russian "composer to assimilate folk music as an element of style - using not just its melodies but its harmonies and rhythms as the basis of his own distinctive 'modern' style" in The Firebird and Petrushka. (locator #5169) The later Soviet era ushered in other great Russian composers such as Khachaturian and Shostakovich whose scores came to prominence in film (Shostakovich - The New Babylon). Shostakovich eventually offered the ultimate satire under the watchful eye of Soviet authorities in his Symphony #7 (Leningrad), Symphony #13 (Babi Yar), and other works. The talented composers and other artists who were able to escape the growing hegemony of the Soviet regime from 1917 forward dispersed to Berlin, Paris, New York, and Hollywood where they would form diaspora communities reveling in and transcending the cultural legacy of Russia's past.

The Decembrists emerged from the encounters of aristocrats with peasants during the war of French invasion in 1812. A growing belief was that the military was a family where respect was accorded to all, regardless of rank or class. From the Decembrist movement forward, the distinction between the elites and peasants was broken down and would eventually lead to erasing former class distinctions. This was a seed that would lead to a greater sense of shared 'Russianness' and advocacy for a national language and other cultural indicators of national pride. Sergie Volkonsky, exiled for his Decembrist affiliation, was a central figure of the privileged class abandoning its loyalty to class as it embraced the emerging national fervor. The February revolution of 1917 swept the Tsarist monarchy away and Bolshevism followed in October as a dictatorship under the Proletariat. "Striving for pravda, for truth and social justice,... gave the Revolution its quasi-religious status." (locator #7935) The "Soviet 'war against the palaces'" would become "a war on privilege and the cultural symbols of the tsarist past." (locator #8076)

Religion played a prominent role throughout the 18th and 19th centuries with the devoted asserting Russia to be the only place where Orthodox (assuming "correct ritual") religion survived after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Moscow was the center of this religious fervor. Figes quoted a Russian proverb that "'Petersburg is our head, Moscow is our heart'" (locator #3002) that captures the tension between the modernizing, westernizing environment of St. Petersburg versus Moscow where Russians felt they could really be 'Russian.' Religious orthodoxy based on the "'Russian principle' of Christian love," that "would save humanity from the selfish individualism of the West" (locator #5764) made Russia a ripe environment for anarchists and utopians, of which Tolstoy was a prominent example.

"This book will seek to demonstrate, there is a Russian temperament, a set of native customs and beliefs, something visceral, emotional, instinctive, passed on down the generations, which has helped to shape the personality and bind together the community." (locator #198) A statement from the beginning of Figes' book, this quote captures where many readers will end up - Russia has a distinct culture that is reflected in its art but is like St. Petersburg, an amalgam of many ideas, philosophies, and customs. This book documents what many Russian people know, which is that Russia is like many countries around the world - connected by the flow of people, ideas, and cultures across artificial borders.