Candlelight, Snow, Chekov & Other Thoughts

We had a power cut the other week for over 15 hours. It was snowing and the whole country seemed to be at a standstill. So, having been reduced to using the old gas cooker to sustain myself as best I could and a few candles for light, I thought I'd go through some old favourites of mine. Anton Chekov popped up. A short story would do me fine I thought. Reading this reminded me of a time back in my early twenties when for some reason or other I developed a fascination for Russia.

This massive expanse of land that was neither Europe or Asia: a place between continents, seemed wild, romantic, mysterious. I was a bit of a history buff back then, and having grown up with cold war films and the vague shady politics of the day, Russia was also dangerous, harsh, a place of extremes and contradictions.

I went through a couple of books (incl. Chekov), but none of the big names like Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky, I don't think I was ready for that yet. Most were political/war: Orlando Figes monumental A Peoples Tragedy, Stalingrad by Antony Beevor, Intimacy & Terror: Soviet Dairies of the 1930s...

I even remember once some reps came to the door from the communist party. They were holding an event including some screenings of old Russian films, and I so wanted to see a particular film that was listed, I just said yes. God, what was I thinking? When I got to the screening room I had a good look round at the demographics of the people who were there: women, women, and more women, of the wolly, feminist kind. What does say? I really don't know. I can't actually remember the name of the film now...famous as it is...the one with the baby in the pram rolling down the stairs and the red flag against b&w film? Oh, yes, Eisensteins Battleship Potemkin.

All this politics seems far away now. I read 1984 a couple of years later and it felt as if I had read it before. Maybe because I was so familiar with totalitarian stories through films and books, it wasn't shocking as it may have been back when it was published.

I just had a thought. About the definition of 'democracy' and 'freedom'...another post maybe