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My political recovery of sight
Tomas Venclova Poet
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What happened in '56 was what I would call my political recovery of sight. The Hungarian Revolution began then after the condemnation of Stalin. [Nikita] Khrushchev condemned Stalin, while at the same time safeguarding the communist system. But in some countries – in communist countries, namely in Poland as well as in Hungary – the review of the principles of the system went further. A not inconsiderable degree of press freedom was established in Poland. Things began to be published which weren't published either in Russia or in Lithuania where one couldn't even speak about them, whereas all that was accessible in Poland. In turn, the Polish press became available in Lithuania. One could buy a Polish newspaper, a Polish magazine at every kiosk, and they always had lots of very interesting things in them. Especially to do with literature: [Franz] Kafka, and [James] Joyce, and André Gide, and [Pablo] Picasso, and whatever one could want, articles on theatre, on music, so to speak. And I – realising how interesting that Polish press was – I began learning Polish, and learned it quite quickly, since I knew Russian well. And a young person, who knows Russian, while his brain isn't yet calcified, can learn Polish in a couple of months. And that's how I Iearned Polish. I remember I read a novel in Polish, Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. Hemingway's language is quite easy, the style is quite easy, and I read that novel with the help of a dictionary in about a month, and then, other novels I read almost without the help of a dictionary. I acquired a fluent knowledge of Polish. Well, and there, as I've said, in Hungary the revision of communism went so far that the revolution began in the autumn of '56. I was... I was very sympathetic to that revolution as were many of my student friends, as most probably were the majority of people in Lithuania. Well, I was sympathetic probably for somewhat different reasons than other people. For others in Lithuania it was, 'Look, people are throwing off the Russian yoke'. I was less interested in those national questions. I was more interested in the fact that people were trying to fix the system, to change... to change the system. And perhaps that system would be freer, better and more human, more democratic. I was more concerned about that, the question of democracy than the national question or the question of national independence. In that sense I was also still an exception in Lithuania. Because Lithuanians were less interested in whether there would be a democratic government or not, they were only interested in the Russians leaving. And what happened after that didn't really matter.

56-ais metais įvyko, sakyčiau, tai ką aš pavadinčiau savo politiniu praregėjimu. Tada prasidėjo Vengrijos revoliucija, po Stalino pasmerkimo. Chruščiovas pasmerkė Staliną, bet išsaugodamas komunistinę sistemą. Bet kai kuriuose kraštuose, komunistiniuose kraštuose, būtent Lenkijoje taip pat Vengrijoje, tas sistemos pagrindų peržiūrėjimas nuėjo toliau. Lenkijoje įsivyravo nemaža spaudos laisvė. Pradėjo spausdinti daiktus, kurių nei Rusijoje, nei Lietuvoj nespausdino, ir apie juos net kalbėti nebuvo galima. O Lenkijoje visa tai buvo prieinama. Savo ruožtu lenkų spauda pasidarė prieinama Lietuvoje. Tiesiog kiekvienam kioske galėjai nusipirkti lenkišką laikraštį, lenkišką žurnalą, o ten visada buvo labai daug gerų įdomių dalykų. Ypatingai literatūrinių: ir Kafka, ir Džoisas, ir Andrė Židas, ir Pikaso ir kas tik nori, straipsniai apie teatrą, apie muziką, taip sakant. Ir aš tada, jausdamas kokia yra įdomi toji lenkų spauda, aš pradėjau mokytis lenkiškai, ir gana greitai išmokau, kadangi gerai mokėjau rusiškai. O mokantis rusų kalbą jaunas žmogus, kol dar smegenys nesuakmenėję, gali lenkiškai išmokti per porą mėnesių. Taip aš ir išmokau. Atsimenu, perskaičiau lenkų kalba romaną, Hemingvėjaus romaną „Kam skambina varpas“. Hemingvėjaus kalba gana lengva, stilius gana lengvas, ir aš tą romaną perskaičiau su žodynu per kokį mėnesį, o paskui, jau sekančius romanus, jau skaičiau beveik be žodyno. Jau lenkų kalbą išmokau laisvai. Na, ir čia, kaip sakiau, Vengrijoje tasai komunizmo, taip sakant, revizija nuėjo tiek toli, kad ten prasidėjo sukilimas – 56-ųjų metų rudenį. Aš buvau... tam sukilimui labai simpatizavau kaip ir dauguma mano studentų draugų, kaip turbūt ir dauguma žmonių Lietuvoje. Na, aš simpatizavau turbūt dėl kitų šiek tiek priežasčių negu kiti. Kitiems Lietuvoje tai buvo: Štai, žmonės vaduojasi iš rusų jungo. Mane tie tautiniai klausimai mažiau domino, ir mane daugiau domino tai, kad žmonės bando taisyti sistemą, keisti… keisti sistemą. Ir galbūt ta sistema bus laisvesnė, geresnė ir žmogiškesnė, demokratiškesnė. Man daugiau tas rūpėjo, daugiau demokratijos klausimas negu tautinis arba tautinis nepriklausomybės klausimas. Ta prasme irgi dar buvau Lietuvoje išimtis. Nes lietuviui tikrai mažiau rūpėjo, ar bus demokratinė valdžia ar ne, o rūpėjo tik tai, kad tik tie rusai pasitrauktų. O kaip jau ten toliau, tai kaip nors.

Born in 1937, Tomas Venclova is a Lithuanian scholar, poet, author and translator of literature. He was educated at Vilnius University and later at Tartu University. As an active participant in the dissident movement he was deprived of Soviet citizenship in 1977 and had to emigrate. Between 1977 and 1980 he lectured at University of California, Berkeley, where he became friends with the Polish poet Czesław Miłosz, who was a professor of Slavic Languages and Literature at the school, as well as the Russian poet Joseph Brodsky. He is currently a full professor at Yale University.

Listeners: Andrzej Wolski

Film director and documentary maker, Andrzej Wolski has made around 40 films since 1982 for French television, the BBC, TVP and other TV networks. He specializes in portraits and in historical films. Films that he has directed or written the screenplay for include Kultura, which he co-directed with Agnieszka Holland, and KOR which presents the history of the Worker’s Defence Committee as told by its members. Andrzej Wolski has received many awards for his work, including the UNESCO Grand Prix at the Festival du Film d’Art.

Tags: 1956, Hungarian Revolution, Poland, Hungary, Russia, Lithuania, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, Franz Kafka, James Joyce, André Gide, Pablo Picasso, Ernst Hemingway

Duration: 3 minutes, 16 seconds

Date story recorded: May/June 2011

Date story went live: 20 March 2012