American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages

Russia on Canvas: Ilya Repin by Fan Parker; Stephen Jan ParkerReview by: John E. BowltThe Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Spring, 1982), pp. 110-111Published by: American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European LanguagesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/307135 .

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110 Slavic and East European Journal

surely not all of them, may be considerably more sincere than has customarily been imagined in the West.

Professor Clark's book is well written and excellently organized. After an informative introduction, entitled "The Distinctive Role of Socialist Realism," the book divides itself into four parts, arranged chronologically. We move from a discussion of Socialist Realism before 1932 (with original extended analyses of Gor'kij's Mother and Gladkov's Cement); to a survey of High Stalinist culture (which highlights such phenomena as "the Stalinist novel as pastoral" and "the aviation hero as the paradigmatic new man"); to a detailed excursus on the conventional Stalinist novel (exemplified by Fadeev's The Young Guard); and, finally, to a long section on Soviet fiction since World War II, which treats trends as recent as village prose.

Lest I have suggested that Clark's book is essentially theoretical in nature, let me assert the presence of abundant insights into the thematic and stylistic workings of an impressively large body of novels. Identifying its "system of signs" (12), and illustrating the built-in ambiguities some of them contain, Clark argues for a Socialist Realism which is less monolithic, one which allows for more creativity, even more ideological leeway than is ordinarily acknowledged. Indeed, that Professor Clark manages to hold her readers' interest throughout the book testifies to the original way in which she handles the texts, so often considered to be vapid and interchangeable. Of course, one may still question the greatness of Socialist Realist fiction from an artistic point of view. But one of Professor Clark's major points is to show how literature in the Soviet Union operates on levels other than the purely aesthetic. Professor Clark teaches us how to read Socialist Realist fiction better; she demonstrates a firm, confident grip on her material, and her book will have to be consulted by serious students of Soviet fiction as a major source of information.

Stanley J. Rabinowitz, Amherst College

Fan Parker and Stephen Jan Parker. Russia on Canvas: Ilya Repin. University Park: Pennsylvania State Univ. Press, 1980. 178 pp., $29.75. [Illustrations.]

Russian art has attracted unprecedented academic and commercial attention over recent years, although the principal focus of interest has been the avant-garde movements in the early twentieth century. Russian artistic developments in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are, as a rule, neglected by Western scholars, and, consequently, any relevant publication is always worthy of note. True, a few themes within nineteenth century Russian art have been treated in detail by American scholars, e.g. by Elizabeth Valkenier in her impressive study of Realism (Russian Realism, 1977), but the creative biographies of most primary Russian artists in the nineteenth century (Karl Brjullov, Orest Kip- renskij, Aleksandr Ivanov, Pavel Fedotov, Vasilij Perov, Ivan Kramskoj, Arxip Kuind2i, etc.) are still unfamiliar to the Western reader. With the appearance of Fan Parker's and Stephan Jan Parker's Russia on Canvas, this imbalance is somewhat redressed.

After Valkenier's discussion of the Realist movement in general, Russia on Canvas comes at an appropriate moment, and, as the first American monograph on Il'ia Efimovich Repin (1844-1930), it provides a serious appraisal of Russia's leading Realist painter. True, the authors, who are literary rather than art historians, depend too extensively on

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Reviews 111

the standard Soviet books, particularly on Igor' Grabar"s comprehensive Repin (Moscow, 1937) and the two volumes in the "Artistic Heritage" series edited by Il'ja Zilberatejn and Grabar' in 1948. As a result, the authors adduce assumptions that betray a Soviet bias. For instance, the assertion in Note 12 of Chapter 5 that "Restoration of architectural struc- tures, renovations of icons, and systematic studies began only after the 1917 Revolution" is very misleading and ignores the commendable achievements of Nikolaj Lixadev, Fedor Solncev, Vladimir Suslov et al. in the cataloging and propagation of Russian religious painting and architecture in the late nineteenth century.

Unfortunately, the authors do not try to define the esthetic or "painterly" achieve- ments of Repin's art or to accommodate it within the international context of Realism (especially of France and Germany). This is disappointing because, as the authors them- selves imply in their Preface, Repin has been given short shrift by professional art historians in the West. Still, as literary and intellectual historians, the authors do supply the necessary social and philosophical background for their examination of Repin's thematic interests, his uneven friendships and his travels; furthermore, they draw atten- tion to the whereabouts of Repin works in US collections and reproduce a limited selection of them (including the disquieting Portrait of a Peasant Girl in the collection of The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts).

Inevitably, as a pioneering study, Russia on Canvas contains shortcomings. But as a clear and concise account of the life and work of Il'ia Repin, perhaps the most ebullient Russian artist of the nineteenth century, this book fulfills a very useful function.

John E. Bowlt, University of Texas

Architecture of Russia from Old to Modern. Vol. 1. Churches and Monasteries. Japan: Russian Orthodox Youth Committee, 1973. 296 pp., $45.00. [color illustrations. ]

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"flpepenbl BaHganM3Ma." Frankfurt: Possev, 1980. 201 cTp., $20. [illustrations. ] MOCKBa 3naTornaBan: naMSTHMKM penLrMO3HOFO 304ieCTBa MOCKBbl B npoWunoM 4m

HaCTORU4eM. Paris: YMCA Press, 1980. 162 cTp., $30.00. [maps and illustrations. ]

The Orthodox churches of Russia are important for their role in the development of Russian architecture, for their patrons, for historical and religious events and personages associated with them. The three works, Architecture of Russia from Old to Modern (hereinafter Architecture), Razrusennye i oskternennye xramy (hereinafter RazruSennye xramy), and Mosktva zlatoglavaja (hereinafter Moskva) comprise a fascinating trilogy on a taboo subject, which, to my knowledge, has never appeared in book form-the evolution of Orthodox church buildings in Soviet Russia with special emphasis on the city of Moscow.

The three books, although written independently of one another, share the following characteristics: (1) All three texts are products of native Russians, residents or expatri- ates, fervent Christian believers, whose names, for obvious reasons, will probably always remain anonymous. Razrusennye xramy and Moskva are samizdat publications, which have been released by Possev in Frankfurt and the YMCA Press in Paris. Architecture has been compiled and published by the Russian 6migr6 organization, the Russian Orthodox Youth Committee. (2) The tone of the works is distinctly anti-Soviet, explicitly in Archi- tecture and Razru.rennye xramy, implicitly in Moskua. The authors regard the churches primarily as houses of worship, secondarily as great architectural monuments. In the eyes

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