Parmi la jeunesse russe: De Moscou au Caucase

by Ella Maillart

Moscou, 1930. Dès la gare centrale c'est la pénurie : queue qui bat la semelle à la consigne, hôtels bondés ou hors de prix, capitale blême, engorgée de clochards, où rien d'heureux ne survient qu'à la faveur du désordre... » Ella Maillart, qui n'a rien à perdre - aucune passion politique - loue une paillasse dans le deux-pièces de la comtesse Tolstoï, vit de thé et de pain noir, rame sur la Moskova avec de jeunes ouvriers et visionne la production soviétique d'Eisenstein à Dovjenko. Elle passe les meilleures heures de cette période ingrate dans la cabine de montage de Poudovkine, qui l'a prise sous son aile et lui explique son travail. On peut parier que les superbes images mongoles de Tempête sur l'Asie lui donnent un avant-goût de cet Orient qui bientôt deviendra sa vie.

Genres: Nonfiction

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1932

About the author

Ella 'Kini' Maillart (February 20, 1903 – March 27, 1997) was a French-speaking Swiss adventurer and travel writer, as well as a sportswoman. She had been captain of the Swiss Women's ice hockey team and was an international skier. She also competed in the 1924 Summer Olympics as sailor in the Olympic monotype competition.

From the 1930s onward she spent years exploring oriental republics of the USSR, as well as other parts of Asia, and published a rich series of books which, just as her photographs, are today considered valuable historical testimonies. Her early books were written in French but later she began to write in English. Turkestan Solo describes a journey in 1932 in Soviet Turkestan. In 1934, the French daily Le Petit Parisien sent her to Manchuria to report on the situation under the Japanese occupation. It was there that she met Peter Fleming, a well-known writer and correspondent of The Times, with whom she would team up to cross China from Peking to Srinagar (3,500 miles), much of the route being through hostile desert regions and steep Himalayan passes. The journey started in February 1935 and took seven months to complete, involving travel by train, on lorries, on foot, horse and camelback. Their objective was to ascertain what was happening in Sinkiang (then also known as Chinese Turkestan) where a civil war had been going on. Ella Maillart later recorded this trek in her book Forbidden Journey, while Peter Fleming's parallel account is found in his News from Tartary. In 1937 Ella Maillart returned to Asia for Le Petit Parisien to report on Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey, while in 1939 she undertook a trip from Geneva to Kabul by car, in the company of the Swiss writer, Annemarie Schwarzenbach. The Cruel Way is the title of Ella Maillart's book about this experience, cut short by the outbreak of the second World War.

She spent the war years in the South of India, learning from different teachers about Advaita Vedanta, one of the schools of Hindu philosophy. On her return to Switzerland in 1945, she lived in Geneva and at Chandolin, a mountain village in the Swiss Alps. She continued to ski until late in life and last returned to Tibet in 1986.

Ella Maillart's manuscripts and documents are kept at the Bibliothèque de Genève (Library of the City of Geneva), her photographic work is deposited at the Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, and her documentary films (on Afghanistan, Nepal and South India) are part of the collection of La Cinémathèque suisse in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Reviews

[BrokenTune · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another book by Ella Maillart about her travels to the far flung places of the earth whose names sound like she made them up for a childrens bedtime story.

I read Auf Kuehner Reise (tr. "Daring Travels" - it may also have been published as "Ausser Kurs", i.e. "Off Course"), which was originally published in French as Parmi la jeunesse russe (tr. "Amongst Russian Youth"), in the German translation. Unfortunately, this is another book that has never been translated widely (but, IMO, really should have been). There are probably several reasons for the lack of interest:

First off, this book is basically Maillart's first book. She always travelled and was fond of adventure but it was not until her return from Russia in 1930 that she was persuaded to write about her experiences.

Second, the trip and the book were really quite audacious: As a Swiss national, Maillart had difficulties obtaining a visa for the trip. Switzerland had not recognised the Soviet Union politically and relations between western states and the Stalinist country were rather tense.
When she finally does get permission to travel in the SU, she is under no illusion that what ever she writes may endanger her trip and also the people supporting her whilst travelling. There is a scene in the book where she alludes to being followed by a member of state security. She quickly dismisses the scene but I could not help wondering how closely she had been watched or had had similar encounters that have not made it into her book.
She also thinly disguises the identity of the people she meets. For example, Moscow in 1930 was severely lacking accommodation - Maillart could not afford to stay in hotels (and at any rate would have preferred to stay with locals) and finds lodgings with Countess Tolstoy (daughter-in-law of Leo), who is a friend of a friend. She never mentions her outright, tho. And only refers to her as Madam T. or Frau K. (depending on which edition you read). So, she is quite aware from the outset that if she chose to write anything political, it might have consequences for herself and the people around her.

As a result she wrote down her observations with little criticism of what she saw and little judgement. She does compare some of the ways and attitude she observes to her experiences in Germany or Switzerland but, generally leaves out any in depth valuation of which one is better etc.

The non-political tone of the book led to a rejection by western readers when the book was published in 1932. I assume that readers expected to have their the rumors and stories about the grim realities of Stalinist Russia confirmed and were disappointed by a book that spent a lot of time talking about the attitudes of the state towards building a future by providing education and opportunities for its youth. What Maillart also describes - but does not spell out - is how the Stalinist regime colonizes the country and bit by bit eradicates differences between its people and destroys true individuality. Again, she does not analyse this within this book but it is present in her observations. (She is more vocal about it in her later book The Cruel Way.)

What was also fascinating about the way Maillart wrote this book was the way she used her observations to tell about the ideas she favoured, like the emergence of women into the work place and by extension a more equal society or the promotion of education for people of all walks of life.
Maillart was not naive enough to believe or promote the communist idea in her book. Far from it. Communists do not get many favourable mentions in the book at all. She mostly focuses on the discussions she has with the young people that she travels with and the people she meets on the road. However, this being her first book, I guess people would not have grasped that Maillart herself was the most staunch supporters of freedom and individuality.

As for the trip itself, the book is divided in to two parts: Maillart starts off with a short stay in Moscow - which made for fascinating reading because there are so few first-hand accounts that I have read of westerners travelling there during Stalin's reign.

The second part of the book, describes her trip from Moscow to the Caucasus - more specifically Svanetia, which I had not heard of and which really does sound like a fairy tale place.

Svanetia, in northern Georgia, at the time of her trip (1930) was a very remote place. Not only is it surrounded by the highest mountains in Europe, but at the time, there were hardly any transportation links or any means of communication, or facilities which would have been commonplace in other parts of eastern Europe - such as plumbing, reliable water supply, not to mention electricity or heating systems - apparently some houses were still constructed without chimneys providing no ventilation for fires inside the house (and making heating them difficult).

It really must have been a fascinating experience.



By comparison, only 9 years later, Maillart would describe a trip across Persia and Afghanistan, which was made possible by the relative ease with which she and her companion were able to find food and lodgings and source parts and petrol for their car.
The trip in what is now Georgia was much less sophisticated.

She describes how people would watch a film at an improvised cinema, and believing it to be real, would check behind the screen to find the actors; how the radio was such a novelty still that people could not believe it was possible for it to transmit in real time; how people were only slowly adjusting to the change in times and customs.

For me the second part of the book was even more enjoyable than the first. For one it showed a part of the world at a time when no one else wrote about, at a time that must have been both wondrous and frightening at the same time.
At the same time, the book shows Maillart at a point, a seminal point, in her life where she makes a choice to abandon Europe to become a traveller. She shares some of her motivations in the book and we also get to see some of the guts it would take for her to make the decision as it is quite clear that she'd not choose (or have the means to choose) travelling in comfort.

But then, if she could hike across the Causcasus with a severe leg injury (a dog bit a chunk out of her) and no medical help, what else was there to stop her?

So, this was only the first of her many extraordinary adventures.

[Natira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ella Maillart fährt 1930 allein nach Moskau, dann mit einer Gruppe Einheimischer als Tourist weiter ins Land, um den Kaukasus zu sehen (und zu überqueren). Später geht es weiter ans Schwarze Meer und zurück. Sie reist nicht völlig blind in das große Land, in welchem die Werte der Touristen "außer Kurs" gesetzt werden, aber offenbar des Russischen nicht wirklich mächtig (und auch nicht der weiteren Sprachen der weiteren Volksstämme). Sie schreibt im Präsens, nicht nur von ihren Touren, sondern es gibt Kleinigkeiten zu entdecken, im Miteinander mit den Mitreisenden, der Versorgung, wie nationale Schuhe erstellt werden, Körperkultur- und ertüchtigung, kommunistischer Bewusstseinsbildung und Gemeinschaftsleben.

Obwohl 1930 geschrieben und mich manchmal mit zeitgenössischen Begriffen irritierend, merkt man auch nach fast 90 Jahre noch immer die Begeisterung Maillarts und die Aufbruchstimmung im damaligen Russland.

[Luc Claes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quelle fantastique aventurière ! 1930 ! On peut bien sûr lui reprocher une grande naïveté par rapport à l'URSS stalinienne... Mais cette traversée du Caucase 'en toute simplicité' est époustouflante.

[Seingalt · Rating 3 out of 5]

In which Maillart recounts her adventures in the former Soviet Union (mostly in and around Moscow and in the Caucasus) with what seems like a mixed-sex scout troop for young adults. A book I found enjoyable and ridiculous at one and the same time.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wir schreiben das Jahr 1930: Eine junge Frau packt ihren Rucksack. Sie reist "in eine ganz andere Welt", nämlich nach Russland und später auch in den Kaukasus.

Noch gehe ich etwas Abstraktem entgegen und ich bin gespannt, was mich in Russland, das mit der sozialistischen Gesellschaft das kühnste Experiment der Neuzeit wagt, erwartet. Vor allem bin ich gespannt auf die jungen Menschen, die Zwanzigjährigen, die die alte Welt nicht mehr gekannt haben und für die der neue Staat aufgebaut wird.

Maillarts Faszination für dieses Experiment spürt man auf jeder Seite, solange sie in Moskau ist. Die Armut der Russen springt ihr zwar ständig in's Auge, doch gibt sie ihre Erlebnisse ohne viel zu analysieren wieder:

Breite Plätze. Enge Straßen. Wenige Läden, und diese verstaubt. Keine Plakatsäulen. Häuser mit abgesplittertem Verputz und schmutzigen, oft gesprungenen Scheiben. Man möchte am liebsten alles mit frischer Farbe anmalen. [...] Keine Reklame in der Straßenbahn, wie auch die Mauern der Stadt weder Seife noch Aperitif anpreisen.

Maillart interessierte sich eher dafür, ob die Menschen so glücklich sind und wie sie ihren Alltag bewältigen. Und davon muss sie, bis auf ein paar Nebenbemerkungen zur sozialistischen Ideologie, begeistert gewesen sein.
Ich war selber ganz gefesselt von ihren Beschreibungen, die ja für mich obendrein eine Zeitreise waren. Und ihre Faszination hat sich teils übertragen. Dieser überkritische Ton, den wir alle inzwischen gewöhnt sind, mal loszusein und einfach die Freude eines anderen fast kritiklos zu teilen, war wie Urlaub.

Nach einigen Monaten in Moskau bricht Maillart mit einer Reisegruppe in den Kaukasus auf. Sie überqueren das Gebirge größtenteils zu Fuß – die Bewohner des Kaukasus waren 1930 praktisch von der Außenwelt abgeschnitten. Mich hat am meisten fasziniert, dass ihre Karren nicht einmal Räder hatten, denn diese Erfindung war dort damals noch nicht angekommen! Dementsprechend eigenartig waren die dort ansässigen Swanen mit ihren eigenen Riten.

Ich war gefangen von diesem lebhaften Reisebericht. Mit jedem Satz war ich direkt im Geschehen und das Alter merkt man dem Buch wenigstens vom Schreibstil kaum an. Einige Ausdrucksweisen und Ansichten sind etwas angestaubt, aber Ella Maillart war eine äußerst aufgeschlossene, weltoffene Frau und schreckte scheinbar vor nichts zurück. Ich stelle es mir ungeheuer abenteuerlich vor, im Jahr 1930 als Frau allein im Osten unterwegs zu sein. Maillart hat viele lange Reisen in die entlegensten Zipfel der Erde unternommen und war ihrerzeit eine wohl berühmte Reiseschriftstellerin, sodass ich jetzt nicht nur von ihrem Bericht, sondern gleich auch von ihr selbst fasziniert bin.

Als wäre das alles nicht schon toll genug, enthält der Band auch noch viele Schwarzweißfotos von ihrer Reise, deren Motive teils im Text beschrieben sind. Bei bebilderten Texten habe ich es oft erlebt, dass beide als getrennte Einheiten behandelt wurden und nur in losem Zusammenhang standen. Hier aber wird öfters von der Entstehung eines Motivs erzählt, sodass man Szenen in den Bildern wiedererkennt.

Ein tolles Buch, das da viel zu lange in meinem Regal Staub gefangen hat. Ich war am Ende genauso traurig wie Ella, wieder in den Westen zurück zu kehren.