I’d mentioned in another post that I’d do some research on Kerala-Russia connection and get back. This post is in response to that. First some context on what we’ve been doing.
Background
Wife read the post on Oru Sangeerthanam Pole and really got fascinated by Perumbadavam and Dostoyevsky. She got busy reading articles on Dostoyevsky and Perumbadavam and also a couple of Perumbadavam’s interviews on Youtube. I joined in, and we watched a few interviews together. Other than reading the famous book accidentally, I didn’t know much about the man himself. What comes across through the interviews is the portrait of a humble, down-to-earth, emotional person. He definitely is an incredible human being. The interview with Shiny Jacob in a Church was great. An interview done by Rayson Kuriakose on the bank of a river, was also very touching.
AK also started reading ‘The Brothers Karamazov’. Just the past week, she was reading an essay by Turgenev about an execution in Paris. Now that I think of it, she told me about Turgenev’s essay, and that’s probably when I remembered that I had a copy of ‘Crime and Punishment’, looked it up and remembered how I happened to get the book and how I got to know about Dostoyevsky. Ah, many times, it is great to unravel why we got into something; Why did we start reading that particular book?, Why did we start watching a specific TV series or a movie?, Why did we start talking about a topic that we never touched upon for years?, etc. While talking to her after writing the post, I was a bit confused about when I actually read ‘Oru Sangeerthanam Pole’. It might have been at Viveknagar library as I mentioned in the earlier post. It might also have been at Babuchan’s house. Or it might have been in Manorama weekly. What I clearly remember are the black and white illustrations of specific scenes on some pages. I’ve always been fond of illustrations in books since they reveal a lot. It is also a chance to check where in the book that scene occurred.
We also got talking about our interest in Russian literature and how unbeknownst to us, it was an influential force. It might have been through movies or friends or other connections. That too, we both are Malayalis who grew up outside Kerala. If we had grown up in Kerala, the influence might have been higher. Realized that the village bordering Tengana, the place where we have a home in Kerala, is named Moscow! Haha. Yes, we have visited Moscow in Kerala.
Anyway, here are some articles that I was able to lookup on Google about Kerala’s connection with the Soviet Union, especially with literature.
Artiles on Kerala-Russia connection
- Kerala’s Love Affair with Soviet Literature by Maya Palit. Oct 6, 2016.
- She starts with the story of how here uncle gifted her books by Russian author Lyudmila Petrushevskaya and how she found the stories very relatable. Then she talks about the success of Oru Sangeerthanam Pole in the 90s, and about the docu-fiction film In Return — Just a Book, based on the novel, directed by Shiny Jacob and scripted by the famous writer, Paul Zacharia.
- She mentions that though Communist thought entered Kerala and began taking root in the 1930s and 40s, it was in the 50s that Russian literature was introduced to the public.
- Kesari Balakrishna Pillai was one of the initial people to bring Russian translations to the common people. He started with translations of Chekhov’s books and published through Kesari, a periodical that he ran.
- In 1952, Prabhath Book House got the rights to import Russian books. The books, especially the periodicals, were heavily subsidized by the Sovient Union and they cost only Rs. 2 or 3.
- NK Damodaran’s was the first to translate Dostoevsky’s works from English to Malayalam.
- She mentions that the real harbinger of Russian literature in a massive way, was a man named K ‘Moscow’ Gopalakrishnan. In 1966, the Soviet government decided to publish Russian writings in Malayalam. They invited Gopalakrishnan, who was the joint editor of the ‘Soviet Review’ in Delhi at the time, to Progress Printers in Moscow. He and his wife Omana Gopalakrishnan, translated close to 200 Russian books into Malayalam, including Party literature, folk tales, the works of Marx, Engels and Lenin etc.
- Maya quotes author KR Meera saying “The children of the 70s were shaped more by the Soviet Union than India.”
- Maya talks about friends who remember their introduction to Dostoevsky, Gorky and Tolstoy through Malayalam publications, which by all accounts, were very colorful, printed on great quality paper, beautifully-produced and really cheap. Also talks about children’s magazine named ‘Sputnik’.
- She quotes KR Meera saying that Russian literature was everywhere, that before brown paper came along, they used to cover notebooks for school with the glossy paper from Soviet Land magazines!
- She ends with a note that Kerala’s lyublyu (love) for Russian literature appears to have tempered down and that the new generation definitely has missed out. I agree.
Other articles of interest are below. Will summarize in a few days.
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How a Malayali couple brought Russian literary magic to Kerala by Ajay Kamalakaran. Jun 30, 2018.
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How Soviets invaded an Indian state, two decades before it collapsed by Anjuly Mathai, Vaisakh E. Hari. Dec 08, 2017.
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In the Good Ol’ days, Russian Lit in Kerala was all the rage by Suresh Pattali. Nov 02, 2017.
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To Russia, with love by Saraswathy Nagarajan. Nov 03, 2016.
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The Double by Lekshmy Rajeev. Jul 21, 2018.
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Stalin and Lenins reunite in India by Sunil Raman. Nov 01, 2005.