An Interview with Nina Agisheva: Theatre Critic of Pravda

An Interview with Nina Agisheva Theatre Critic of Pravda Let's begin with some basic information.How long haveyou been working for Pravda? I've been here for fourteen years, since 1974. How didyou come to Pravda? I graduated from Moscow University, in the faculty of journalism. Several people from different universities were invited here. It was just a matter of injecting fresh blood into an old organism. Since then, we've never had a similar situation here. While studying at the university, for five years I had specialized in theatre, so I was invited to the culture department here. I'd written a dissertation on the theme of modern Russian theatre before the revolution. My interests now are the Silver Age, which is what we call the pre-revolutionary theatre, and the contemporary theatre. To my mind, the pre-revolutionary period of Meyerhold is more interesting than after the revolution. At that time there were many outstanding artists such as Bely, Blok, Briusov-also many interesting theatre ideas. 211 11 Earlieryou saidyour arrivalsignaledthe infusion of "new blood." What happenedto the ''old blood"? Unfortunately, maybe four-fifths still exists here. Three retired on pension, another became ill. But we didn't have any ideological change here. That happened when Abalkin was dismissed from the paper. He was the very reactionaryhead. The head of the culturaldivision? Yes, for about fifteen years, until 1974. It was a long and morose period for culture, even when he left, as we had to publish a lot of articles, despite the fact we were opposed to such information. It was the highest moral deed at that time just to avoid writing in that situation. You're told to write such an article concerning a certain theme. So, it's best to avoid it, not to write at all. But we didn't have any possibility to help even one or two theatres. In the seventies didyou write articlesthat weren'tpublished? A lot . . . I had written two or three articles that it was impossible to publish even in the time of perestroika.When that was started in 1985, it was the same situation. Only the last two years can I boast that I don't have any such articles. How many staff members are there at the paper? What is the extent of arts coverage? About 200. We're used to publishing our material five or six times a week in different sections. As far as theatre is concerned two or three times per month. So, there is no specific theatre page? No. We are struggling against this . .. Pravdais authorized to publish a lot of official information. You said that around 1985 you wrote articles that were not published. What sort of discussion didyou have with the editors when they were refused ? Why couldn't they be published? I have my own chief editor and didn't have any contact with the paper's editor. Has there been since perestroikaa meeting with allthe staffmembers where they can argue anddiscuss things? We have special short meetings and here the staff members are involved. Our party congresses are conducted in a new way now . . . Very often the reason [for not publishing a certain article] was just the opinion of a certain 212 boss. For example, everybody knows his opinion of, say, Lyudmila Petruchevskaya, and the opinion of this boss was known to the editor of Pravda.He told that to my chief editor who told me. They are not in the habit of explaining reasons. Unfortunately, that was the style of our life. We used to keep silent about some basic questions. We didn't have any principle exchange of views and it was difficult because we used to struggle with the air, not a specific person. It's a very complicated situation. Many people of my generation failed-very talented people-they drank a lot, or changed their profession. Nina,you look like a very brave lady. Now, ifthere were two productionsin the Moscow theatre, one social realist but new, perhaps dealing with perestroika, andsay there was anotherproductionthat was moreformalistic and dealt with Jewish questions or whatever. Which wouldyou review? For PravdaI would prepare a review for...