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The Russian writer Tatyana Tolstaya-who was born into a family with a rich literary history-has witnessed the major changes Russia has undergone during the past
fifty years. She spoke with our editors from Moscow this July.
Editors: Most of the characters in The Coast of Utopia move to the West, to France and then to London-being away from home is one of the themes of
the plays. How do you feel when you're away from Russia?
Tatyana Tolstaya: Well, whether you're allow-ed to return home or not makes all the difference. It's a question of freedom. It's a big issue, because when
you are not allowed to return home, you are not free and you become bitter. You enjoy your life, you may have lots of money and the climate is perfect and everything
is wonderful, but if you're not allowed to return home, there's a bitterness.
Ed: Do you seek out Russian communities when you're, say, in America or France? The characters in Stoppard's trilogy do this when they settle abroad.
TT: Yes. All my friends are Russian. It is that way. But each one is different, you know, because some feel that Russia is their country. Some hate it. It
depends on how Russian you feel.
Ed: And how common is your situation today, where you can travel to the West and go back?
TT: It's absolutely routine.
Ed: In terms of the play, that is a sea change. There were two centuries of Rus-sian writers and thinkers who were not free, who could not travel.
TT: Yes, absolutely. It's a different situation. But there are things that still remain the same. Right now I hate the political climate in the country. You can
talk about whatever you want, you can express your views, but it's difficult to express them with a certain purpose, to go public, to make a political career. But you can
talk.
Ed: What is the Russian attitude toward history?
TT: Most people tend to have mythological views of recent history. They distort rec-ent events immediately after they happen. They don't remember
what their life was like fifteen years ago. This is amazing. What happened to our country was very traumatizing, so I'm shocked by what people my age tell me about
what our life was like in the eighties, which was the perestroika period, and how it all changed after 1991, when the Soviet regime came to an end. People fantasize about
the past. They tell stories about their happy life: huge salaries, food galore, economy flourishing, everyone being kind to each other and happy to work for no money.
And they say Gorbachev spoiled everything and that after 1991 the country was ruined. When, in reality, before perestroika there was no freedom (neither personal nor
economic) salaries were ridiculously low, all private enterprise was considered illegal, owning property was forbidden. There were times when there was nothing in the
shops to buy. Zero, literally zero! I don't know how people survived. How I survived I don't know.
Ed: It's a completely sentimental view of the past.
TT: Yes, they believe in their daydreams.
Ed: So, when people think about perestroika do they look further back in history?
TT: Many Russians are very politicized, and they concoct a private history that has absolutely nothing to do with real history. It's as if they were blind,
and deaf, but very creative. We have a saying here that the Russian past is very unpredictable. (Laughs)
For example, people who belong to the educated class, and by definition belong to the intelligentsia, refuse to be called by that name because they do not share the
political and social views of the pre-revolutionary intelligentsia. They blame them for the destruction of the country in 1917.
Ed: The characters in The Coast of Utopia are the old intelligentsia. In fact, didn't they coin the word?
TT: Yes, but there was a shift in the understanding of what the intelligentsia is. People still argue about what it means. And people who belong to the
intelligentsia today deny it. For many people, this word has become derogatory, a dirty word.
Ed: Were you taught about Bakunin, Herzen, Turgenev and Belinsky when you were in school?
TT: Yes. Because everything that was called "Revolutionary" was taught in school. They were the icons of the official propaganda. Except for Bakunin,
who was not an icon because anarchy was not approved by the ideology. Herzen was approved.
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