Memoirs as real prose: the memoirs of Leonid Andreyev's granddaughter were published

Anna Berseneva, writer

When the look of World War II takes on that lifeless look in Russia, which is only acceptable for propaganda, the publication in Russian of Olga Andreyeva-Carlisle's book “An Island for Life. Childhood memories. Oleron during the Nazi occupation "(M.: Publishing house AST. Edited by Elena Shubina. 2021. Translated from English by LE Shenderova-Fock. Afterword by N.A. Gromova) seems to be not only timely, but urgently necessary. It is clear that the fate of the war was not decided in the village of Saint-Denis on a small French island in the Atlantic Ocean, and a nine-year-old girl from a family of Russian emigrants did not make an obvious contribution to the victory over fascism. But the look of this finely feeling and deeply thinking girl on war and on the world in the Tolstoyan sense of the word is bright, non-standard and therefore necessary.

Olga Andreyeva (married Carlisle), journalist, translator, artist, comes from a family known to everyone who has an idea of the Russian revolution and Russian emigration. Her grandfather, Socialist Revolutionary Viktor Chernov, was an emigrant twice. The first time he left tsarist Russia after the defeat of the 1905 revolution. The second time he miraculously managed to leave Soviet Russia, where he returned after the February Revolution. Numerous friends visited his French house - writers Remizov and Zamyatin, artists Larionov, Goncharova, Exter, Falk and many others. Arriving in Paris, he came to the Chernovs and Babel.

Olga's father, Vadim Andreyev, was the son of the famous writer Leonid Andreyev. In Soviet times, he also almost returned to the USSR - his godfather, Maxim Gorky, interceded for him before Stalin. But Vadim was dissuaded from returning by his younger brother Daniil Andreyev, the author of the mystical Rose of the World, who fully experienced the horror of the Soviet repressive meat grinder. After Stalin's death, Vadim Andreyev, and then his son, visited the USSR. It was they who took most of Solzhenitsyn's archive to the West. And all the other members of this outstanding, with ramified roots of the Russian family were outstanding people.

Olga Andreyeva-Carlisle recalls one of the testimonies of this uncommonness: “In 1938, when France and England signed a peace agreement with Germany in Munich, I was deeply struck by the reaction of my parents - they were in despair. I was eight years old, and for the first time I encountered a paradox. I understood that war is terrible, but at the same time I knew that war had to be declared in order to save my honor and preserve the world in which we lived". Few supporters had this view in the days when the newspapers were full of jubilant headlines “War was barely avoided! A new era of peace! Munich miracle!". But an even greater blow was ahead for the Andreyevs: “My parents were shocked to learn that the Soviet Union had signed a treacherous non-aggression pact with the Germans, which plunged everyone into silent amazement. Once again, Russia has been disgraced".

A large family came to the resort village on the Island of Oleron for the summer, and after the declaration of war, they decided not to return to Paris, deciding that here they had less chance of encountering the Germans. “There has been no war in Aquitaine since the 17th century. No one on the island could have believed that the Germans would get to Oleron. It seemed that the huge empty beach with all its appearance was saying: whatever happens in the rest of the world, it's just a bad dream”, - writes Olga Andreyeva-Carlisle about that illusion that did not come true.

Her memories are unique in several respects: both in the fact that this is the look of a child, and in the fact that this is a view from the inside of the family of Russian revolutionaries (as opposed to the more familiar look of Russian monarchists), and in the fact that this is the story of the life of Russians in the occupied by the Germans French province. Moreover, the Russians in this book are very different. Among them are Soviet prisoners of war, who, after the terrible military defeat of the Soviet Army in the summer of 1941, faced a clearly confirmed choice: either execution on the spot, or service with the Germans. After some hesitation, Olga's family brought these soldiers, who "the German uniform burned their skin with fire," with the French Resistance, with which they themselves were associated. Subsequently, they blew up the main German arsenal on Oleron, then liberated the island together with the French army, and after the war, almost all were arrested by the NKVD and accused of preparing an attempt on Stalin's life from abroad, which was allegedly prepared by Vadim Andreyev. "But that is another story. And we must not forget it either, because such stories will exist as long as Russia exists, ”notes Olga. After Stalin's death, her father went to the USSR and, in the wake of the thaw, managed to achieve the rehabilitation of his fellow members of the Resistance.

The Chernov-Andreyev family did not hesitate to decide which side to take in this war, although this was not at all obvious in the summer of 1939: “French society was suddenly split. Most listened to the voice of reason - in the person of the Honorable General Pétain. Others, like de Gaulle, believed that France had lost the battle, but not the war. Our family was among them. Under Churchill's leadership, England will be able to continue the struggle. Sooner or later, America will stand by her side. The war is just beginning".

In general, these were unique days. In them there was a great paradox of the combination of the private and the general, and Olga felt it: “On the day of the French national holiday, July 14, a solemn meeting took place on the square in front of the city hall. A French flag was hoisted over the door of the City Hall, the residents dressed up, and the Mayor made a speech. In a trembling voice, this gray-haired peasant with a sun-tanned face declared that from now on, the inhabitants of Saint-Denis must defend the honor of France on their own. The village orchestra, consisting of trumpet, clarinet, cymbals and drums, played the Marseillaise loudly for the last time. Many old people were crying. That day, standing in the bluish shade of a hundred-year-old elm trees in the crowd of residents of Saint-Denis-d'Oleron, I felt like one of them".

The ability to feel and think in a way that is rarely inherent in a child is the most striking feature of Olga Andreyeva-Carlisle's memoirs. A huge role in the upbringing of this ability was played by her father, who talked to her, for example, like this: “Whoever does what, everything has its own meaning, this is how the world is created. I shouldn't regret being a girl. Girls often lack will and perseverance, but if I want to do something or become someone, I will do it or I will become one. The main thing is not to be afraid". Strongly unwilling to cooperate with the Nazis “reasonably and for the family”, Vadim Andreyev was hired to work in the vineyards, and he literally got food with his own hands - he grew it in the garden.

When Germany attacked the USSR, many surrounded by the Chernov-Andreyev family perceived this as the restoration of the natural order of things, believing that Hitler finally took on his destined role as the destroyer of world communism. (By the way, for many in Russia even now it is not obvious that fascism could have appeared precisely and only out of the world's fear of communist anti-humanity. When it became clear what kind of monster was generated by this fear, it was already too late). But Olga writes about a different view of the end of the shameful alliance of the USSR with fascist Germany: “All over Europe and even in Germany there were still people who, for the first time since the beginning of the war, found hope. Germany can be defeated in Russia, this will not be done by Stalin, but by the country itself - its land and people, who once stopped Napoleon".

However, it was still very far away from any victories - Kiev fell, the Germans approached Moscow. Only the Battle of Stalingrad brought the feeling of a turning point. After her, on the day of her thirteenth birthday, Olga thought for the first time that she might have a future. And many years later, when these hopes were justified, when she became an accomplished, bright personality, she understood what was the hidden meaning of her military life on a French island in the Atlantic Ocean: “Oleron became for me an island for life, an inexhaustible source strength. ...Oleron gave hope and made me make difficult choices, and my parents taught me to cope with it".

In the afterword, literary critic and writer Natalya Gromova calls the book by Olga Andreyeva-Carlisle "a vivid memoir testimony, reaching the level of real prose in terms of metaphor and depth". This afterword, which tells about the life of several related emigrant families, to which the author of the memoir belongs, allows one to see the whole picture that a nine-year-old girl could not have seen at the beginning of World War II. Natalia Gromova writes about the incredible concentration of bright, meaningful personalities and significant events that make up Russian history, embodied in its best people and in every day of their lives, including the long military days on a French island in the Atlantic Ocean.