271. The committee was approved on Dec. 16, 1935, and Kerzhentsev named on Jan. 17, 1936. Artizov and Naumov, Vlast’, 281 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 973, l. 3); Pravda, Jan. 18, 1936. See also Maksimenkov, Sumbur, 69 (RGASPI, f. 77, op. 1, d. 557, l. 1). Kerzhentsev must have been glad to escape radio, where the NKVD had turned up “anti-Soviet class alien elements, climbers, and hacks.” Goriaeva, Radio Rossii, 158–9 (APRF, f. 3, op. 35, d. 14, l. 44–60, 70–1: May 9, 1935); RGASPI, f. 17, op. 114, d. 588, l. 9–10. In 1937, Stalin would subordinate the Bolshoi, Maly, Moscow Art Theater, Vakhtangov State Theater, Kirov ballet, and others to the committee. RGASPI, f. 17, op. 114, d. 588, l. 12.
272. Maksimenkov, Sumbur, 77–9 (RGALI, f. 962, op. 10, d. 13, l. 12–3). Gorky had reached his wit’s end with Shcherbakov (“Literature for him is alien, a secondary matter”) and the bureaucratic machinations in the writers’ union. Artizov and Naumov, Vlast’, 276–8 (RGASPI, f. 73, op. 2, d. 44, l. 17–20: Dec. 8, 1935); Maksimenkov, Bol’shaia tsenzura, 413–5 (RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 720, l. 101–6). In Sept. 1936, Shcherbakov would be sent back to Leningrad as second secretary. He was replaced at the writers’ union by Stavsky.
273. Maksimenkov, Sumbur, 88–112. Samosud’s production of Shostakovich’s Lady MacBeth had premiered in Moscow at the Bolshoi affiliate on Dec. 26, 1935, but Stalin had not attended. Soviet press accounts had been ecstatic. A third festival production, Bright Stream, also elicited superlatives; Stalin did not see that one either before it had closed. On Jan. 16, 1936—the same day as the government decree appointing Kerzhentsev to the new committee—Stalin, in the company of Kerzhentsev, Molotov, and others, returned for the final performance of Quiet Flows the Don. Again he showed himself applauding in the imperial box. Stravinsky would deem the opera Lady MacBeth “lamentably provincial.” Pravda criticized its sympathetic portrait of the murderess. Taruskin, “Opera and the Dictator,” 34–40.
274. Artizov and Naumov, Vlast’, 307–8 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 3, d. 976, l. 56). Of the Bolshoi dancers, only Igor Moiseyev (then 30 years old) remained, but the Leningraders commenced intrigues against him. Kerzhentsev enabled him to establish what would become a celebrated folk dance ensemble.Moiseev, Ia vospominaiu, 292–4.
275. RGASPI, f. 558, op. 11, d. 829, l. 69–72. Pravda (Feb. 29, 1936) celebrated the achievements of Soviet film music.
276. RGALI, f. 962, op. 6, d. 42, l. 6. The NKVD’s Molchanov reported that most cultural figures properly understood the Pravda article, but named and quoted a number who had reacted with “anti-Soviet” remarks. Artizov and Naumov, Vlast’, 290–5 (TsA FSB, f. 3 op. 3, d. 121, l. 31–8: Feb. 11, 1936). Gorky wrote to Stalin (March 1936) complaining of the vicious campaign against Shostakovich. Gorky also complained that the theater of “the genius Meyerhold” semed to exist solely for his lover, the actress Raikh, while the theater of “the genius Tairov” seemed to exist solely for the actress Koonen. Artizov and Naumov, Vlast’, 300–2; Literaturnaia gazeta, March 10, 1993.
277. Artizov and Naumov, Vlast’, 289–90 (APRF, f. 3, op. 35, d. 32, l. 42). See also Maksimenkov, Sumbur, 110–2. The day before Shostakovich was received, another attack had appeared in Pravda (Feb. 6, 1936) titled “Balletic Falsity” (about Bright Stream). See also Glikman, Pis’ma k drugu, 317.
278. Artizov and Naumov, Vlast’, 308–9 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 163, d. 1108, l. 125–6: May 19, 1936); Maksimenkov, Sumbur, 227–8.
279. On Feb. 18, Bulgakov met with the new Moscow Art Theater director Mikhail Arkadyev, who asked about his next project. Bulgakov, according to his wife, “answered that the sole subject that interested him at the moment was Stalin.” This referred to a planned play, Batum, likely inspired by recent publications about Stalin’s days in the underground. Losev and Ivanovskaia, Dnevnik Eleny Bulgakovoi, 112, 114. The critic Osaf Litovsky had mercilessly attacked previews of Molière in the journal Sovetskoe iskusstvo (Feb. 11, 1936). Other vicious denunciations followed in lesser periodicals by Bulgakov rivals (Alexander Afinogenov, Yuri Olyesha, Vsevolod Ivanov).
280. “‘Polozhenie ego deistvitel’noe bezyskhodnoe,’” 117–9 (RGASPI, f. 17, op. 163, d. 1099, l. 96–8: Feb. 29, 1936); Artizov and Naumov, Vlast’, 298–300 (otdel rukopisi GPB, f. 562, k. 19, d. 33). See also Sakharov, Mikhail Bulgakov, 439. In 1933, Bulgakov had authored a life of Molière in the series Lives of Remarkable People, a popular prerevolutionary staple which Gorky and Koltsov had revived, but the manuscript was rejected.
