Similarly important was the unmentioned Ogarev. He was "the
man who gave more thought than anyone else to the practical problems of
the revolutionary movement, the problems of organization, strategy, and
tactics." [Utechin, p. 119] And the unmentioned Chernyshevsky plays a
minor, but crucial, role in Stoppard's play, because his appearance — given his novel,
What is to be Done
— establishes the revolutionary link to V. I. Lenin, whose "most
important single work of Leninist theory" [p. 217] carried the same
title.
Moreover, had Romano read Stoppard's own essay, published in the very
Lincoln Center Theater Review available to all who attend
Coast,
he would have seen Turgenev's significance: "But it is Turgenev who
brings us closest to the world of the nineteenth century Russian
intelligentsia, and, moreover, his
A Sportsman's Sketches was
plausibly said to have done more than anything else to turn the
'Reforming Tsar' Alexander II toward abolishing serfdom. Perhaps it is
the artist, after all, rather than the three publicists of genius
[Herzen, Bakunin and Belinsky], who is the true hero of
The Coast of Utopia."
In addition, it was Turgenev's novel,
Fathers and Sons,
that introduced the character Bazarov, a nihilist who rejects
"everything that cannot be established by the rational methods of
natural science" including "literature and philosophy, the beauty of
art and the beauty of nature, tradition and authority, religion and
intuition." [Russian Thinkers, p. 277] Bazarov shows up in Part III of
Stoppard's play as the Doctor.
Worse than these omissions by
Romano, however, is his failure to examine, let alone critique, Mr.
Stoppard's treatment of those individuals and their ideas. Which is to
say that readers of Romano's review will find no mention of the great
20th century British thinker, Isaiah Berlin, and his influence on Mr.
Stoppard's interpretation of 19th century Russian intellectual history.
Romano's failure is significant, if only because Stoppard himself has
asserted: "We should talk a little about Isaiah Berlin, because he is
the presiding spirit of the trilogy."
It was Berlin's belief that "the ordinary resources of empirical
observation and ordinary human knowledge give us no warrant for
supposing that all good things are reconcilable with each other," which
influenced both his philosophy of liberty and tragedy, as well as his
critique of utopianism. Having agreed to write a book about Karl Marx,
Berlin came across the memoirs of Alexander Herzen. According to
Stoppard, Berlin "started to read it there and then. It changed his
career, his life."
It was Berlin's book,
Russian Thinkers, that prompted Stoppard to write
The Coast of Utopia."
***
And, when one reads Berlin's qualified praise of Herzen, it's easy to
see how he became central to Stoppard's three plays: "Herzen does at
least face genuine political problems, such as the incompatibility of
unlimited personal liberty with either social equality, or the minimum
of social organization and authority; the need to sail precariously
between the Scylla of individualist 'atomization' and the Charybdis of
collectivist oppression; the sad disparity and conflict between many,
equally noble human ideals; the nonexistence of 'objective,' eternal,
universal moral and political standards, to justify either coercion or
resistance to it; the mirage of distant ends, and the impossibility of
doing wholly without them." [Russian Thinkers, p. 105]
Yet, under the influence of
Russian Thinkers
Russia's significant Slavophil points of view merit but a token
appearance (in the person of Konstantin Aksakov) in Part II of
Stoppard's trilogy. And Dostoyevsky — about whom the great scholar and
statesmen, Thomas Masaryk once wrote, "an analysis of Dostoevsky is a
sound method of studying Russia" — is mentioned but once.
Unfortunately, none of this is found in Romano's review. But what's
worse — given his avowed intention to "spur the conversation as Tony
time approaches and
Coast
awaits its nominations — Romano contents himself with one sentence of
anti-intellectual tripe: "The upshot of Stoppard's trilogy might be
this — intellectuals rant a lot, but their ideas catalyze action and
bring progress." How profound!
A
He might have noted — as this viewer of
Coast
believes — that Stoppard has written three very good plays about
Russia's "Romantic Exiles," which he has made accessible to the public
by very Stoppardian [?] methods. First, nuggets of serious ideas are
submerged in waves of soap opera domesticity, especially love,
infidelity and death. Second, Stoppard portrays a few of his characters
as more frivolous than they actually were. His treatment of Bakunin,
Marx and Turgenev immediately comes to mind.
Yet, what
Stoppard has rendered brilliantly accessible, Romano has rendered
ghastly unintelligible. After telling his readers virtually nothing
about the ideas that inspired Russia's 19th century intellectuals,
after telling them virtually nothing about Stoppard's treatment or
mistreatment of them, and after saying nothing at all about the
brilliant sets produced by Bob Crowley and Scott Pask, Romano
inexplicably attempts to contrast "the worthies of 'Utopia'" with the
louts who pass for writers and intellectuals in Russia today. Even if
this wasn't another case of a poor thing poorly done, how does it "spur
the conversation as Tony time approaches?"
April Fools!
***
Like Stoppard, my graduate school mentor, the brilliant Sergei
Vasilievich Utechin, personally knew Isaiah Berlin. He was his friend,
and exchanged letters with him. Moreover, Utechin's first wife,
Patricia, was Berlin's personal secretary. (I've videotaped Utechin's
reminiscences, including those discussing his association with Berlin.
I've also written an obituary of S.V. Utechin for
Slavic Review, which can be found here.)
Walter C. Uhler is an independent scholar and freelance writer
whose work has been published in numerous publications, including The
Nation, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Journal of Military
History, the Moscow Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. He also is
President of the Russian-American International Studies Association
(RAISA).
waltuhler@aol.com
Writings 
Judging by his article, "Russia's culturati a pale imitation of worthies of 'Utopia,'" Carlin Romano and the editors of Philadelphia Inquirer have conspired to subject their readers to an infantile April Fools' Day joke. Thus, readers of the April 1, 2007 issue of the "Inky" might be forgiven, if, after reading Romano's review of Tom Stop pard's 3-part play, The Coast of Utopia, they had no better understanding of 19th century Russian intellectual history than they had before falling for his joke. 
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