La Republica on Ukraine

Kyrill Reznikov kyrill at SYMPATICO.CA
Wed Dec 1 19:36:11 UTC 2004 

>For the girls, to be on the arena of the revolution or the war, they should
>be at least 16 (see Zoya Kosmodemianskaya, Joan of Arc, Judith with the
>head of Olophern).


And 14-year-old Madeleine de Verchères, the heroine of New France, who saved
the fort from Iroquois.

----- Original Message -----
From: "OLGA BUKHINA" <obukhina at ACLS.ORG>
To: <SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 12:43 PM
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] La Republica on Ukraine


It is interesting that every revolution, French, Russian, Ukrainian,
requires the image of the heroic child ("pioneer-geroj"). If revolution
is not paid by the live of the child, it is not a revolution. In
nowadays it is softer - the boy in La Republica story is almost dead but
saved in the end. Speaking of pioneers, I believe that American
tradition also has some stories about the brave children saving their
folks during the march to the West. I do not know if these children
would be typically killed in the end of the story or not. It's
interesting, that all boys are pretty young. For the girls, to be on the
arena of the revolution or the war, they should be at least 16 (see Zoya
Kosmodemianskaya, Joan of Arc, Judith with the head of Olophern).

Olga Bukhina
American Council of Learned Societies
E-mail: hp at acls.org
www.acls.org


-----Original Message-----
From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
[mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of Kirill Sereda
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 11:31 AM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] La Republica on Ukraine

Now that the season is upon us, we, the grown-ups, need a beautiful
fairy-tale, so bravo Reppubblica, molte grazie for bringing us a story
in the Christian-Democratic Socialist realist spirit! Amen.

KS

-----Original Message-----
From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
[mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of Lilya Kaganovsky
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 10:41 AM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] La Republica on Ukraine

In the same vein, I was also struck by the 'socialist realist' quality
of the language ("the story of a boy, who risked his life for the
revolution," sounds all too familiar). Typically, he has to almost die
in the snow in order to become recognized as a hero, and of course, he
must declare his willingness to return to work, just as soon as he is
able.

-Lilya Kaganovsky


On Nov 30, 2004, at 12:34 PM, Elena Gapova wrote:

> My point was about smth. else (which I did not make clear): not about
> the
> child, supposedly consciously, rising for a "cause", but about the
> adult use
> (and abuse) of the "child selfsacrifice" motif.
>
> The difference with Gavroche - who was more or less believable (as was
> Ivan
> in Tarkovsky's "Ivanovo detstvo") - is in the amount of "lies"
> (putting it
> politely)that make one uncomfortable even reading the piece. "Bogdan"
> bringing food and clothing to the supporters of Yanykovich, dying of
> cold
> and hunger, or running on errands from one end of Kiev to another...
> which
> is a city of three mln. with developed (and functioning) public
> transportation etc. But it is, probably, the "heroic modality" in this
> urban
> legend, which is the most cheap and unbearable.
>
> So speaking about precursors: "children's crusades" come to (my) mind.
> The
> same strife for glorious myth by the (organizing) adults, who later
> sold
> many of the children into slavery.
>
> e.g.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
> [mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU]On Behalf Of Alina Israeli
> Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2004 12:59 PM
> To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
> Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] La Republica on Ukraine
>
>
> Elena Gapova wrote:
>
>> I was suspicious of the Pavlik Morozov story even as an oktyabrenok.
>> But
>> the genre seems undying. Here's a little gem.
>> http://www.inopressa.ru/repubblica/2004/11/26/17:23:00/ukraina
>
> Since I could not read this particular cyrrilic translit, I am
> grateful for
> the URL.
>
> The precursor to that little story is not Pavlik Morozov, but Gavroche
> of
> Les Miserables (not a musicle but a novel by Victor Hugo). Maybe even
> Gavroche had his precursors but I cannot remember off-hand (maybe
> someone
> else remembers if this motif is elsewhere prior to the French
> revolution).
> Gavroche was helping the insurgents, was a model of kindness and
> honesty
> and was shot at the end.
>
> Pavlik Morozov should have been a model for studying ethical dilemmas:
> What
> is one to do when suspecting a member of your family of a crime. This
> is
> the stuff tragedies were made of, when both outcomes are bad ( $B'Z (B
$B'd'Q'\ (B
>  $B'a']'`'g'` (B,
>  $B'Z (B  $B'd'Q'\ (B  $B'a']'`'g'` (B). Pavlik Morozov would not be
the only case in history.
> Quite
> recently the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski was turned in by his family.
>
> Also don't forget that Pavlik Morozov was murdered by his own family,
> which
> makes him a perfect martyr in the tradition of Boris and Gleb.
>
> __________________________
>  Alina Israeli
>  LFS, American University
>  4400 Mass. Ave., NW
>  Washington, DC 20016
>
>  phone:    (202) 885-2387
>  fax:      (202) 885-1076
>
>
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*         *         *         *         *         *         *         *

Lilya Kaganovsky, Assistant Professor
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Program in Comparative Literature & World Literature
Department of Slavic Languages and Literature
Unit for Cinema Studies

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