The Kujan-Bulak carpet weavers honor Lenin
The carpet weavers of Kujan-Bulak honor Lenin is the title of a narrative poem in the calendar stories of Bertolt Brecht . This calendar story is about a poor people in a small town in the Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan called Kujan-Bulak, who honored Vladimir Ilyich Lenin in an exemplary manner according to socialist values.
Emergence
The poem was written at the end of 1929, inspired by the newspaper article "A Memorial to Lenin" from the Frankfurter Zeitung of January 30, 1929, which he partly followed verbatim. It was planned for the return of the anniversary of Lenin's death (January 21, 1924). At the end of 1932 Brecht put together three poems for publication (“Discovering the Bolsheviks…”, the poem of the carpet weavers and “ The International ”). But he had then deleted “Die Internationale” before printing and put the two remaining poems under the motto Stories from the Revolution . The carpet weavers later included the poem in the "Chronicles" of the Svendborg poems (1939), then in the calendar stories (1949).
content
First part: description
Lenin is honored in many places because he ended the war between Germany and Russia.
Which rises from the swamp behind the old camel cemetery. The bad circumstances of the population are described.
The population received the news that Comrade Lenin was honored. They also want to make a bust as an honor and are willing to pay for it despite poverty and disease.
Stepa Gamalew, a member of the Red Army , sees the willingness of the population. But he also sees the suffering and poverty of carpet weavers. Therefore he comes to the conclusion that it is not right to spend money on the bust and suggests using the money to fight the fever and mosquitoes.
Here the idea is carried out to fight the mosquitoes with kerosene in order to put an end to the fever.
The population honored Lenin by doing something useful and understood his teachings.
Second part: instructions
A board at the train station in Kujan-Bulak is supposed to spread the teaching widely.
shape
The work The carpet weavers of Kujan-Bulak honor Lenin appears, divided into five stanzas, in the form of a poem. What is striking is that you are not dealing with a conventional poem that follows a fixed rhyme scheme and has a certain melody. Even with the individual stanzas no regularity can be found in terms of structure and length. Rather, Brecht is telling a story here, breaking out of the formal poem scheme. According to Jan Knopf , the form of the poem is based on the narrative poem .
The work appears as such only visually through line breaks. The reader, however, reads the content beyond the lines to the point. It can thus be said that Brecht artificially creates verses in order to bring the story of the carpet weavers of Kujan-Bulak into the form of a poem.
The narrative poem is divided into two parts. The first part describes the situation in which the carpet weavers find themselves. The second part describes the actions of carpet weavers as a kind of guide.
Interpretation / interpretation
First part
The first stanza honors Vladimir Ilyich Lenin with busts, statues, demonstrations, etc. "from Shanghai to Chicago". This honor can be traced back to the fact that Lenin is regarded as the liberator of the Soviet Union from the tsarist rule and introduced communism as the new ruler . This was especially important for the lower classes and the working class, as they promised justice and equality from the new form of government. In addition, Lenin was also honored because of the attribution of preventing war between Germany and Russia through the October Revolution . As far as we know today, however, it should be noted that Lenin took violent and brutal measures with the Red Terror .
The lines “This is how the carpet weavers of Kujan-Bulak honored him” indicate that these carpet weavers honor Lenin in a special and unconventional way.
The second stanza clarifies for the first time the situation in which the carpet weavers find themselves. They are poor, needy and live in miserable circumstances. Your settlement is located near an old camel cemetery behind which there is a swamp from which countless mosquitoes come, which bring disease and fever.
The news arrives by train that the day of honor of Lenin is approaching. Presumably this refers to the day of Lenin's death. Despite the misery in which they live, the carpet weavers decide to raise money for it and to build a bust. They belong to the lower class who live in poverty . With communism Lenin stood up for those layers that had little to create equality and justice. So they worship Lenin and his deeds.
A member of the Red Army , Stepa Gamalew, appears. On the one hand, he is pleased with the willingness of the carpet weavers. On the other hand, he also sees the suffering they have to endure. He has the insight that it would not be right to spend money on the bust. Instead, he suggests using the money to fight the mosquitoes and thus the fever by buying petroleum and using it to fill the swamp.
The Red Army soldier Stepa Gamalew is the only one highlighted by the mention of his name. He is a key figure who stands for correct communist or socialist action. With his idea he helps people in need instead of taking money from them for a materialistic honor. He acts in an exemplary and humane manner. It is through this behavior that Lenin is honored, not in a materialist but in a socialist sense.
The third stanza only contains an implementation of the idea of filling the swamp with petroleum to fight the mosquitoes and the fever.
The fourth stanza is the key point of the whole poem. It sums up the core idea of the whole story.
Lenin had an aversion to the personality cult . He complained about the glorification of himself. He didn't think much of busts, statues and the like. The carpet weavers “understood him”. For they honored him "by using themselves". They understood Lenin's values and honored him not through the cult of personality, but through a socialist act or through socialist exemplary behavior.
Second part
The fifth stanza tells how the story of the carpet weaver is brought to mankind. With a board that is set up at the train station, the lesson from history is to be carried out into the world by passers-by. Thanks to this plaque, Lenin is honored again. The blackboard teaches correct humane behavior and thus spreads socialist ideas, just as Lenin intended.
effect
The carpet weaver's poem appears as a parable of correct socialist behavior. Brecht wanted to teach us something with this story, as with many of his works. He was of the opinion that one always has to keep searching and thinking further, discussing and improving in order to optimize the situation. He also thought a socialist society was necessary and imagined a new age in which reason, justice and humanity prevail. His works and the theater served him as tools in order to spread his views in the population. Brecht wrote many communist didactic pieces , strongly influenced by Karl Marx , in whose writings he had immersed himself.
"This guy is the first to understand my pieces."
So Brecht about Marx, whose theories had a decisive influence on the thinking of the writer.
It is not clear whether the piece had the desired effect on the readership. What is known is that the “ calendar stories ” were initially received rather critically due to the incipient discussions in the cultural-political scene of the GDR about formalism and realism . Today the collection is common reading in school.
Miscellaneous
The meaning of the individual poems and stories in the calendar stories is strongly interwoven. If one compares the carpet weavers of Kujan-Bulak honor Lenin with the rest of the pieces, there is a complementarity to the story " Caesar and his legionnaire ". Both pieces are influenced by Marxism and. In Caesar and his legionaries , social inequality or the unjust social order is problematized. Communist or socialist behavior is taught in the carpet weaver's poem. The pieces act as a kind of opposition to one another: one represents the problem and the other the solution.
reception
- In 1929 the text was written by Bertolt Brecht , inspired by the newspaper article in the Frankfurter Zeitung "A Memorial for Lenin" on January 30, 1929 .
- The poem was published in the "Stories from the Revolution" collection.
- The poem was later included in the "Svendborger Gedichte" (1939) and then in the " Calendar Stories " (1949).
- In 1957 the poem was set to music by Hanns Eisler .
- A stone sculpture of the same name in Brünlasberg is the artistic implementation of the poem.
literature
- Bertolt Brecht: Bertolt Brecht calendar stories . Suhrkamp Verlag, Cornelsen Verlag, Berlin 2013.