Once Upon a Time in the Soviet Union

I am an ardent fan of Dominique Lapierre – I have made it a point to read most of his works, which, for whatever reason, seem to always strike a deep chord with me. His works seem to bring forth, most of the time poignantly, the indefatigable spirit of humanity in general – how truly unbreakable the power of human endeavour is, and how against its potency, almost every opposing force crumbles to a pile of dust. He is an active philanthropist for the needy in India, and many of his works, I personally feel, have an India connection. Freedom at Midnight, Five Past Midnight at Bhopal and City of Joy are a few of his most successful works, and I have had the privilege to read all of them. And while reading them, there have been countless occasions when I just could not turn to the next page – I just had to put the book down because I found myself weeping uncontrollably…

I got introduced to Lapierre the writer around the same time I was introduced to French language studies at Alliance Française in 2006 – in a way, Lapierre shaped my idea of a stereotypical French gentleman – down-to-earth, India-loving, and most important of all, capable of seeing India in a completely different light when compared to the general Western-world view of India. Lapierre and Charles de Gaulle were the two French figures who I eventually came to admire very much.

Once Upon a Time in the Soviet Union was written way back in the late fifties – Dominique Lapierre and Jean-Pierre Pedrazini, who is Lapierre’s co author for this book, are reporters with Paris-Match at that time. It was written more like a travel diary, which I gather appeared as such in Paris-Match a couple of months after their return to Paris. Perhaps because it was intended as a travel diary that it was never turned into a book until 2007. Lapierre’s epilogue gives an indication of why it took so long for him to publish it as a book (reproduced below, the original words from the book):

“On 21 January 1995, after one last operation, Slava went on to join Jean-Pierre....so I found myself the only one left to set to music the thirteen thousand kilometres of happiness and friendship that this book records....”

(Slava is the Soviet government appointed journalist who accompanies Lapierre and Jean-Pierre throughout their journey)

Perhaps Lapierre wanted to immortalize the relationship by writing a book. Reasons for late publication being set aside, Once Upon a Time in the Soviet Union is quite atypical in form and content when compared to the other works of Lapierre – while other works are very detailed and voluminous, apart from being the outcome of extensive research, Once Upon a Time in the Soviet Union is far shorter, and is devoid of any in-depth material research. In fact, it comes out more as a journalistic travel diary of two French reporter-couples recording their experiences while travelling on road behind the Iron Curtain – a journey, considering the geo-politics of the period, truly remarkable and unique. But the distinct presentation style of Lapierre is conspicuous everywhere – although the book captures a day in the life of a typical Russian at various places, it is marked by the subtle, yet unmistakable theme of how the political ideology of a state can percolate down to the level of the ordinary citizen and influence every aspect of his/her life.

The book begins with Lapierre explaining how he and his colleague, Jean-Pierre Pedrazzini, reporters in Paris-Match, receive necessary permissions from the Soviet authorities after a lot of haggling, and some influence at the level of none other than Nikita Khrushchev (then the Chief Secretary of the Communist Party of Soviet Union) and the then French President Vincent Auriol, to undertake a road journey across the length of the Soviet Union to report on the life of the Soviet citizens. The journey shall be permitted, but with several caveats : they are to be accompanied at all times by a Soviet reporter couple, and were to adhere to a very detailed travel plan which specified which road they could take, where they had to stay etc! Caveats apart, getting permission to travel in the first place was a coup in itself – Soviet Union of that period was weary of allowing their citizens any contact with the western world, because of the paranoia that their citizens would be contaminated by the capitalist ideology of the western world – an ideology, which according to them, was the scourge of the whole world!

The travel account starts with how these two reporters prepare a Simca Marly station wagon for the journey – after some googling, I could get an image of the Marly similar to what was used by Lapierre and Jean-Pierre – wow, it was indeed a very spacious vehicle - lots of boot space, perhaps chosen to accommodate the large load of Parisian perfumes and Eiffel Tower souvenirs that the travellers wanted to take for distributing to Soviet citizens en route.

Their journey is quite uneventful up to Brest-Litovsk, the Polish-Soviet border town, where they are met at the border crossing by the Soviet Government appointed representative, Stanislav Petoukhov, journalist with the Soviet newspaper ‘Pravda’ (literally meaning ‘truth’ in Russian!), who, along with his wife, was to accompany them throughout their journey. It is after this road border crossing that the readers are taken into an altogether different world – the reality behind the Iron Curtain, the reality, literally from the ground level.

They go on to visit many of the Soviet cities – Minsk, Moscow, Kharkov, Kiev, Gorki, Yalta, Tiflis, and retrace their route back. Couple of themes come out very clearly during their journey :

• The prevalence of carefully orchestrated, state driven propaganda – throughout the account, the reader is exposed to how the Soviet state was careful in trying to project itself as focussed towards the welfare of the working class – the so called proletariat. Everywhere were slogans, portraits, sculptures and other messages extolling the virtues of hard work, austere living, and the utopian social equality that Communism represented. One understands how propaganda played such a crucial role in keeping the Soviet populace cocooned in their own world of make-believe well being...
• The complete absence of some of the common comforts that were available to an average western middle class family, such as TVs, washing machines, and most importantly, CARS !
• Complete non-availability of automobile-grade gasoline for the Marly – by the end of the journey, the Marly ends up as a rattling, shuddering, mud-splattered hulk of metal that somehow managed to survive the 13,000 kilometre journey across forbidding country! Why? All because automobile grade gasoline was hard to find anywhere. Again why? Because for most citizens of the Soviet regime, owning an automobile was a distant dream....
• The absence of a spirit of competition and enterprise that western style capitalism inculcates – Lapierre explains how a restaurant owner in one of the towns has no motivation to improve his service since he is anyway the only choice to eat-out for the locals, and improving is not going to give him anything in return. Not improving, likewise, does not affect his future, so Lapierre argues that the Soviet system inherently brought about complacence and lethargy – a point of view with which I totally agree.
• The extent to which personal liberties were curtailed by the Soviet state – every time the travellers wanted to stay in one of the Soviet citizens’ homes, they had to get the permission from the state. There is another account of a French immigrant in Armenia, who is sent to a Siberian labour camp for 6 years for a very spontaneous act of love for his birthplace – he kisses the French Tricolour on the Marly ! I was thinking for a moment, if an American Citizen of Indian origin kisses the Indian Tricolour, what would have happened ? Nothing ! But here was a guy sent to a labour camp for SIX years – six years for not even an act of defiance against the state, but an act of emotion ! We come across many images on the TV where Indian citizens burn the Indian Tricolour – if this had happened in the Soviet state, perhaps they would have just been rounded up and shot without any chance for explanations !
• The fallacy of the communist ideology, which promised an utopian society where social equality was the norm, but came at the immense cost of personal liberty and the curtailment of entrepreneurship.

The whole account ends on a very sober note, capturing the passing away of Jean-Pierre, who gets hit by Soviet gunfire while covering the Hungarian anti-communist uprising outside the Communist Party HQ in Budapest for Paris-Match in November 1956. The Hungarian uprising was crushed heavily by the same Nikita Khruschev who gave Lapierre and Jean-Pierre the permission to travel inside the Soviet Union. Jean-Pierre succumbs to his injuries a few days subsequently in a Paris hospital. In a very solemn note, Lapierre captures the sad irony of how the same state machinery which welcomed Jean-Pierre and Lapierre into their country hardly months back, fires bullets into his torso to bring him down....

This book, on the whole, is a very compelling account of life inside the Soviet Union, viewed during a period when the world was split more or less equally between capitalism and communism. Viewed from a capitalist perspective, it brings forth what communism as an ideology CANNOT give to the common man.

I am always reminded of one dialogue in the movie ‘Miracle’ which immortalized the titanic clash between the American and Soviet Ice Hockey teams in the 1980 semi-finals in the winter Olympics. At one point, someone asks “Don’t these Soviets ever smile...?”, for which comes the reply, “No they don’t. They get shot if they do....”. This one dialogue summarises how much devoid of personal liberty life was in the Soviet Union.....

This book, I would say, reinforces what Churchill once said when asked to compare communism and capitalism :

'The inherent vice of capitalism lies in its unequal sharing of wealth. The inherent virtue of communism lies in its equal sharing of misery'