2023-07-15 10:00:45
Fyodor Chaliapin. Photo: Wikipedia
Even before 1917, many outstanding Russian singers performed in the cities and resort towns of Estonia. But among them was not Fedor Ivanovich Chaliapin, without a doubt, the most famous Russian singer, whose fame went far beyond the borders of Russia.
Dear friends!
We continue to publish fragments from the book of Sergei Isakov, a well-known scientist, professor at the University of Tartu (8.10.1931 –
01/11/2013), our countryman, “Essays on the history of Russian culture in Estonia”.
Fragments of the book, which are published in our newspaper, directly relate to Narva. We are sure that by reading them, you will learn even more about our city and even make discoveries for yourself.
We thank the relatives of Sergei Gennadievich for the opportunity. The book was published by Aleksandra publishing house, Tallinn 2005.
(Start here.)
Events of the end of 1917-1919 – revolution, German occupation, civil war, war between the young Republic of Estonia and Soviet Russia – interrupted for some time the tour of Russian musicians in Estonia. But after the conclusion of a peace treaty between Estonia and Soviet Russia in February 1920 in Tartu, it became possible to resume cultural contacts between the two neighboring countries. Moreover, Estonia turned out to be almost the only country in the world that had normal diplomatic relations with Soviet Russia and where singers and musicians from Russia could legally come. A group of Chaliapin’s admirers from the local political elite decided to take advantage of this circumstance and invite the great singer and the famous Mariinsky Opera Theater team to Estonia on tour. They were well aware of the plight of artists in Russia, in particular in Petrograd, where devastation and famine reigned.
On March 22, 1920, the head of the Soviet diplomatic mission in Tallinn, I.E. Gukovsky sent a letter to Chaliapin, in which he said that the “Estonian ministers” asked him to help get the singer to Revel for several concerts. “Today, the commission for the exchange of ratifications is leaving from here to Moscow,” the letter said. Her secretary, Mr. Tomingas, can give you all the necessary information about the concert hall, etc.” It was about William Tomingas, the secretary of the Estonian delegation that went through Petrograd to Moscow to exchange instruments of ratification of the Tartu (Yurievsky) peace treaty, concluded on February 2, 1920.
According to later newspaper reports, the initiator of Chaliapin’s invitation was a prominent Estonian political figure of those days, Juhan Kartau, a Social Democrat, former Minister of Education, a member of the Constituent Assembly (of the then Estonian Parliament). Another Estonian politician, Alexander Shipai, was also involved in Chaliapin’s invitation. Both of them were members of the ratification commission and could visit Chaliapin in Petrograd. Both Y. Kartau and A. Shipai spent their student years in St. Petersburg and became ardent admirers of Chaliapin’s talent. They were supported by the Minister of Foreign Affairs A. Birk, who, apparently, played a decisive role in inviting Chaliapin to tour Estonia, an invitation that unexpectedly received a loud public outcry and entailed a complex chain of political intrigues. We do not know which other Estonian ministers supported Chaliapin’s invitation. Opponents were determined pretty soon …
There are many obscure and confusing things in this whole story. A lot of this behind-the-scenes struggle and political intrigues in the highest echelons of power will probably forever remain undiscovered.
Chaliapin was very weary of life in hungry Petrograd, in the atmosphere of the “red” Bolshevik regime. There is nothing surprising that the singer accepted with great joy the invitation to come on tour to Estonia.
The matter, indeed, quickly moved forward. In order not to delay the arrival of Chaliapin’s representative to Estonia for negotiations on tours due to all sorts of bureaucratic delays, the ratification commission returning home from Moscow in Petrograd took the impresario singer G.I. Jacobson. The “registration” of a trip abroad took a lot of time at that time, and if it were not for this obviously not quite legal step of the members of the ratification commission, which, moreover, was made without the permission of the Minister of Internal Affairs, then the arrival of the impresario, and then Chaliapin, could drag on for long term.
G.I. Yakobson, the conductor and director of the Mariinsky Theater (as he, at least, was called in the Estonian newspapers), had to agree on all the details of the tour of Chaliapin and, if possible, the Mariinsky Theater staff in Estonia. Chaliapin’s invitation, as we have seen, originally came from the ministers, i. from the Estonian authorities, and was of a semi-official nature. But, of course, it was not appropriate for the authorities to act as organizers of the tour. Therefore, it was decided to turn to the board of the Estonia society, which ran the theater of the same name, with a proposal to take over the organization of the tour of Russian musicians.
On April 12-13, the first reports appeared in the Estonian press about G. Jacobson’s negotiations in Tallinn with the board of “Estonia” regarding the arrival of Chaliapin. G. Yakobson suggested inviting a large troupe of the opera and ballet of the Mariinsky Theater consisting of about two hundred people on tour. The artists of the Mariinsky Theater could present 7 operas and five ballets. In addition, according to the impresario, Chaliapin could give concerts in Tallinn and Tartu. However, the board of “Estonia” did not dare to take up the organization of the tour of such a large team. In addition, the press began to hear the first – still quite rare – voices against the tour of Russian musicians: now it is more important to send Estonian optants from Russia to their homeland than to receive such a mass of Russian guest performers. In the end, not without assistance from the authorities (J. Kartau), G. Yakobson and the board of “Estonia” agreed that the matter would be limited to two Chaliapin concerts in Tallinn.
Then a complex behind-the-scenes struggle began in the highest spheres of power of the Republic of Estonia around the arrival of Chaliapin, where A. Birk acted as his protector and patron, and the Minister of the Interior A. Hellat, generally known for his hostility towards Russians, tough measures against Russians, acted as an adversary. refugees and northwesterners. A. Hellat could not help but be annoyed by the fact that in the history of Chaliapin’s invitation, A. Birk often acted over his head, bypassing the Minister of the Interior. But, in addition to the hostile personal relations between the two ministers, all this was also reflected in the long-standing contradictions in the Estonian government itself of that time, headed by J. Tõnisson and consisting of representatives of three opposing parties: the Trudoviks, representatives of the Estonian People’s Party (A. Birk) and Social Democrats (A. Hellat). Moreover, the position of the ministers on this issue could not coincide with the opinion of other members of the party and even with the general line of the party. Recall that both Yu. Kartau and A. Hellat were Social Democrats.
There are many obscure and confusing things in this whole story. A lot of this behind-the-scenes struggle and political intrigues in the highest echelons of power will probably forever remain undiscovered.
By May 1, Chaliapin seemed to have already received permission to travel to Estonia. Meanwhile, even in the first days of May, there was still no clarity in Estonian circles with the arrival of Chaliapin in Revel. Although announcements of Chaliapin’s first upcoming concert scheduled for May 9 appeared in Estonian newspapers on May 4, ticket bookings for this concert began on May 5 and almost all tickets were sold out on the same day, nevertheless, on May 6, the Päevaleht newspaper wrote : “There are various rumors: Chaliapin will arrive – Chaliapin will not arrive … Officials have little to say.” And then it followed: “The Minister of the Interior and a large, very large part of the intelligentsia society is against his arrival for reasons that have already been mentioned in the press.”
By the concert, scheduled for May 9, Chaliapin did not have time; his first performance had to be urgently rescheduled for 10 May.
Against the backdrop of all these troubles, with the arrival of Chaliapin in Estonia, a loud anti-Chaliapin campaign began in the Estonian press. It must be taken into account that during this period anti-Russian sentiments were very strong in Estonia. They were brought to life by a complex set of reasons, among which were both old ones, rooted in the past (national oppression of Estonians in imperial Russia, the Russification policy pursued by the tsarist authorities until recently), and new ones, primarily related to the events of the so-called War of Independence between Estonian Republic and Soviet Russia. Recent events have particularly strengthened anti-Russian sentiments, especially since the Whites, represented by the North-Western Army of General N.N. Yudenich – did not want to recognize the Estonian Republic, still adhering to the old idea of ”a single and indivisible Russian Empire.” In the minds of many Estonians, the enemies of the Estonian Republic were both Russian communists, red Russia, and whites with their monarchical attitudes. Chaliapin, in the eyes of some Estonian politicians, journalists and intellectuals, was the personification of both.
All this explains the anti-Shalyapin campaign that has unfolded on the pages of the Estonian press and, to some extent, in Estonian society itself. Some of the Russian emigrants also took part in it, especially former military men, who saw in Chaliapin, first of all, “the singer of the communist republic.” However, for the majority of Russians here, Chaliapin, first of all, remained a great Russian singer, a great artist.
(To be continued)
The post Passions Around Chaliapin first appeared on gazeta.ee.
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