PARTISAN REVIEW
hearing.
Pravda
thinks it "doubtful" whether one "can expect any–
thing to satisfy the needs of the great Soviet people" from a "com–
poser whose work is penetrated to the core" by "Western formalist
decay."
.
In the Soviet Union, as in all bureaucratic totalitarian states,
personal hatred and jealousies are of course much more intense and
venomous than in the "decadent" 'Western countries where the indi–
vidual is not so much of a pawn in the rigid and often ruthless ma–
chinery of the State.
Unquestionably, fierce personal jealousies have been provoked by
Prokofiev's tremendous success all during the thirties. In January,
1937, when the Shostakovitch music purge was under way, Prokofiev
felt extremely uncertain about his position. It took an intervention
of Stalin (who at that time was alleged to have said:-"don't bother
him, he
is ours")
to silence those who were ready to pounce on Pro–
kofiev.
It is well known, for example, that the late president of the
S.K.K.-Boris Asafiev (better known as Igor Glyebov: - In the past
Igor Glyebov wrote two books devoted one to Scriabine and the other
to Stravinsky for which he had to "repent" publicly. He is also the
composer of a trivial ballet
The Flames of Paris
which had con–
siderable success in the USSR), who used to be a friend of Prokofiev
in the twenties-broke with him in the middle thirties and kept a
bitter grudge against him. After the purge, in April 1948, Asafiev
was elected "active" president of the SKK (Stalin was "honorary"
president) a post he held until his death at the end of January 1949.
The official or semi-official bracketing of Prokofiev with the com–
posers of the decadent West was at least initiated by Asafiev.
Early last spring Prokofiev was very
ill.
According to Moscow
rumors he had had another stroke similar to the one he had in 1946.
By early summer he was sufficiently recovered to complete his opera.
What the recent injunction against the opera has done to his
health is a matter of conjecture. It appears, however, that his
artistic
health,
his "formalist sickness" has been judged to be a "sickness
unto death," and that the good doctors of the Central Committee
of the Party have given him up for lost. We can only hope that Com–
rade Asafiev and Comrade Zhdanov's deaths were lucky breaks for
Prokofiev. Maybe as others did before him, he will find in himself
