2022.04.04 为冲突中的创作自由而大声疾呼

shiyi18

By Invitation | Russia and Ukraine
Semyon Bychkov speaks out for creative freedom amid conflict
The conductor says bleak choices await Russia’s artists

Apr 4th 2022 (Updated Apr 5th 2022)


The Russian invasion of Ukraine has dealt a profound blow to Russian culture and its vitality, both at home and abroad. Everything that is Russian has become toxic, leading to bans on Russian works of art and cancellations of Russian artists’ performances. It is an irrational reaction on the part of the global community, but it reflects the intensity of revulsion felt at the horrors of war and suffering inflicted on the people of Ukraine. It also reflects our sense of helplessness, our pain and the desire to do something to register our rejection of, and revolt against, violence.

Culture defines who we are and who we aspire to be. It mirrors the human condition in its infinite complexity. It is meant to enlighten and to nourish the good in us, but also reveals and warns us of its opposite. Art in itself is meant to serve human society. So are the artists.


Art cannot and should not be used for political ends or to justify any ideology. That is fundamental in a democratic society, built on the idea of pluralism. Not so in totalitarian regimes where art is kidnapped to defend the indefensible and used by rulers to brainwash their people, to make them adhere to dogma and to prevent them from thinking for themselves. Art is used to stop them searching for the existential truth, finding it and deciding how to deal with it.

What choice do artists in Russia have when faced with the almighty power of the state? They can conform and become its faithful servants, publicly and enthusiastically subscribing to the notion formulated by the speaker of Russia’s Parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin: “If there is no Putin, there is no Russia.” A shower of rewards in a variety of forms will follow. But the price to pay is the corruption of the soul. To join the power is to become its instrument.

Another choice for artists is to remain true to their own convictions, but to remain silent. Emigrate inside your conscience and live with the pain of it—as the composer Shostakovich did in Soviet times and as so many others did in their time, and as so many do today. A third choice is to openly oppose the regime and to perish, perhaps through Novichok poison, in return. The last choice is to leave the country, if possible.

These are the options, and each of them carries an enormous price that must be borne by the whole of Russian society. The country’s cultural realm is meant to be in the forefront of intellectual thinking, and is presupposed to reflect the conscience of the nation. Yet today, as in Soviet times, it is once again expected to endorse a war forced upon a much smaller country. Ukraine’s only sins are its desire to be independent and democratic, and its wish to preserve its statehood, its language and its culture.


Any war will produce either national unity in the face of a common threat, or profound division when the reasons for it cannot be understood or justified. The war in Ukraine created an extraordinary unity among the Ukrainian people but deepened the divisions inside Russian society. The world of arts and culture has been cleft, too. The very regime which indiscriminately sheds blood in Ukraine is mercilessly unforgiving towards those who dare to oppose it. The world of arts included.

Mr Putin and his coterie talk endlessly and piously of the great Russian cultural tradition: its music, its literature and its “power”. Power is the key word for them, the only thing they can relate to and identify with. True, Russia’s artistic legacy has enormous and universal power to enrich our lives through its humanistic ideas. It should not be used to oppress or subjugate, nor to awaken the worst instincts of human nature. Not to destroy but help create a better world in which everyone has space and chance to find fulfilment, where there is room for diversity and true freedom of self expression.

Works of art and artists themselves cannot assume guilt for the sins of those who rule the country where they were born—unless we have a reason to identify them with Mr Putin’s regime itself. This cannot be true in the case of Mussorgsky’s opera “Boris Godunov”: it was composed in the 19th century. Yet its performances have been cancelled by the Polish National Opera. The work shows us what absolute power does to destroy an individual, an austere ruler of Russia, and his people. As such it should be performed ten times every day!

We need to recognise how much grey lies between the black and white; how different and complex are the circumstances of each human life and the content of each work of art. Otherwise more injustice is committed, creating more wounds that won’t heal.

In the second world war the city of Leningrad (as St Petersburg was known under the Soviets) lived under siege for almost 900 days. The Leningrad Radio Symphony Orchestra helped people survive the inhumanity of their condition. The orchestra would regularly broadcast performances of the music of many different composers. Beethoven was one of them, even though the German army was only a few kilometres away from the city’s centre.

Tchaikovsky and Tolstoy, Mussorgsky and Pushkin, Shostakovich and Akhmatova, among countless others, have given us gifts through their immortal creations. Are we to refuse them now solely because of their Russian origins? If we did, what would separate us from the Nazis burning books and forbidding music that didn’t suit either their ideology or racial prejudice? What would distinguish us in spirit from last century’s Soviet establishment? It persecuted some of its best writers, composers and performers. How would our thinking be different from that of Mr Putin’s Russia today? It does the same to anyone daring to oppose its so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine.

This is not who we believe ourselves to be.

These are not our values.

This is not how we want to define ourselves.

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Semyon Bychkov is chief conductor and music director of the Czech Philharmonic. He was born in the Soviet Union but emigrated in his 20s.



应邀参加｜俄罗斯和乌克兰
谢苗-别奇科夫为冲突中的创作自由而大声疾呼
指挥家说，等待俄罗斯艺术家的是暗淡的选择

2022年4月4日 (2022年4月5日更新)



俄罗斯对乌克兰的入侵对俄罗斯文化及其活力造成了深刻的打击，无论是在国内还是国外。俄罗斯的一切都变得有毒，导致俄罗斯的艺术作品被禁，俄罗斯艺术家的演出被取消。这是全球社会的非理性反应，但它反映了对乌克兰人民所遭受的战争恐怖和痛苦的强烈反感。它也反映了我们的无助感，我们的痛苦，以及想做点什么来表达我们对暴力的拒绝和反抗的愿望。

文化决定了我们是谁，我们渴望成为谁。它反映了人类状况的无限复杂性。它旨在启迪和滋养我们心中的美好，但也揭示和警告我们其反面。艺术本身就是为了服务于人类社会。艺术家也是如此。


艺术不能也不应该被用于政治目的或为任何意识形态辩护。这是建立在多元主义理念上的民主社会的根本。极权主义政权则不然，在那里，艺术被绑架来为不可辩护的东西辩护，被统治者用来给人民洗脑，让他们遵守教条，阻止他们自己思考。艺术被用来阻止他们寻找存在的真理，找到它并决定如何处理它。

面对国家的万能力量，俄罗斯的艺术家有什么选择呢？他们可以顺应并成为其忠实的仆人，公开并热情地赞同俄罗斯议会议长维亚切斯拉夫-沃洛金提出的概念。"如果没有普京，就没有俄罗斯"。各种形式的奖励将随之而来。但要付出的代价是灵魂的腐败。加入权力就是成为它的工具。

艺术家的另一个选择是忠于自己的信念，但要保持沉默。就像作曲家肖斯塔科维奇在苏联时代所做的那样，就像其他许多人在他们的时代所做的那样，就像今天许多人所做的那样，移居到你的良心里面，带着它的痛苦生活。第三种选择是公开反对该政权，并以诺维乔克毒药作为回报而灭亡。最后一个选择是离开这个国家，如果可能的话。

这些都是选择，而每一个选择都有巨大的代价，必须由整个俄罗斯社会来承担。国家的文化领域本应处于知识思维的最前沿，并被预设为反映国家的良知。然而今天，就像在苏联时代一样，人们再次期待它赞同一场强加给一个小得多的国家的战争。乌克兰唯一的罪过是它渴望独立和民主，以及它希望保留其国家地位、语言和文化。


任何战争要么在面对共同威胁时产生民族团结，要么在无法理解或证明战争的原因时产生深刻的分裂。乌克兰战争在乌克兰人民中产生了非同寻常的团结，但却加深了俄罗斯社会内部的分裂。艺术和文化的世界也出现了裂痕。在乌克兰不分青红皂白地流血的政权，对那些敢于反对它的人毫不留情。包括艺术界。

普京先生和他的小圈子无休止地、虔诚地谈论着伟大的俄罗斯文化传统：它的音乐、它的文学和它的 "力量"。权力是他们的关键词，是他们唯一可以联系和认同的东西。诚然，俄罗斯的艺术遗产具有巨大和普遍的力量，通过其人文思想丰富我们的生活。它不应该被用来压迫或征服，也不应该被用来唤醒人性中最坏的本性。不是为了破坏，而是帮助创造一个更好的世界，在这个世界里，每个人都有空间和机会找到成就感，有多样性的空间和真正的自我表达自由。

艺术作品和艺术家本身不能为那些统治他们出生的国家的人的罪孽承担罪责--除非我们有理由将他们与普京先生的政权本身联系起来。就穆索尔斯基的歌剧《鲍里斯-戈杜诺夫》而言，情况并非如此：它创作于19世纪。然而，波兰国家歌剧院已经取消了它的演出。这部作品向我们展示了绝对的权力是如何摧毁一个人，一个俄罗斯的朴素的统治者，以及他的人民。因此，它应该每天演出10次！"。

我们需要认识到在黑与白之间有多少灰色；每个人的生活环境和每个艺术作品的内容是多么不同和复杂。否则就会有更多的不公正，造成更多无法愈合的伤口。

在第二次世界大战中，列宁格勒市（苏联统治下的圣彼得堡）在围困中生活了近900天。列宁格勒广播交响乐团帮助人们在非人道的环境中生存。乐团会定期广播许多不同作曲家的音乐表演。贝多芬是其中之一，尽管德国军队离市中心只有几公里远。

柴可夫斯基和托尔斯泰、穆索尔斯基和普希金、肖斯塔科维奇和阿赫玛托娃，以及其他无数人，都通过他们不朽的创作给我们带来了礼物。难道我们现在仅仅因为他们的俄罗斯血统而拒绝他们吗？如果我们这样做，那么我们与纳粹焚烧书籍和禁止不符合其意识形态或种族偏见的音乐有什么区别？我们在精神上与上个世纪的苏维埃政权有什么区别？它迫害了一些最好的作家、作曲家和表演者。我们的思想与今天普京先生的俄罗斯会有什么不同？它对任何敢于反对其在乌克兰的所谓 "特别军事行动 "的人都采取同样的做法。

这不是我们认为自己是谁。

这些不是我们的价值观。

这不是我们想要定义自己的方式。

_______________

谢苗-拜奇科夫是捷克爱乐乐团的首席指挥和音乐总监。他出生在苏联，但在20多岁的时候移民了。