The Museum That Makes The World Less Small

G.M. Temnenko

Simferopol City, Russia

Master of Linguistics

Dean of Taurides National University

Division of Cultural Studies

Department of Philosophy

"The World Is Small, As Always." Thus reads the title of a book by Uli Zislin, published in Chicago in 2008. Uli Michailovich himself has lived in DC since 1996. In Moscow he was a Master of technical sciences, engineer-architect, inventor, poet and bard, and also a collector. In America he is the founder and the curator of the "Washington Museum Of Russian Poetry and Music," which has existed since 1997.

 The informal brotherhood of people for whom poetry, music and culture are as necessary as air knows no national boundaries. For those who belong to it, space and time are experienced differently than they are for everyone else.

Uli Zislin wrote his first song in 1949 and published his first collection "Duties" in 1992. The second, "Sketches," was published in 1996, also in Moscow, and his third - "Likenesses" - in Washington in 2000. Uli Michailovich remains a poet and a bard for all time. In 2011 he gave the author of these lines a disk with recording of himself singing Russian poetry, and our annual Crimean Akhmatova conference started with his virtual performance. The bard's song is alien to stage decorations. The soft voice of Uli performs songs, whose music naturally grows from the nature of poetic speech. For this reason their sincerity convinces and lures, and the intonations, almost conversational, are musical in reality - the melody begins to play inside us, and it seems that the listeners can sing along. The song of the bard began in intelligent company and has always served not to only express lyrical inclinations, but to unite people. In reality, the tenor of the bard’s song was due to the very nature of lyricism, having consisted from very beginning of inseparable confluence of music and words.

 Possibly for this reason the performers of author's song did not hide similarities between the lyrical classic of gold and silver ages of Russian poetry. Not only in Okudzhava, but also in Vysotsky, it's possible to find reminiscences of Pushkin. And his "There is a hunt upon the wolves" - accidentally or no? - is reminiscent of Akhmatova's "They shoot animals at different times, but they shoot the wolf all year long" ("To you - to live, to me - not very much..."). Everyone remembers the poem of Galitch "Memories of B. L. Pasternak." In fact the appearance of such connections could be a subject of very interesting investigation. But their meaning does not only impact literature studies. The call by B. Okudzhava, "Friends, let's join our hands, so as not to fall alone" carried a broad meaning, including as relating to space and time.

 It is said that one can't carry the homeland on the soles of one's shoes. Probably, it is so. But culture is something special. Having come to America, Uli Zislin in that same year, 1996, organized the first Tsvetayeva bonfire on the first Sunday of October, in the Tarusa-Russian tradition. And since then every year he gathers lovers of poetry. Poems are recited, songs based on Tsvetayeva poems are performed, along with the Russian songs which she loved; and those who have things to say do so.

 The next year Uli Zislin created his museum. What did he accomplish? In ancient times "museum" meant "temple of the muses." "The service to the muse does not tolerate worry," this line from Pushkin is often repeated to mean that worry is undesirable. But that the muses wait and demand service - of this they don't always think.

And the museum, in reality, is such a place, where people can meet the muses and serve them. Collection of materials about the life of poetry and music, about their creators, is work laborious, fastidious, intense, and one that often remains "behind the scenes." And in the big, imposing halls of the museum, behind the glass, it is not rare that culture presents itself in a faceless and ironed out attire; even worse it so happens that the museums can't decide between two equally unattractive poles: To present the culture like a collection of dead butterflies under the glass, with papers classifying them as representatives of a species - Or to lure the visitors with "liberated" events, coming together like in a market stall (alas, today this is not news).

 Uli Zislin decided to dedicate his museum to five Silver Age poets: Tsvetayeva, Pasternak, Akhmatova, Mandelshtam and Gumilev. And he gathered not only materials but, most interesting of all - people and living human participation in the process of maintaining and developing culture.

 When Homer in "Iliad," speaking about wars, of Greeks who came across the ocean to go to war with adulterous Trojans, counted chiefs and ships, and said that he did not know how many other warriors there were - "only the immortal muses know." Of course, the museum is at all times associated, first and foremost, with memory and knowledge. This museum really possesses quality. Its founder does not only care about materials presented as gifts: the disinterested curator wants to maintain human bonds, which make it possible and necessary to exchange opinions about the most important - about what's beautiful in all times and in all situations. His book "World Is Still Small" does not separate stories about the materials in the museum from the stories of people who contributed them. Sometimes popular stories of Heracles Andronikov about search for materials, relating to life of Pushkin and Lermontov, won in oral performance but dimmed in written form. Uli Zislin succeeds in his writing to unite scientific articulateness and precision with engrossing captivation that flows out of the author's own passionate interest. In the frankness of his communication his personal demeanor is lacking in theatrics. He simply loads the reader with his greedy engrossment, in love with the living life of culture - that can't be subject to most artful imitation. And for this reason the muses, which live in his museum, really know unusually many precious demons, details, privacies, without which nothing is ever complete.

 He speaks about the paintings of Marina Tsvetayeva - and he does not deem it possible not to share everything that he knows about those who investigated them. And in the sketch "Shine of Tsvetayeva's Passion," dedicated to depiction of Marina Tsvetayeva's alleged ring, before us come several extremely interesting psychological portrayal; and a semi-detective story, without final "sentence," combines the impression of the poet's personality not only with her psychological portrait for "100 years" but also with the psychological portraits of her friends and fans. Her image as a lyrical heroine acquires in the consciousness of her readers its own life - and the story of the ring, regardless of ownership, supports it.

 One of the most interesting chapters is "Tree Bark Book to Akhmatova." I will not relate it again - it is on the widely famous site "You Invented Me," Anna Akhmatova (http://www.akhmatova.org/), and on the site of Uli Zislin http://www.museum.zislin.com. The story of a woman robbed of freedom (the wife of an executed " enemy of the people"), having made from tree bark in a labor camp a book with early poems of Akhmatova and who later confessed that that book helped her to survive, is interesting not only because of the fate of this unique material, but because of the fates of the people who were privy to it.

 Probably there is not in this museum any "storage unit," which would appear under a dried material. Each, seems, is surrounded by nerves and pulsing blood vessels of human relationships, thoughts, feelings.

 It this way the second book, published under the mark of the museum, "Chronicles of Comparisons between Anna Akhmatova and Marina Tsvetayeva" (Chicago: Continent 2009) - "500 quotations with additions and notes" - is interesting, of course, in its comparisons, but still more in difference of views and opinions of these poets. It is possible to speak about the value of this unique collection for the history of literature and for the history of development and struggle of cultural values.

 In this connection it is not surprising that the museum did not only remain limited to just the Silver Age (one remembers the words of Osip Mandelshtam that acmeism is "longing for a world culture"). Not just acmeism - the whole culture, now both new and modern, cannot be contained in one time or geographical locale.

 Of course, if to speak about the activity of the museum as a whole (or, what is the same, about the activities of Zislin man and wife and many of their friends and compatriots) - one is tempted to quote endlessly. One can speak about the non-profit organization "Kontinent USA" which supported Zislin. One can speak of hundreds of publications made in different countries based on the materials in the museum; about the "Alley of Russian Poets and Composers" in Washington; about the idea for International Tsvetayeva Bonfires... But the reader can find out about all of these things on the site, which address we have just published.

 However there is one cherished thought by the founder of the museum, and it deserves to be presented as a whole.

We speak of the cultural project of 21st Century:

"Dear Friends,

LET'S CREATE

"American museum of Russian Culture"

for wider American public

WHICH IN ITS VAST BULK IS UNFAMILIAR WITH RUSSIAN CULTURE.

It would be a unique museum of its kind, if we present in it Russian culture in all its variety, depth and greatness and to create an exhibition and tours in an accessible, bright, captivating form, passionately, truthfully, and in its full scale.

Please show interest in this difficult and unique project - the project of XXI century: Call us, write us, look up our site and come, if you can, to the "Washington Museum of Russian Poetry and Music" (www.museum.zislin.com).

Let's talk, think, and discuss this idea.

Let's find people in America and Russia who will express any interest in the creation of the new museum.

With this project we will make possible for the people of Russia and America to come closer; for both cultures to reach and work with each other; for greater understanding among people to be achieved; for increasing of humanitarian bonds, turning into people's diplomacy.

I put in an official request to American government. They speak to me. They ask me about details. Of course, there will always be questions about the project. And it will be strange and bitter if Russia and Russians will not take part in the creation of the "American Museum of Russian Poetry" for the broader American public. This call in equal, and maybe even a greater, measure, is directed to the Americans and to all the people who love and appreciate Russian culture.

And another thing. I do not personally need assistance. It is enough for me what I made in Russia and America for the promotion of Russian culture. This project is a heavy burden to me, but it appears that achieving it is very important, first of all, for Russia and America. Thank you.

Idea for the project: Collector Uli Zislin

www.museum.zislin.com   1-301/942-2728   museum@zislin.com

Well, the world is becoming not only smaller, but also more thoughtful and more beautiful.

What are you doing to make that happen? 

Translated from Russian to English by Ilya Shambat