Русские здесь: Фильм, помогающий Андропову - [25]

(5) Unfitness for freedom. In the West they are “frightened and lost.”

(6) Prudishness. “At 17 my daughter knows all there is to know about sex,” they complain.

(7) Aversion to enterprise. They are not fit for business:

“I like [business] risks as much as I like the KGB,” they groan. They are “not adventurous.”

(8) Aversion to independence. They cannot stand independence: “It is their dependence on the [Communist] Party that they now miss.”

(9) Primitive sentimentality. They are corny and maudlin, never intelligent or refined.

(10) Intolerance.

... plus 10 types

Ofra Bikel shows 10 types of “Russians”:

1. Emigre-hating emigres. Just as every social group has its own haters (i.e., there are anti-Semitic Jews), there are emigre-hating emigres. They explain daily how hateful all emigres are as a group except them, emigre-hating emigres. Those emigre-hating emigres were a godsend for Ofra Bikel.

2. Russian-language journalists who explain that in Russia they knew “what to think” and “that was very comfortable,” and here “no one tells me what to think," and "it’s ... not very comfortable.”

3. Comic businessmen trying to do some business for the Russians. Two examples are given: a garrulous young woman who is a one-woman tourist agency showing New York to the "Russians” and saying first by mistake "Washington Bridge” instead of "Manhattan Bridge,” and then "Manhattan Beach.” The other is a kind of broker who is now allegedly being sought by the police.

Both comical "businessmen” cater to "Russians.” No "Russian” businessmen catering to Americans or constituting part of American business can even be imagined, according to Ofra Bikel. She considers as non-existent the thousands of "Russian” businesses which are now American businesses, often giving jobs to Americans and serving Americans.

4. Unemployed engineers (or medical nurses). I know many former Soviet engineers who have turned down lucrative engineering jobs because they have gone into business, and one of them is a science editor at Radio Liberty. Ofra Bikel dug up an unemployed engineer and a medical nurse, neither of whom is shown on the screen, but their woeful tales of unemployment are spun at length by relatives.

5. “Intellectual people,” who are represented by someone who says he was a “boss” in Russia and who is not one here.

6. Vulgarians who recite atrocious poetry by radio.

7. Nostalgic maniacs who spend their lives watching “old Russian movies” [that is, old corny Soviet movies] "over and over.”

8. Philosophers on welfare who complain of “the emotional coldness of Americans.”

9. Writers on welfare who miss the KGB.

10. Poets who guzzle vodka even when lying down in bed.

It is the last two types who are worth special attention, to show how Ofra Bikel turned specific individuals into the puppets of her propaganda puppet show.

Missing the KGB

The "star” whom Ofra Bikel 'dug up for this role is author Lev Khalif. He cannot publish his books in English. So? Thousands of Americans who consider themselves professional writers cannot publish or sell their books either. Why? The reasons are many and varied, but whatever they are, what is so "Russian” or "Russian-emigre” about this?

Given at least some sense of humor, Ofra Bikel could have introduced Lev Khalif in this way: “Mr. Khalif loves paradoxes, just as Bernard Shaw or Oscar Wilde did. Whether his paradoxes are as witty as Shaw’s or Wilde’s is for you to judge. For example, here is one: ‘In Russia the writer is destroyed by the KGB, in the West by indifference.’ ”

Instead — when Khalif said that in Russia at least the KGB avidly read his every word, and, "I sound as though I am nostalgic about the KGB” — Ofra Bikel’s translator rendered it in an even monotone: “I actually miss the KGB.”

Next, to personify the Russian-language poets in emigration, Ofra Bikel chose Konstantin Kuzmin-sky. The choice was her racist masterpiece. No one produced more hatred among TV viewers for the “Russians” than that “image” into which Ofra Bikel converted the highly gifted, selfless and kind Kuzminsky.

Curiously enough, about two years ago The New York Times carried a long, extensive article on Russian literature, in which the Russian emigre poet Joseph Brodsky was extolled at the expense of all other Russian writers. I attacked the article. I was especially incensed that not a word was said about the poet Konstantin Kuzminsky, who had helped Brodsky to publish his poetry abroad. On the crest of The New York Times article, Brodsky became one of the richest poets in America.

But now the tables are turned. Whereas The New York Times was interested only in Brodsky and ignored Kuzminsky, Ofra Bikel ignores Brodsky, because she ignores all successful, rich or influential emigres, and is interested only in Kuzminsky, because she can exploit Kuzminsky’s povery, lack of success and “punk” eccentricities.

In his sense and knowledge of Russian literature and his ability to write about it, Kuzminsky has few rivals in Russia or outside of it. But like every mortal, he also has his weaknesses. One of them is trying to show off how bohemian, and eccentric or “punk" he is. Ironically, he picked up this “punk” attitude from the American left, or at least nothing is more banal in the West than to grow a picturesque beard or guzzle vodka in front of a TV camera.