Two Wars in the Life and Work of Borys Liatoshynsky Evidence from the Archives

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Two Wars in the Life and Work of Borys Liatoshynsky

Evidence from the Archives

luliia Bentia

Ph.D. in Art Studies, Research Fellow, Department of theater studies, Modern Arts Research Institute of the National

Academy ofArts of Ukraine

Abstract

The outbreak of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian War, the cancelling of Russian culture, and the broad discussion of the Ukrainian postcolonial situation have increased attention to Ukrainian culture and artistic heritage. In this context, the war experience of Ukrainian artists of past generations is of particular importance. The paper focuses on Borys Liatoshynsky, the prominent twentieth-century Ukrainian composer, survivor of two world wars, with each leaving a deep mark on his life and creative philosophy. Direct access to archival documents sheds light on how Liatoshynsky perceived and comprehended the reality of the war and how it influenced his evolution as a composer. Relying on previously published during his lifetime and posthumous sources, as well as on the yet unpublished archival sources, this paper provides insights into the redacted passages of the later publications about the composer, from which significant factual or emotionally charged fragments disappeared during the editing.

A careful analysis of archival sources from the collection ofthe Central State Archives and Museum of Literature and Arts of Ukraine proves that Liatoshynsky strongly resisted the glorification of the war and avoided talking about the war past in the officially endorsed manner. For the composer, the wars brought deeply traumatic experiences, causing suffering, forcing him to postpone life and switch to “survival mode.” Special focus is made on the contrast between the rise of artistic life after the First World War and the repressions after the Second World War. Liatoshynsky's music created during the war and postwar years has provided great support for Ukrainians who are now fighting for their independence and right to exist. The paper also emphasizes that the experience of each war is unique, and the Russian-Ukrainian War requires artists and cultural scholars to produce new meanings and concepts rather than to look for ready-made answers in the past.

Keywords: archival sources on the life and work of Borys Liatoshynsky, Ukrainian music of the 20^th century, World War II, wartime artistic life, Soviet memory politics, cultural and artistic infrastructure, cultural politics and war.

Бентя Ю.

Дві війни в життєтворчості Бориса Лятошинського: свідчення з архівів cultural politic russian ukrainian war

Анотація. Початок повномасштабної російсько-української війни, політика кенселінґу російської культури та широке обговорення української постколоніальної ситуації посилили увагу до української культури і української мистецької спадщини. Особливого значення у цьому контексті набуває воєнний досвід українських митців минулих поколінь. Статтю присвячено класику української музики ХХ століття Борису Лятошинському, який пережив дві світові війни, і кожна з них знайшла глибокий відбиток у його життєвій та творчій філософії. Пряме звернення до архівних документів проливає світло на те, як Лятошинський сприймав та осмислював воєнну реальність, і як вона впливала на його формування як творця. Опора на прижиттєві та посмертні, раніше публіковані і вперше оприлюднені архівні джерела дає змогу розкрити купюри в пізніше опублікованих матеріалах про композитора, із яких під час редагування зникли суттєві фактологічні або емоційно наснажені фрагменти.

Аналіз архівних джерел із зібрання Центрального державного архіву-музею літератури і мистецтва України доводить, що Лятошинський всіляко опирався ґлорифікації війни і уникав говорити про воєнне минуле в офіційний радянський спосіб. Війни для композитора були глибоко травматичним досвідом, вони завдавали страждань, примушували відкладати життя на потім і перемикатися на «режим виживання». Окрему увагу звернено на контраст між піднесенням художнього життя після Першої світової і репресіями після Другої. Створена у воєнні і повоєнні роки музика Лятошинського стала великою підтримкою для українців, що сьогодні виборюють свою незалежність і право на існування. Водночас стаття наголошує, що досвід кожної війни є унікальним, тож і ситуація російсько-української війни вимагає від митців і дослідників культури радше продукування нових сенсів і концепцій, аніж пошуку готових відповідей на сучасні виклики у минулому.

Ключові слова: архівні джерела про життєтворчість Бориса Лятошинського, музична культура України ХХ століття, Друга світова війна, мистецьке життя воєнного часу, радянська політика пам'яті, культурно-мистецька інфраструктура, культурна політика і війна.

Introduction

Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian War, heated discussions have erupted in Ukraine about its cultural politics and strategic vectors during the wartime. The situation in which a neighboring aggressive power is deliberately destroying Ukrainian cultural heritage and directly threatening the preservation of Ukrainian artistic heritage, imposing propagandistic historical narratives, has prompted greater attention to the prominent Ukrainian artists ofthe past and present. Ukrainian cultural community has realized its own agency and responsibility for supporting and promoting its own culture.

The performance of works by Borys Liatoshynsky acquired a special symbolic meaning. Among the events worth mentioning in this context were the first performance of the Prelude for Orchestra Quarts in the Lysenko Column Hall of the National Philharmonic of Ukraine on September 23, 2022 (NFU Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Michael Menabde), the September 20, 2023 philharmonic concert of the NotaBene Chamber Group, supported by the Liatoshynsky Foundation, which included two prominent works by Liatoshynsky from the Second World War time, namely Five Preludes for Piano, Op. 44 (Roman Lopatynsky) and the Ukrainian Quintet, Op. 42 (violinists Maksym Grinchenko and Andrii Pavlov, violist Ihor Zavgorodniy, cellist Artem Poludennyi, and pianist Roman Lopatynsky). The latter concert featured the premiere of Quasi Valse, a 1922 piece for string quartet by Borys Liatoshynsky that had been waiting to be performed for exactly one hundred years (premiered by Maksym Grinchenko, Andrii Pavlov, Ihor Zavgorodniy, and Artem Poludennyi).

Liatoshynsky's opera The Golden Crown brought together an international team to create an exceptionally innovative online project. Theaters and educational institutions from seven cities around the world--Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Teatr Wielki -- Opera Narodowa (Warsaw), Finnish National Opera (Helsinki), Royal College of Music (London), Lviv National Opera, San Francisco Opera, Shenandoah University (Winchester)-- presented plot-related fragments of the opera, each time directed and performed in a different way. It was broadcasted on October 25, 2022, on the Opera Vision streaming platform, where the project's video was available for free for six months (The Claquers, 2022).

In the 2023/24 season, other performances of Liatoshynsky's works are scheduled. Mykola Diadiura, the chief conductor of the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the National Philharmonic, will present the concert series All Symphonies of Liatoshynsky (since 1991 Liatoshynsky's symphonies have been regularly performed in Ukraine and abroad by Igor Blazhkov, who revived the postwar first edition of Liatoshynsky's Third Symphony, Theodore Kuchar, Virko Baley, Volodymyr Sirenko, Kirill Karabits, Luigi Gaggero, Volodymyr Syvokhip, and others).

Literature Review

Step by step, the composer's archives are being discovered, published, and interpreted. Twenty years ago, a milestone publication of the correspondence between Liatoshynsky and Gliere from 1914-1956 was released (Liatoshynsky, 2002), and at present, a group of scholars at the Modern Art Research Institute ofthe National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, with the support of the Liatoshynsky Foundation, is working on the second volume of this extremely important publication for the history of Ukrainian culture.

There were several events dedicated to Liatoshynsky at the Central State Archives and Museum of Literature and Arts of Ukraine (CSAMLA of Ukraine), namely the online documentary exhibition Borys Liatoshynsky's School. To the 120th Anniversary ofthe Birth ofthe Outstanding Ukrainian Composer, Conductor and Educator (Bentia & Sukalo, 2015) and the ceremonial transfer of autographs and manuscripts of romances of the 1920s to the CSAMLA of Ukraine on March 12, 2015. These autographs and manuscripts were gifted to the state archives by Liatoshynsky's heirs Dmytro Gomon and Tetiana Gomon. This transfer was combined with a presentation of the recently published Borys Liatoshynsky. Romances of the 1920s edited and prefaced by Igor Savchuk (see its 2^nd edition: Liatoshynsky, 2015). After the transfer, the staff of the Archives and Museum revised the inventory of the personal fund No. 181 and published it online just before the full-scale Russian invasion. The new inventory was completed on January 28, 2022, and accepted for permanent storage on February 17, 2022 (Liatoshynsky, 2022).

Aim of the paper

A general overview of these documents, as well as documents related to Borys Liatoshynsky from other archival collections stored at the CSAMLA of Ukraine, has already been published in several articles (see, in particular, Bentia, 2015; the extended version of this article with the appendix--a list ofperformances of Liatoshynsky's works by the Kyiv Philharmonic--was published in a collective monograph dedicated to the composer: Bentia, 2018). The aim of this article is to elaborate on several important stories from the time of the First and Second World Wars, as well as the postwar years, which are considered vital for understanding the circumstances of the life and work of the outstanding composer. Among the archival sources included in this analysis, the most insightful one is a typewritten text with numerous editorial corrections and redactions (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s), which later became the basis for the first volume ofa two-volume Russian-language work on Liatoshynsky and inspired the appearance of other publications on the composer in the following years (Hrysenko & Matusevych, 1985; Hrysenko & Matusevych, 1986; Kopytsia, 1987). These official accounts are supplemented by private documents of the composer's contemporaries, colleagues, and friends, which sometimes give a completely different picture ofLiatoshynsky's attitude to the war. All ofthis creates a three-dimensional picture of the artist's worldview, who was extremely sensitive to global calamities, and their impact on the interpersonal relations within his professional community.

Results and Discussion

Reading the collection Memoirs. Letters. Materials, dedicated to Liatoshynsky, one can understand the decisive role of the Second World War in the evolution of the artist's philosophical outlook. The war became a pivotal point in the biographies of people and the whole country during the era. Time began to be divided into three categories: before, during, and after the war. The Soviet ideological paradigm of the Great Victory is evident in the memoirs, which greatly contrast with Ukraine's radical revision of this ideology today. Rewriting the memory of the Second World War means that Ukraine is moving forward, trying not to be trapped in the past.

Naturally, the 1985 edition (it was the end of the Stagnation era) contains all the possible Soviet cliches, including “the struggle for peace,” “deep realism,” and “reliance on the traditions of Russian classical music,” etc. For example, the Editor's Note states: “The greatness ofLiatoshynsky's work is determined primarily by his high position as a citizen who cares about the fate of humanity. It is this civic position that enabled him to address such complex and important topics of our time as the struggle for peace, friendship of peoples (in particular, the Slavic peoples), the heroic struggle ofthe Soviet people against fascism during the Great Patriotic War, etc.” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheet 2); “For all its complexity, tension and poignancy, the musical language of his works is deeply realistic” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheet 4); “One of Taneyev's favorite students, Gliere passed on to B. Liatoshynsky the traditions of Russian classical music” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheet 3). The editors also emphasize the composer's active participation in supporting resistance to the occupiers and artistic reconstruction after the war: “During the [Great] Patriotic War, he worked [in Saratov] at the Taras Shevchenko Radio Station, which at that time broadcasted special programs for partisans and the residents oftemporarily occupied Ukraine. Immediately after the liberation of Kyiv (November 10, 1943), he returned to his hometown (together with the poet M. Rylsky, the poet M. Bazhan, and the painter M. Derehus) and immediately joined the reconstruction ofthe city's artistic and cultural life” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheet 5). (This is not entirely accurate, as the composer first moved from Saratov to Moscow in the fall of 1943, where he lived in Gliere's apartment, and only returned to Kyiv a year later; this is discussed in more detail below.)

Even Igor Belza, in his extremely personal, insightful, and to a certain extent even lyrical memoirs about his teacher, written “for a wide readership,” deliberately adds a stylistically alien passage about the strict cause-and-effect relationship between war and creativity: “The experiences of these years, the heroism of the Soviet people, the drama that rose to tragic pathos caused by thoughts about the victims and loss of loved ones--all this was captured in the great chamber and instrumental works ofLiatoshynsky created during the war years. At the same time, it was not accidental that he persistently turned to the folk-song melodies of Ukraine, whose land, even if for a short time, was ruled by barbarians who killed old people and children, destroyed cultural values and buildings, and desecrated graves” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheet 54).

Gliere also focuses on the wartime years ofLiatoshynsky's career. In Liatoshynsky's works, he emphasizes “his ability to convey in music the heroism ofthe people fighting for their freedom and independence,” and highlights his student's direct participation in the war, his influence on its course through his work and the use offolk song melodies (the topics are quite different in the artists' correspondence): “During the Great Patriotic War, when Soviet musicians, together with the entire nation, participated in the defense ofthe Motherland, B. Liatoshynsky created beautiful works based on the melodies of Ukrainian folk songs: The Ukrainian Quintet (awarded the State Prize), the Second Piano Trio, the Shevchenko Suite for piano, and many solo and choral arrangements offolk songs. In the post-war years, the composer's appeal to the richness of folk song creativity was equally successful and fruitful” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheet 68).

Memoirs written after a certain time gap often unwittingly romanticize wartime, their authors use vivid poetic epithets, broad generalizations, and project their own emotional reaction to what they saw and experienced. Perhaps it was these features ofthe memoirs ofthe singer Mykhailo Romensky that forced the editors of the collection to actually rewrite them all, making them more dry and specific. Nevertheless, it is worth presenting the original version in order to understand the different strategies of remembering traumatic events. Romensky's memoirs of his return to Kyiv begin as follows: “I walked through the broken streets of the capital ofUkraine. The charred poplars on Shevchenko Boulevard stood like ghosts. Artillery shots were still thundering, and we had already returned from the evacuation from Irkutsk. Sadness gripped my soul. It was painful to look at the ruins of Khreshchatyk. The wounds from the loss of our relatives and friends were still fresh” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheet 271).

Using the example of memoirs about Liatoshynsky, as well as the material of the broader war literature intended for publication, we notice the development of cliched verbal constructions that were used at that time to denote everything related to the Second World War. Obviously, these verbal formulas were not canonized immediately. Yet, this is another lesson for contemporary wartime Ukraine: it is important not to exploit the Soviet discourse but to try to find other words and other meanings to describe our own present experience, which will help us not only survive this war but also, as the Ukrainian writer Oksana Forostyna aptly puts it, “survive the peace,” i.e., to emerge from the war with a constructive postwar program aimed at systemic change (Forostyna, 2023).

Social Circle and Professional Contacts

Throughout his life, Borys Liatoshynsky never lost contact with his student Igor Belza. The First World War forced Belza (original surname Doroshuk) to leave Warsaw and his studies at the gymnasium and move to Kyiv, where he joined Liatoshynsky's class of students and took his first steps as a professor. Obviously, it was the critically difficult years of the Second World War and mutual support that caused and strengthened this closeness. In his memoirs about his teacher, Belza writes: “...I am indebted to him in many ways as a student not only in the realm of the `divine art,' but also in the difficult `art of life.' [The following is crossed out by the editor:] I dedicated my book on Romanticism, published in Poland in 1974, to the memory of all three of my teachers: father, mother, and Borys Mykolaiovych. And if formally I stopped being his student after graduating from the conservatory, in fact, I never stopped learning from him until the last years ofhis life, which was tragically cut short” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheet 12).

While in evacuation in Saratov, Borys Liatoshynsky and his wife Marharyta Tsarevych were in close contact with the composer and conductor Petro Polyakov (when the latter was a student, his entire group was transferred from Odesa to the Lysenko Music and Drama Institute). Although full of Soviet liberation pathos, Polyakov's memoirs remain an important testimony to the organization of musical life in Saratov and the role of Liatoshynsky in it: “Saratov. 1941. Winter. On the far outskirts, near the banks of the Volga, in a snowy, cold room sat a gaunt man whose name was being announced on the radio together with his patriotic Bohuntsi s Song, which was being broadcast for the partisans of Ukraine. When Borys Mykolaiovych learned that the Taras Shevchenko Radio Station had started broadcasting in Saratov, he was inspired and immediately accepted my offer to cooperate with the Ukrainian radio station. Since then, the composer's entire creative life has been in constant contact and communication with performers and creative teams of Ukrainian Radio. Being at that time the head and artistic director of music broadcasting, I was closely acquainted with Borys Mykolaiovych's work and got to know him even better as a person. Borys Mykolaiovych and his wife, the singer Marharyta Oleksandrivna Tsarevych-Liatoshynska, began to perform regularly on artistic broadcasting programs. Radio opened up enormous opportunities for the composer to communicate with the people. The feeling of constant connection with Ukraine inspires him even more and does not leave him throughout his career. Borys Mykolaiovych's achievements during these harsh years of war are exceptionally outstanding. In extremely difficult conditions, the composer creates outstanding works that are rightfully ranked among the pinnacles of contemporary multinational Soviet realist music, which have won deep recognition and love of the people” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheets 218-219).

While the date of the following document is unclear (the stamp is smeared), it is possible to hypothesyse that the Liatoshynskys wrote to Polyakov in Saratov (the Radio Committee) at the end of 1943 from Moscow. The text of their telegram literally reads as follows: “Congratulations on the New Year we wish you happiness at the same time we send a letter greetings to the family [continued on the back] the Liatoshynskys” (Liatoshynsky, ca. 1943).

In Polyakov's personal collection at the CSAMLA ofUkraine, there is an undated sheet with copied Liatoshynskys gift inscriptions to Polyakov on wartime publications kept at the National Museum ofthe History ofUkraine in the Second World War. They are bitter and ironic at the same time, worth being reproduced in full: “Gift inscriptions on the music scores ofB. M. Liatoshynsky, which are in the museum ofthe Second World War. Ukrainian Quintet. To my dear P. A. Polyakov, sincerely grateful for the truly friendly attitude in the difficult 1942-3 years for the author. Moscow, 26/I 1944, published in 1943 / Overture on 4 Ukrainian National Themes. To dear P. A. Polyakov from the author as a sign of sincere friendship. Kyiv 4/II 1944 / The Four Seasons. For choir. To my dear P. A. Polyakov in memory of the evening of May 10, 1951. To P. A. Poliakov as a sign of friendship and in memory of the evening of September 21, 1951, when a score larger than this one was on the table. 21/IX 1951 Vorzel / To Polyakov P. A. Fifth Symphony” (Liatoshynsky, n. d.).

Two photographs, dating from the second half of the 1940s, capture Liatoshynsky with Petro Polyakov and other colleagues. Based on their clothing and other signs, it may be assumes that the photographs were taken on the same day. In the background ofthe second photograph, a radio is clearly visible, the main attribute of the two artists' stay in evacuation (Photograph of Liatoshynsky & Polyakov, ca 1947; Photograph of Liatoshynsky, Znosko-Borovsky, Ponomarenko, & Polyakov, ca. 1947).

The memoirs of the pianist and composer Tatiana Nikolaieva, who performed the premieres of Borys Liatoshynsky's works, begin with the war years, and for whom it was important to emphasize the contrast between everyday difficulties and student enthusiasm. In her memoirs about her time in Saratov, she writes as follows: “The conditions for students' studies were extraordinary at that time. The beautiful building ofthe Saratov State Conservatory (one ofthe best in the Union) was covered by soot and smoke from burzhuikas. (Today's youth do not understand this.) Almost every day the electricitywent out. There was a shortage offood. We received a month's worth of meat rations, excellent Volga herring, and we immediately ate a week's worth ofbread. It was under these circumstances that I was destined to meet Borys Mykolaiovych. I still remember his tall figure with his winter hat pulled down and his coat collar turned up. The burzhuikas could not warm up the building, it was wildly cold in the conservatory, and my fingers were cold from touching the piano keyboard. I was one ofthe cheerful enthusiasts. I had to take classes with Borys Mykolaiovych on instrumentation” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheets 259-260).

The memoirs of Leonid Chetvertakov, an avid music lover and a very young twenty-year-old who was serving in the army in Saratov in 1941, also focus on the war years. The circumstances of his personal acquaintance with the Liatoshynsky family were quite pragmatic: he once helped his composer idol buy bread without waiting in line (one had to stand in line for hours). Over time, they began to communicate more and more often on musical topics: “Borys Mykolaiovych, when he saw in me a desire to learn music, met me with an open mind. Despite the difficult living conditions and his busy schedule, he found time to talk to me. I remember how hard it was--incredibly hard--for them to live in Saratov during the war. In an unfamiliar city, with strangers, in cramped conditions, they lived an extremely intense creative life. And this required great courage and spiritual fortitude” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheet 289). Further, Chetvertakov notes: “In the years 1941-43 in Saratov, Borys Mykolaiovych worked a lot. He composes romances, trios, quartets, and a quintet, an inspirational work in honor of his native Ukraine. He performs on Ukrainian Radio together with Marharyta Oleksandrivna. <...> In the fall of 1943, the Liatoshynskys left Saratov” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheet 291). The communication between Liatoshynsky and Chetvertakov did not stop for quite some time, so later the author of the memoirs made an interesting observation that Liatoshynsky did not glorify his works of the war years and did not romantisize the wartime: “Borys Mykolaiovych spoke humbly about his work, and often, in response to my enthusiastic remarks, he spoke with a great deal of criticism of himself. It was felt that Borys Mykolaiovych was especially fond of his works of the 20s and his last symphonies, the 4^th and 5th” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheet 293).

For many artists, the war became a watershed: in their memoirs, they divide their lives into pre-war and post-war years. This is clearly evidenced in the memoirs of the film director Tymofii Levchuk about his collaboration with Liatoshynsky: “I personally knew Borys Mykolaiovych in the prewar years. However, my creative destiny brought me together with him after I returned from the fronts of the Great Patriotic War” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheet 252).

Leonid Hrabovsky, speaking ofhis teacher, also singles out the war years. He writes: “At one of the lectures on the history of Ukrainian music, where some of Liatoshynsky's romances from the war years were shown, I was struck by the first consonance I had ever heard--two simple but different chords built on top of each other--which became the first impetus for my own delving into this realm” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheets 103-104). The mere mention of the war sharpens perception and provokes a particularly careful attitude to everything created in the wartime.

For another student ofLiatoshynsky's, Yurii Shchurovsky, the postwar atmosphere of the Kyiv Conservatory had a special flavor, and he was particularly struck by the contrast between the catastrophic neglect of everyday life and the humanity and benevolence of the professors. All of this is also superimposed by the euphoria of the first year of study at the coveted university: “1946. The postwar destruction is very evident. Shops are empty, transport rarely runs, and the classrooms are very cold. <...> Poverty and suffering, pain and death are gradually receding into the realm of memories. I'm also happy because my dream has come true--I have been a student at the conservatory for several months now. And it does not matter that we sit in classrooms in coats, with every word a cloud of steam obscures your face and the objects in front of you. The corridors of the conservatory are also an unusual sight. In terms of color and variety, they could only compete with Nevsky Prospekt, described by Gogol in his time. One could not pass by the older representatives of the vocal department elite. They drew attention to themselves with the brightness oftheir clothes and the garishness oftheir makeup. There were a lot of military shirts. New ones were bright green, slightly worn ones were yellow and orange, and long-used ones were faded to whiteness by time, rain, and sun. On the chests of some, clusters of orders and medals proudly jingle, while others have strictly fixed rows of award bars. And some had holes right against their hearts, like bullet holes, after they had removed their medals from their shirts to keep them at home. And in secluded corners, in nooks and crannies, in the corridors, groups ofvery young, shy boys and girls gathered. These were newcomers, whose precious years of study had not been taken away by the war, who were now mature enough to enter the conservatory to continue their education” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheet 124). Turning from his general impression ofthe conservatory ofthose years to his memories of the Department of Composition, Shchurovsky notes: “In those days, the Department of Composition was based mostly on the `three whales,' the `three Mykolaiovyches' -- the classes of professors Lev Mykolaiovych Revutsky, Borys Mykolaiovych Liatoshynsky, and Mykola Mykolaiovych Vilinsky. [Shchurovskys footnote: However, for some time Mykhailo Ivanovych Verikivsky and Matviy Yakymovych Hozenpud also had several students]. In addition to their universally recognized compositional authority and wide- ranging erudition, they all possessed an absolutely amazing gift that is so necessary for every true teacher and pedagogue: the gift of humanity and benevolence. It was a great happiness to get into their classes” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheet 124).

Warand the Publishing Industry

The topic of the functioning of publishing houses, including music publishing houses, is one of the central ones in archives on Liatoshynsky. The fact that his works were published in Ukraine, as well as in the central publishing houses ofthe USSR and abroad, was always offundamental importance to the composer, as it testified to the creative realization of his potential. Some of his students worked in publishing houses after graduating from the conservatory and maintained contact with their professor. The discussions that emerge in records, memoirs, and correspondence, such as the functioning of publishing houses as institutions, the overregulation of contacts with Western publishers, Soviet censorship, and unbreakable hierarchies in the composer's professional community are also relevant to this study. The publication of the works was directly related to the facts of their previous performance: the live premieres made it possible to finalize the music manuscripts and make them ready for publishing.

Particular focus on this topic is provided by Igor Belza, one of the pionering music publishers in Soviet Ukraine, an artist seasoned in the functioning of Soviet music publishing houses, their principles of work, and, in fact, revealing the history of publication of his teacher's works. Belza's memoirs shed light on many facts about Ukrainian music publishing in the context of Liatoshynsky's life and work during the Second World War: “Shortly before the outbreak of the war, thanks to the efforts of Kalekina and Rudensky, the Mystetstvo Publishing House finally got its own printing house on Bankova Street with a sheet music engraving, assembly, and printing shop. It was there that the clavier of the opera Shchors was printed. And in July 1941, when bombs were falling on Kyiv, we drowned the machines, paper, and all the equipment of the printing house in the Dnipro on our own and burned the publishing houses archives. A few months later, in early September, Mykhailo Burmistenko, the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, who had done a lot for the publishing house, died at the frontline with a weapon in his hand. [Handwritten note on the margins: Coordinate with the party authorities and write perhaps more about his [Burmistenko's] role in the organization of the publishing industry, if his role is really great. Continuation of the note in a different handwriting: To mention it in passing?].

In the first month of the war, Borys Mykolaiovych and a group of cultural figures were evacuated from Kyiv. The life ofBorys Mykolaiovych and Marharyta Oleksandrivna in evacuation was not easy. Both of them worked in Saratov at the Taras Shevchenko Radio Station; in addition, Borys Mykolaiovych taught students, becoming a member of a department of the Moscow Conservatory that was evacuated there as well. This was a continuation ofold contacts with Moscow, where in the thirties Liatoshynsky had taught special instrumentation courses.

Borys Mykolaiovych's health was unstable, and doctors diagnosed him with a serious form of dystrophy but even during this period he did not stop his intense creative work, the results of which, despite the difficulties of the war years, soon appeared in print. The Soviet government made sure that the culture of all the republics that were attacked by the Nazis continued to develop. In particular, the Ukrainske Derzhavne Vydavnytstvo [Ukrainian State Publishing House] was established in Moscow to publish both classic and new works by Ukrainian writers and composers. This short period of existence of the Ukrainian publishing (on the printing base ofMuzgiz) was marked by the publication of numerous works by Borys Mykolaiovych, some ofwhich were published with two stamps -- Muzgiz and Ukrvydav. First of all, this is the monumental Ukrainian Quintet (first edition -- Ukrvydav, 1943, second edition -- Muzgiz, 1949), which was awarded the State Prize, the Second Piano Trio, the Fourth String Quartet, fifty arrangements of Ukrainian folk songs for voice and piano and choir with piano, the Piano Suite, romances to the words ofMaksym Rylsky, Volodymyr Sosiura, and Sava Holovanivsky” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheets 52-53).

Obviously, the Soviet authorities understood the importance of publishing houses as one of the most influential tools for spreading propaganda and creating a positive image of the Soviet empire. They made full use of this tool, as Belza also mentions in connection with a fragment from Liatoshynsky's opera Shchors: “Only our era could produce, for example, to the famous Song of the Bohun Regiment, which was printed in the first days of the war in thousands of copies and all ofthem were sent to the frontline upon the instructions ofthe Central Committee ofthe Communist Party ofUkraine” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheet 56).

Recalling the situation during the 1920s and the following decades, including the years of World War II, he notes: “In 1924, Liatoshynsky's first works were published in Moscow, a series of romances called Moonlight Shadows. Soon, the composer's name gained popularity in the Soviet Union and then in the West, primarily due to numerous Moscow editions of his works, some of which were published in conjunction with the largest European publishing house, Universal Edition, in Vienna, which distributed works by Soviet composers published under an agreement with the Music Sector of the State Publishing House in Europe and America. And for more than half a century now, Moscow (the Music Sector ofState Publishing House was reorganized into the State Music Publishing House, abbreviated as Muzgiz, and then into the Muzyka Publishing House) has been continuously publishing works by Liatoshynsky, whose glorious name is also in the catalogs of both Ukrainian publishing houses and the Soviet Composer Publishing House. In Ukraine, where the printing base, which had been damaged during the Civil War, was gradually being restored and expanded, three of Liatoshynsky's romances were published in 1929. These were After the Battle to Bunin's lyrics, Ancient Song to Heines lyrics, and Ozymandias (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheets 23-24).

The circumstances of the war put many things on hold, and the publication of music was one of them. For example, on the fate of the publication of Liatoshynsky's Second Symphony, which Belza mentions: “The Second Symphony (1940) also underwent a radical revision, and its score, due to wartime circumstances that significantly affected publishing throughout the country, was published in Moscow only in 1946” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheet 37). Belza considers the lack of publishing capacity to be one of the signs of the postwar years in Kyiv: “Already in the fall of 1943, Borys Mykolaiovych fled to the liberated Kyiv. For a long time (until 1951, when Pushkin's famous choirs The Four Seasons were published in Kyiv), his works were published only in Moscow, because the publishing house Mystetstvo was slowly restoring its printing base” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheet 54).

The war also proved the importance ofcirculated editions in the sense that single handwritten copies of works often do not survive the hard times. This was the case, for example, with Borys Liatoshynsky's first music written for theater, when he composed music for a performance by the Lesia Ukrainka Theater in Kyiv based on Vsevolod Vishnevsky's An Optimistic Tragedy. Liatoshynsky was invited to try his hand at the theater by his classmate from the Zhytomyr gymnasium, Volodymyr Nelli, then director ofthe Lesia Ukrainka Theater. According to his recollections, “...when the Lesia Ukrainka Theater returned to Kyiv at the end of the war, it was decided to restore An Optimistic Tragedy. We searched all the corners of the building but found only a few scattered and torn sheets of orchestral parts. Borys Mykolaiovych also did not have a single line left. He was upset: apparently, he loved his first work for the drama theater” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheet 250). After the war, only fragments of individual parts were found. The war destroyed this work by Liatoshynsky but there is always a small chance that this manuscript may be found in some collection. Nevertheless, it is obviously worthwhile to include information about this work when compiling a list of the composer's works or collecting press reviews of lifetime performances.

Postwar Contrasts: The Rise of the 1920s and the Repressions of the Late 1940s and Early 1950s

It is hard not to notice a huge difference in the way Ukrainian artists felt after the end of the First and Second World Wars. The 1920s witnessed creative polyphony, experimentation, emergence of new stars and new works, the establishment ofa professional community with numerous associations and groups, a significant presence of Ukrainian artists in the centers ofthe Soviet empire, foreign publications and performances, contacts with prominent foreign artists. The late 1940s and early 1950s were characterized by persecution and repression, unrest, a paranoid atmosphere of distrust in society in general and the creative environment in particular, and the establishment of non-artistic priorities in artistic work. It can be argued that for Liatoshynsky this time lasted for more than a decade--since his return to Kyiv in 1944 up until he was awarded the First Class State Prize in 1955 for his music to Ihor Savchenko's film Taras Shevchenko (1950).

Belza also mentions this in his memoirs, noting that “[t] he harsh, tendentious criticism of his work in the late forties and early fifties caused Borys Mykolaiovych great distress” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheet 55). For Belza, it is the war that allows him to explane the complexity and emotional intensity ofLiatoshynsky's music, the expansion ofhis compositional palette and his proximity to expressionist statements: “Liatoshynsky's symphonic scores are marked by the most vivid originality. They embodied, developed and generalized the images created . „by the drama of our time, hence the intense emotionality that even prompted critics to reproach the composer for his tendencies toward expressionism, although such reproaches were hardly justified in the least, since there is no need to talk about what the thoughts and feelings of Soviet artists were like during the war and postwar years. It was these experiences that caused the emotional intensity, sometimes even tension, that is felt in many scores of those years, including Liatoshynsky's Ukrainian Quintet and his Third Symphony” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheets 58-59).

Conductor Mykhailo Kanerstein touches on both wars in his memoirs. However, if the mention of the First World War is rather neutral, as if it were bad weather that would soon pass (“Kyiv. 1916. The imperialist war continues. Classes at the Kyiv Conservatory are going quite well”) (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheet 226), while he writes about his communication with Liatoshynsky during the next war in much more detail. The last year of his evacuation from Kyiv, after Saratov, Liatoshynsky spent in Moscow, where he taught at the Moscow Conservatory and lived in Gliere's apartment, where Kanerstein also lived. The conductor recalls: “The daily meetings and conversations during this difficult time will be remembered forever. We talked about so many things... Of course, our main common desire was to return to Kyiv as soon as possible” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheet 232).

In Revutsky's memoirs, however, the focus is shifted to the events of the First World War, as the war affected him directly. The memoirs provide stories about his and Liatoshynsky's student years at the Kyiv Conservatory, as well as a lot of information about Revutsky himself, who became a student in 1913, right after the conservatory was established, and Liatoshynsky joined Gliere's class later in 1914. In particular, Revutsky writes: “In the first years of my studies, Borys Mykolaiovych and I did not have much communication. And in 1915, our communication stopped altogether, as I joined the army (first in the reserve, and then at the frontline). In 1918 I was demobilized, came to Moscow first, and then returned to Kyiv. Here we met again with Borys Mykolaiovych” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheet 78). Revutsky added a note to this story (“Going to military service is explained by the fact that I was given a deferment from the army by the university. And it was no longer possible to transfer to the conservatory (at that time)”), which suggests that as a student he was not subject to mobilization but he was still drafted into the army due to a bureaucratic conflict and the fact that he was studying at university and at conservatory at the same time. Graduating from university, he lost his deferment. Writing about his first year at the conservatory in the company of two other students of the Department of Composition, he notes that one of them, “a very young officer Terentyev,” who was sent to the front at the very beginning of the war, died (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheet 77).

Revutsky and Liatoshynsky went through different stages in their lives, marked by rapprochement and estrangement. In his late years, Liatoshynsky decided to give Revutsky a heartfelt gift--a document in which he combined a copy of a handwritten concert program from December 3, 1914 (which featured early works by both composers: Revutsky, a sophomore, and Liatoshynsky, a freshman) with his own late portrait, leaving a dedication to Revutsky dated January 9, 1965 (Works, 1914, 1965).

Liatoshynsky in the Life and Archival Collection of Petro Suk

Some of Borys Liatoshynsky's wartime works, which have become firmly established in the chamber repertoire of contemporary performers, were performed for the first time after the composer's death. Behind each of these performances is the selfless work of the pioneering performers, and in the case of the Soviet cultural situation, the enthusiasm and courage of the organizers of such events.

The poster for a concert of Liatoshynsky's works dated October 29, 1971 states: “B. M. Liatoshynsky. A chamber concert of piano works by the composer. Performed by senior lecturer of the Kyiv State Institute of Culture Borys Demenko. Program: Two Preludes, Opus 38 No. 3, Opus 38 No. 5 (performed for the first time); Five Preludes, Opus 44 (performed for the first time); Three Preludes, Opus 38 [these have apparently already been performed before. -- I. B.]; Ballad, Opus 22 (performed for the first time); Concert Etude Rondo; II section: SonataBallad, No. 2, Opus 18; Reflections, Opus 16; First Sonata, Opus 13.” The concert was held in the House of Composers of Ukraine in Kyiv, at 32 Pushkinska Street (now Yevhen Chykalenko Street), and was organized by the Union of Composers of Ukraine and the Kyiv State Philharmonic. The bottom line of the poster reads: “An exhibition about the composer's life and work is on display.” A remarkable feature of the poster is that it does not indicate the start time ofthe concert, meaning that it was an event “for the initiated” who would know when to come without the additional information (Concert, 1971).

Moreover, the poster does not name the organizer of the concert, whose devotion to Liatoshynsky's work brought him not only creative joy but also harsh persecution by the official authorities. The poster is preserved at the CSAMLA of Ukraine in the personal collection of Petro Suk (1910-1994), a choirmaster, professor, musician, and public figure, father of the famous Ukrainian and American pianist Mykola Suk. The inscription on the poster “4^th Season” suggests that the first season began when Petro Suk was appointed director of the Republican House of Composers of Ukraine (July 1968), a position he held until September 1976 (before his retirement), and that it was he who initiated the concert series, which was important for the Kyiv music community.

Other documents from Suk's collection indicate that he was dismissed in 1953 from his position as director of the Kyiv Music College, where he had worked since returning from evacuation in 1944, precisely because of the organization of the concert of Liatoshynsky's works. Reports and collective letters in his defense are stored in the CSAMLA of Ukraine (Reports, early 1950s), see also the preface to the inventory of Petro Suk's archive, which mentions this fact (Suk, 2011). In the end, Petro Suk managed to prove to everyone that by promoting Liatoshynsky's music, he was making an important contribution to the development of Ukrainian culture.

The program of this concert performed by students of the Kyiv State Music College on November 19, 1951, which resulted in Suk's dismissal from the position of director, has also been preserved (The program, 1951). The first section of the concert included choral works conducted by students of Petro Suk's class (eleven pieces), while the second section featured chamber vocal and instrumental works. The program seems quite balanced and “politically correct.” Obviously, for those who organized the “witch hunt,” what mattered was the very fact of organizing a performance of works by a composer who had fallen out of favor.

In the 1974/75 season, Petro Suk organized a concert at the House of Composers of Ukraine to mark the 80th anniversary of Liatoshynsky's birth, and the poster for this event has been preserved as well(Concert, 1974/75).

Cats, Squirrels and Two Clowns in Tyrolean Clothes

Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, the daily destruction and deaths caused by Russian artillery, missiles and drones, Ukrainians seem to have become especially sensitive to every resqued life. The Ukrainian news are full of stories about cats being rescued from houses destroyed by missiles, about lions in zoos that are nervous because of loud explosions, about dogs dragged from the waters of the Dnipro River after the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam had been blown up. Such news has taken on a special meaning.

In the memoirs and correspondence about Liatoshynsky, many pages also feature the heartbreaking stories about cats, squirrels, and even souvenirs--inanimate figures that came to life in the composer's imagination. The current war gives us a key to these stories and hints that they can be seen as a consequence of the psychological trauma that Liatoshynsky suffered during the wartime.

For example, in the correspondence between the Liatoshynskys and Olena Smolych, Ihor Belza's first wife, a whole “cat epic” unfolds, connected with the Liatoshynsky's travels and the need to find a temporary home for their pets (Tsarevych & Liatoshynsky, 1951-1966, n. d.).

Describing a trip to Austria in the company of Liatoshynsky, Anatoliy Kos-Anatolsky recalls with great tendernessastorythathappenedinInnsbruck(inthetypescript, this fragment was redacted as unimportant for the printed edition): “One evening he [Liatoshynsky] boasted that he had bought a souvenir, a little clown in Tyrolean clothes. The next day, Borys Mykolaiovych bought another clown of the same kind. When I asked him why he needed two identical souvenirs, he told me: `All night long I heard the first clown crying for his brother, so in the morning I went to the same store early and bought the second one. In this way, I reunited them and thus calmed my conscience.' And then Kos-Anatolsky adds a comment from himself: `That's how Borys Mykolaiovych felt around him a lot of things that other, ordinary, people did not'” (Hrysenko & Matusevych, early 1980s, sheet 91).

Conclusions

Among the documents that shed light on Liatoshynsky's attitude to the war, his correspondence with his fellow composer Petro Haidamaka is unique. In a letter dated July 17, 1946, probably in response to congratulations from Haidamaka on being awarded the Stalin Prize for The Ukrainian Quintet and to the assumption that the war years were quite productive and therefore “good” for Liatoshynsky, the composer confesses with all his heart: “You are mentioning our Volga life in Saratov, where this Quintet was mostly written. Yes, the time was `good' but life would have been better without it” (Liatoshynsky, 1946, sheet 1).