Rubbing along

Following various short mentions of Le Compromis (reference 3) at references 4, 5 and 6, this by way of wrapping up.

I was prompted to buy this book by an article in the NYRB (reference 1) about another book on similar lines (reference 2). I suspect that on this occasion I made the right choice, as I thought Le Compromis very good. In the round, rather like the Good Soldier Švejk (reference 7) in that it is another dark and picaresque tale, involving a great deal of tobacco and alcohol, from the dying days of a central European empire.

Written by a mixed race Russian who had a reasonably colourful life. Born in the USSR in 1941, emigrated to the US in 1979 and died there in 1990. Most of the work for which he is now known was published in the 1980's. I had never heard of him before reading the article in the NYRB. See reference 8 for a fuller story.

During the 1970's he appears to have been a journalist, good at his work but unreliable in political and other ways, so more or less exiled to the provincial backwater of Estonia - at least a provincial backwater for a metropolitan Russian. He appears to have hovered between the ranks of a proper, salaried journalist and a jobbing journalist - here called a pigiste - literally paid by the line - with the most of the latter spending quality time on trying to get the journalistic equivalent of tenure. Trying which naturally involved ingratiating oneself with management and Party.

The format of the book is twelve chapters, each chapter starting from a short piece from the official Estonian media of the 1970's - at that time part of the Soviet Union - and going on to give the back story - usually very different from the front story. All very entertaining.

So we get to have a good pop at the Soviets. After which I thought that one could probably write a similar book about the goings on of the media in a western country, say the UK or the US. With some short stories in the press only bearing a very slight resemblance to the truth. A starting point rather than a foundation. Turning it upside down even.

Some of the interest derives from the tensions between the Russian masters in Moscow, the substantial Russian minority in Estonia and ethnic Estonians. Even the odd person of German descent, from the days when the Baltic states were a lot more mixed up than they are now. And being Jewish does not appear to have been career enhancing.

But I suppose the point of the book is that one has to rub along with things the way they are. So in this case, rather than make a stand on principle and get sent off to a camp in the frozen north, you live a bit on the fringes of things. A bit of dodgy dealing here, a bit of dodgy dealing there. Doing just enough to keep the chaps in charge quiet. In the jargon of France (and Simenon), a bit of collaboration. Smoking and drinking a good deal. Plenty of fornication.

I associate to a theory I once read about how the Party, when in charge in East Germany, was quite happy about naturism. Let the people have a bit of fun that way, let them blow off a bit of steam. Much less likely to make real trouble for the authorities that way.

PS: this was a late entry in the Dovlatov oeuvre. Now getting stuck into an early entry, 'La Valise'. Of which more in due course.

Reference 1: Living by Lies - Sophie.Pinkham@NYRB - 2020.

Reference 2: Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin’s Russia - Joshua Yaffa - 2020.

Reference 3: Le Compromis - Sergueϊ Dovlatov - 1981/2005.

Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/09/more-words.html.

Reference 5: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/09/an-astronomical-morning.html.

Reference 6: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/08/rubber-confusion.html.

Reference 7: The Good Soldier Švejk: the fateful adventures of the good soldier Švejk during the world war - Jaroslav Hašek - 1921/3.

Reference 8: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Dovlatov.