Re-Visioning the Past

above Still from Taras Bulba (2009), dir. Vladimir Bortko. It change twenty is generally years, inthestructure Russia recognized has of undergone that cultural in the institua past sea twenty years, Russiahasundergone a sea changeinthestructure ofcultural institutions - in thesimplest terms, thereplacement ofstatecontrol bymarket forces; ideology by breadandcircuses; andpurportedly high(and high-minded) cultureby lowbrowcrimefictions , soap operas,romance novels,and game shows.Infact, thepicture ismorecomplicated. LegaciesoftheSovietpasthauntthecultural production ofthepresent incomplicated ways, bothreactive and replicative. Within thiscontext , thereis a particularly interesting recent and, to date,understudied trend:theboom in adaptations ofRussianand Sovietliterary "classics"forfilm, and especially TV miniseries .By"classics"hereI meancanonicworks of nineteenth-century Russianliterature and dissidentworksof Sovietfiction thatcould notbe publishedin RussiaduringtheSoviet period.Thus,since 2003,cinematic versions ofDostoevsky's TheIdiot(theunexpected successofwhichgavethevogueitsinitial impetus ),Bulgakov's Master andMargarita , Gogol's TarasBulba(theformer threeall projectsof the director VladimirBortko), Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov, Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, Solzhenitsyn's First Circle (withscreenplay by theauthor himself), IlfandPetrov's Golden Calf ' Lermontov's HeroofOur Time, Gogol's Dead Souls, Rybakov's Children ofthe Arbat, andTolstoy 's AnnaKarenina havebeenreleased, justto mention someofthemorenotedandnotorious selections.1 Thistrend was underscored bythe nominations andwinners ofthenational television (TEFI) awardsin2006. Asonecommentator observed inanarticle tellingly titled "TheDoctorversus theMaster": The resultsof the votingof the teleacademicians inthemainastonished no one. As expected, in the nominations for"artistic television serial,"classical literature emerged victorious: TheFirst Circle(Rossiya),Masterand Margarita (Rossiya), andDoctor Zhivago (NTV). November -December 201 1155 Catharine Theimer Nepomnyashchy isAnn Whitney Olin Professor and Chair of the Slavic Department atBarnard College and former Director of the Harriman Institute, Columbia University. She has published extensively onSoviet and post-Soviet literature andpopular culture, Pushkin, Russian ballet, Russian emigre literature and culture, and the future of regional studies. Her latest book project isentitled Nabokov and His Enemies: Terms of Engagement. Shereceived the 201 1aatseel (American Association of Teachers of Slavic Languages and Literature) Award for Outstanding Service tothe Profession. 561 World Literature Today Infact, Bortko wonthebestdirector award for Master andMargarita ,andSolzhenitsyn was giventheTEFIfor bestscreenplay. Thereare certainly Sovietprecedents for thecurrent cropofblockbusters - from Sergei Bondarchuk's epic 1968film rendition ofTolstoy 'sWarandPeace(whichtooksevenyears tomakeand,whenadjusted forinflation, may havebeenthemostexpensive film evermade); tothe1973still-cult-classic miniseries Seventeen Moments inSpring, basedon the1970novelof thesamenamebyYulianSemyonov andfeaturingtheSoviet superspy MaxOttovonShtirlitz; to director Igor Maslennikov's made-for-TV moviesofSherlock Holmes,whichairedfrom 1979totheeveofglasnost in1986.Infact, 2009 saw thepremier of theminiseries Isaev,also based on Semyonov's Shtirlitz novels(Isaev is Shtirlitz's realname)and subtitled "Shtirlitz 'sYouth," marking a direct lineofdescent from Sovietpractice to current fashion. Also worthy ofnotein thiscontext is thefactthat director Vladimir Bortko - a dominant force in thecontemporary adaptation ofclassics - first made a namewithhis groundbreaking film version ofMikhail Bulgakov's Heart ofa Dogin 1988,whichinitiated thetrend to reappropriatebannedorout -of-favor Soviet"classics"in film. Yetdespite theSoviet era'sheavy baggage oftranslating epicliterary worksintofilm, the recentsurgein cinematic remakesseemsto have struck a particular chord - as evidenced by strong reactions by critics and audiences in the"old" and "new" media.The Internet in particular givestheRussianviewerample opportunity to comment on both the films themselves andontheir critical reception. Therecent spateoffilms ofliterary works has sparked suchpassionon thepartofviewersbecausethey standata fraught intersection betweenquestionsof "faithfulness" and the useofclassicliterary texts, specifically through theintermediacy ofcinemaandTV toremake thenarrative ofthenational pastto servethe desires andanxieties ofthepresent. Thestakes becomeeminently clear when we turnour attention towhathas arguably beenthemost controversial oftherecent adaptations, Vladimir Bortko'scinematic rendition of Nikolai Gogol'sTarasBulba, whichpremiered in Russian movietheaters in April2009,timedto coincide with thecelebration ofthebicentennial ofGogol'sbirth. Analmost pedantic accuracy, evenslavishness, withregard tothewordsof theliterary textis something ofa hallmark of Bortko's styleof adaptation. However,Taras Bulba issomething ofa textbook caseindemonstrating theextent towhich thevery concept of "faithfulness" itself isa redherring. InthecaseofTarasBulba , controversy has ragednotso muchover"faithfulness" to or betrayal ofGogol'stext as aroundthequestion of faithfulness to whichtext.Bortko, whose own rootsareUkrainian and who castnoted Ukrainian actor BogdanStupka inthetitle role, has takenconsiderable heat,especiallyfrom Ukrainians, for choosing (with funding providedbytheRussian Ministry ofCulture) toadapt forthescreennottheearlier version ofTaras Bulba ,first published inthecollection Mirgorod in 1835and considered "pro-Ukrainian," but ratherthe revisedand distinctly chauvinist "pro-Russian" editionof 1842,whichGogol, some have recently suggested, the parvenu writer from theperiphery ofempire, staged asa Russian imperial epictoassurehisplaceinthe Russian literary pantheon.2 Arguably, the filmis in manyways a remarkably effective rendering ofGogol'soriginaltext - right downtotheliberal profusion of blood and violencethatcharacterize Gogol's tale of generational, cultural,and national struggle embodied inhistitle

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