Natasha's Dance, Figes - B

                                         Thanks to Greg Weiss for this recommendation of a fine book subtitled  'A Cultural History Of Russia'. The dance in the title is from a scene in 'War and Peace' when the aristocratic Natasha joins in a folk dance even though she has never seen the dance or heard  the music.  As a Russian, it came to her instinctively because of all Russians' inherent connection to their folklore and people.. The author points out that because there has been no free press or unobserved political discussion, it is in the area of the arts that Russians held up a mirror to their political, philosophical and religious discussions.
                                         There lies within the Russian cultural framework a conflict that, as an occasional student of Russian (particularly 20th century) history, I was unaware of.  It is the clash between the western-oriented residents of St. Petersburg and the less cosmopolitan people of Moscow.  Peter the Great disliked Moscow, a city that after centuries of Mongol occupation had turned inward-looking.  The construction of 'Peter' and its establishment as the nation's capital created a great schism in Russia. Doestoevsky said "We Russians have two fatherlands: Russia and Europe".  This dichotomy continues to this day.
                                         Most of the book deals with the nineteenth century, for it was the French invasion of 1812 that was the watershed event.  The aristocrats spoke and wrote in French, but the war led to a rejection and, in turn, a liberation from French intellectual leadership. After slogging through that war with their soldiers, many of the aristocrats were disillusioned with Alexander I's reversion to reactionary politics, leading to the Decembrist revolt in 1825.  Tolstoy's favorite uncle was one of those banished to Siberia for participating in the uprising.
                                        In the 20th century, we have the blight upon the land that was Bolshevism. Three million people fled in the decade after 1917 to all the corners of the earth, but primarily to Berlin, Paris and New York. Among those who took their extraordinary talents elsewhere were Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Nabakov, Gorky, Chagall, Diaghilev and Balanchine.  For those who stayed the literary prizes went to 'Cement" and 'How The Steel Was Tempered', while Pasternak, Grossman and Solzhinetsyn had to have their works published overseas.