University of Cambridge
Echoes of the Russian Revolution In Greek Wartime, Resistance, and Post-War Music
Abstract
dc:description.abstractThe Russian Revolution of October 1917, whether directly or indirectly, immediately or eventually, provoked social, political, and cultural transformations beyond the geographic and political borders of the Soviet Union. Anchored in the egalitarian ideals and aspirations of the Revolution, Soviet cultural politics and aesthetics inspired artists across the world—beyond just those explicitly committed to communist ideology. This phenomenon was particularly pronounced in the context of the anti-fascist resistance and the Soviet war effort in World War II. This thesis concerns the long-term impact of the Revolution and its cultural legacy in Greece, centring on the composers Nikos Skalkottas, Alekos Xenos, and Mikis Theodorakis, as well as the Greek guerrilla songs heard during the Nazi Occupation, known as *andártika*. This thesis intervenes in the scholarship occupied by discussions of Greek musical nationalism and confronts that which is shaped by the politics of anti-communism and the binary oppositions of the Cold War. Reintegrating Skalkottas’s works and writings into the cultural and political dynamics of his era, in Part One I cite a wealth of archival material and published sources to spotlight an encounter and engagement with Soviet cultural discourses, in particular those expressed in the artistic doctrine of Socialist Realism. In Part Two, I situate the activities of the Greek communist composer Alekos Xenos within the broader context of the inclusive, plural, and diverse anti-fascist movement of the 1940s. Subsequently, I explore an interaction between Greece and Soviet Russia grounded in anti-fascist solidarity as being epitomised in Shostakovich’s little-known and rarely performed arrangement of Xenos’s first *andártiko* entitled *Emprós* [Forward]. In what follows, I elaborate on how the Soviet war effort and the spirit of anti-fascism of the 1940s helped give rise to *andártika* that borrowed Russian and Soviet musical models and featured textual references to Russia and the Soviet Union, Stalin, Lenin, and imagery associated with left-wing politics. Viewing *andártika* through the international dimension of antifascism, I contend with persistent Cold War-influenced histories that would have us dismiss the songs as cynical communist propaganda. While I highlight how these composers and their works are indivisible from the social, cultural, and political forces that shaped their creation, I also argue that they are irreducible to the singular explanatory ‘isms’—modernism, nationalism, or communism—produced in mainstream musicological and historical narratives. In conclusion, I address the genre of *art-popular song* that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, represented by Mikis Theodorakis. I problematise the notion of *art-popular song* as a watershed in Greek music, making the case for resituating the genre within a cultural lineage that can be traced to Skalkottas, Xenos, and *andártika*. In so doing, I enrich an understanding of a leftist thread connecting Greek composers who grappled with music’s role and social and political utility, thereby testifying to the enduring impact of the Russian Revolution and its cultural legacy in Greece.
Degree
thesis:*- Name dc:type.qualificationname
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Level dc:type.qualificationlevel
- Doctoral
- Grantor dc:publisher.institution
- University of Cambridge
- Year dc:date.issued
- 2023
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Diamantouli, Eirini
- Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
-
- Frolova-Walker, Marina
Subjects
dc:subject × 10Rights
dc:rightsIdentifiers
dc:identifier.*- Author Identifier
- 0000-0001-8480-2139
- OAI identifier oai:identifier
- oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/374120