Habitus

by David Gutherz · 07/09/10

For those of you who are (or may soon be) joining us from Moscow, be sure not to miss the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War’s newest exhibit: “Writings and Reflections of Jewish Soldiers in the Red Army.” Part of a larger documentary project that has already collected records from approximately 900 veterans, the project seeks to combat stereotypical visions of Jews as perpetual victims. “I wanted to somehow document the role of Jews in the history of war,” said project director Leonard Blavatnik, ”not only as victims, but also as heroes.”

Read more: The Jewish Chronicle – Moscow exhibit gives a voice to Jewish Red Army soldiers

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by David Gutherz · 07/09/10

It has been more than half a century now since the death of Josef Stalin, but Vasily Grossman–the great Russian-Jewish novelist whose work we published in issue five–is still suffering on his account. As The Guardian‘s Moscow correspondent Luke Harding details, Grossman’s work–although increasingly popular in the West–still rubs many Muscovites the wrong way. In the midst of the Kremlin’s quiet but persistent campaign to rehabilitate Stalin, Grossman’s work is seen by many as a pesky reminder of just how bleak, savage, and sad life could be under his Iron Fist. And no doubt Grossman would never want us to forget it. But, then again, to judge his novels as bits of war journalism is like reducing Anna Kareninina to a piece of anarchist pamphleteering. For, as his daughter Ekaterina points out, although never one to blunt the reality of suffering, Grossman also had an uncanny skill for finding warmth amidst the agony and goodness in even the darkest of men. His is a message that deserves to be heard, and one can only hope that in the coming years more readers in his home country learn to unplug their ears.

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by Habitus · 06/21/10

Congratulations to our friend and collaborator Peter Golub, who has won a PEN translation grant for his work with Russian author Linor Goralik. Peter began this project as a commission for our Moscow issue. PEN says:

Peter Golub for a collection of flash fiction by Linor Goralik, an underground Russian author beginning to make a name for herself in the literary mainstream. These very short stories catch their characters in midflight, like strangers on an airplane, combining the mythic with the banal to startling effect, as when the wolf, disobeying doctor’s orders, steps out for one last visit to the three little pigs. (No publisher)

Publishers, take note!

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by Habitus · 03/02/10

If you are wondering what you are going to do in November, 2011, Harvard will be hosting a very interesting conference on the Russian-Jewish Diaspora. Not exactly timely information yet, but this statistic from the program description is quite remarkable:

Almost two million Russian-speaking people, most of them Jews, live outside the former Soviet Union (FSU). In January 1989, when the last Soviet census was taken, 1,449,000 people identified themselves as Jews.

Such a an amazing statistic doesn’t necessarily reflect the inherent challenges of defining a Jew. For example, the contention that all 1.1 million Russian speakers in Israel are in fact Jewish is, to say the least, subject to debate. Would also be interesting to know what defines a Russian speaker (i.e. second generation?). All the same, it helps to illustrate the remarkable imprint of Jews on the Russian-speaking world.

The organizers are accepting paper proposals through May, 2010.

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by Habitus · 02/18/10

Michael Idov has published an interesting review in The New Republic on Stalin in Russian Satire, 1917-1991 by Karen L. Ryan. He starts off:

The idea that Russia’s many current woes stem from its incomplete de-Stalinization is so widespread as to be banal. It is also correct. Just two months ago, I stared agape at the newly restored name of Stalin coiling around a neoclassical portico at the Kurskaya metro station in Moscow. The name had its own security guard: look up at those six letters for more than a few seconds, as I did, and he would saunter closer. A few weeks earlier, Stalin had been leading a national poll for Russia’s “greatest name.” After some careful counting and recounting, he ended up in third place, still handily beating out Pushkin and Dostoevsky.

His case was made even stronger today by an article entitled “Moscow to Display Informational Posters Gloryfing Stalin.” The article is published by the Coalition for Democracy in Russia, aka The Other Russia, the political faction most identified with Gary Kasparov. The story highlights the ambivalence of Russians today towards the memory of Stalin. They report:

Moscow’s department for publicity and design came up with the plan after pensioners and veterans’ organizations repeatedly requested that officials display pictures of Stalin as part of the wider set of decorations set up for anniversary celebrations.

For more on the legacy of Stalin, there is no better guide than our friend Jonathan Brent, whom we spoke to in our Moscow issue, and whose memoir of his years spent researching the Stalin archives is now coming out in paperback.

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by Habitus · 02/16/10

We were very gratified to receive a glowing review from Newpages.com, one of the only publications out there that gives serious attention to journals. The reviewer, Anne Wolfe, sums up the issue nicely:

As one reads the poetry and stories, it seems easy to see that Muscovites could be anyone, or everyone. These works reveal their subjects’ psyches and set up intimacy. They do so with virtuosic imagination and deft clarity.

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by Habitus · 02/16/10

Since we featured Jason Eskenazi in our Moscow issue and in our first Habitus-produced video, the Brooklyn-based photographer has continued to win fans and earn critical attention.

Most importantly, his award-winning book Wonderland is now back on sale. He also appeared recently on NPR’s Studio 360, where he talked about working as a guard at the Metropolitan Museum. He also gave a nice, long interview with the blog A Photo Student.

When we least heard from Jason, he was already exploring a new part of the globe for his next project: he’s just back for a shooting trip to Cairo. He was also recently in Turkey, exploring his family’s Sephardic ancestry.

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by Joshua Ellison · 01/21/10

In February, the city is filthy with almost-black snow. It drifts from the streets and overwhelms the sidewalks. Drainpipes pour water on the pavement that instantly turns to ice. No one lays down salt. In a few days, a half-dozen guys with shovels will show up, scraping away for hours without making any real progress. The passersby each have to find their own elusive footing; they try to keep themselves upright without making direct contact with the concrete. From the flat roofs, other men with shovels send the excess snow and ice hurtling downward without warning. The traffic moves incautiously through the intersections, spinning off more filth. Cars race forward, just to idle again in mid-block traffic.

But then, a black—always black—sedan or jeep will ride through, gleaming. There isn’t a speck of dirt or soot; even the tires are clean. This seems impossible when you look at the sputtering, gray Russian cars, or even the plentiful German and Japanese imports, none of which could make it a few feet without succumbing to grime. Somehow, though, these cars manage to stay pristine, unspoiled, unimpeded. They travel along their own privileged plane: above the pollution, the crowds, even the weather. Moscow is a place that won’t surrender or accommodate easily to fate, history, or nature. With a little luck and the right connections, anything can be made or unmade.

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by Olga Zondberg · 01/21/10

[This is the shortest day of the year in our neck of the woods.]

The divergence of animals, said Khlebnikov
is the result of their ability
to see God in many different ways.

If the Universe, said Hawking
was different, we still
would not notice.

From Chanel to Escape (remembered
one pretty fashion magazine)
in every year death has a different scent.

There are these people, writers
who have everything written down
the tics and the tacs
in place of numerical facsimiles

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by Yuri Slezkine · 01/21/10

I became Soviet in 1963 when the USSR beat Czechoslovakia in the World Hockey Championship on an empty-net goal by Leonid Volkov. I became Russian around the same time and for the same reason. I became exuberantly Soviet in 1964 when I joined the Octobrist (Lenin’s Grandchildren’s) League, and then again briefly in 1966 when I was admitted to the All-Union Pioneer Organization.

I became half-Jewish in 1967 when I told my father that Mishka Ryzhevskii from apartment thirteen was a Jew, and my father said, “Let me tell you something.”

I became mostly Jewish around 1968, when I became anti-Soviet. My father, who was already anti-Soviet, did not have the option of becoming Jewish.

I was officially classified as Russian in 1972 when I received my internal passport (on the occasion of my sixteenth birthday). I was temporarily reclassified as Soviet in 1978 when I received my external passport (on the day I was hired by the Ministry of the Merchant Marine).

I became Swedish for a day and a half in 1978 when I borrowed the identification papers of one Gunnar Gunnarsson (place of birth Göteborg, permanent residence Boda) for the purpose of surviving a visit to the rebel-held part of Sofala Province in the People’s Republic of Mozambique.

I became a published author in 1981 when Progress Publishers printed my Portuguese translation of L.M. Maksudov’s Ideological Struggle at the Present Stage. My attempt to translate a manual on mechanical engineering for Peace Publishers was aborted due to my unfamiliarity with the subject matter.

I became Iouri Slezkine in 1981 when the Department of Visas and Permission of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR received special permission to transliterate my name into French. I was dismissed from the All-Union Union of Communist-Leninist Youth and from the Soviet Army reserve.

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