A group of Russian students with Russian Intern Natalia Kuznetsova visited "Spotlight on Russia" Feb. 24, the event organized by the University of Evansville. They brought together the premier Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko; his English translator and Poet James Ragan; and Russian business expert Kevin McKenna; along with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra's "Shades of Shostakovich" event – featuring Yevtushenko reading of his poem, "Babi Yar."
Yevgeny Yevtushenko is the best-known Russian poet of the post-Stalin generation. His demands for greater artistic freedom and his attacks on Stalinism in the late 1950s and 60s made him a leader of Soviet youth. Yevtushenko gained international fame in 1961 with his poem "Babi Yar," in which he denounced the Nazis and at the same time criticized his own country.
Although "Babi Yar" was not published in Russia until 1984, it was frequently recited in both Russia and abroad and composer Dimitri Shostakovich set the words to music as part of his Thirteenth Symphony. In 1963, Yevtushenko, already an international literary sensation, was banned from traveling outside the Soviet Union, two years later the ban was lifted. In the 1970s, Yevtushenko was closely associated with dissident writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn. In the post-Soviet era, Yevtushenko has been active promoting the works of former dissident poets, environmental causes, and the memory of victims of the Soviet Gulags.
The students visited three main events: the lecture of Professor Kevin McKenna, who presented "The Kleptocratic State: Crime and Corruption in Vladmir Putin’s Russia; Question and Answer Session featuring the premier Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko; and Poetry Reading featuring Poet and Translator James Ragan, director of the University of Southern California Writing Program; and the premier Russian Poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko.
At the lecture they got up-to-date information about modern Russia from one of the best American experts on contemporary Russia. The perfect end of the immersion into the world of Russian politics and culture was the poetic reading. Wabash students were fascinated by the brilliant duet of two talented poets whose performance was a special treat.
Kuznetsova is a Wabash College Russian Teaching Assistant.