Re: A Gentleman in Moscow

On Tue, 25 Jun 2024 12:17:23 -0700
suzeeq <suzeeq@imbris.com> wrote:

On 6/25/2024 10:55 AM, Rhino wrote:

I just finished this eight episode "limited series", which is based
on a novel (as opposed to fact). I point that out because I've read
a great deal about the Soviet Union and have never heard of a
member of the nobility - the protaganist was a Count when Lenin
launched the coup that overthrew the democratic Provisional
Government - treated anyone the way this Count was.
 
Lenin and his merry band of Bolsheviks loathed the aristocracy -
among other institutions, like the church - but the story has the
Count summoned to a tribunal shortly after the coup where he
appears to face execution merely for his membership in the
aristocracy. But someone points out a poem that was deemed
pro-Revolution that was attributed to him and the tribunal decides
to put him under house arrest at a posh hotel for the rest of his
life. In all my reading of actual history books, I've never heard
of a case like this but okay, it's a work of fiction, let's pretend
the Bolsheviks had that much benevolence.
 
The story proceeds from there. Count Rostov, now merely Alexander
Rostov, is evicted from the posh room where he had been staying and
moved upstairs - way upstairs - to former servants quarters. He
befriends a little girl that is staying in the hotel and she shows
him a variety of secret passages that enables him to see a great
deal of the hotel that isn't known to even the staff of the hotel.
Rostov meets a famous (Russian) movie actress and has a
relationship with her. All the while, a sinister secret policeman
keeps tabs on him - and gradually becomes a friend of sorts.
 
I don't want to spoil the story for anyone but suffice it to say
that I found myself liking most of the characters and think you
will find it rewarding viewing, provided you aren't looking for
historical accuracy. Ewan MacGregor plays the count and the actress
is played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead. (I was surprised to learn
that she was American given her excellent British accent and that
she's also MacGregor's real-life wife.)
 
The one thing I found really jarring in the story was the presence
of several characters played by black actors. The most important of
these was the man playing Mishka, Rostov's old friend, who had a
senior role amongst the Bolsheviks. There was also a black man that
was the Minister of Culture. According to Wikipedia, Mishka was
made to be a black man, apparently to satisfy diversity
requirements for the production even though blacks, both then and
now, were an exceedingly tiny percentage of the Soviet/Russian
population, much less than 1%. [I've never heard of any blacks in
important positions in the Bolshevik/Communist party or Soviet
government; heck I can only  name two "important" women in the
Soviet government right up until the present, Alexandra Kollontai,
an early Commissar, and Natalia Krupsky, Lenin's wife and widow,
who remained in the Politburo until her death.] They even had the
black Minister of Culture involved in a homosexual affair which
Rostov helped cover up. I assume that was to placate the Alphabet
Mafia so that they could "see themselves" in this story. The other
jarring thing was that Mishka wore dreadlocks in many scenes and a
"man bun" in at least one scene. I have no knowledge of "hair
history" but were those styles even in existence in the 1920s
through 1950s when this story is set? So, if you find this sort of
thing jarring, you might have issues with A Gentleman in Moscow.
But if you can get past the flagrant inaccuracies, you might well
enjoy the story.

I watched it too and enjoyed it very much in spite of the fictional
elements. And yes, there were nobility, but it was much like the
French revolution - once the Tsar was killed, the aristocracy either
fled to Europe, renounced their titles and/or were sent to work camps.

They certainly weren't sentenced to house arrest in a posh hotel! Very
few Soviet citizens lived well in the years depicted in the series:
only the top Party officials were comfortable like that. Ordinary
Soviets living in extremely cramped conditions, often with several
families living in a single apartment with whole
multi-generational families living in a single room of that apartment.

In fact, most of the nobility fled  to other countries - France in
particular - if they could get away or were murdered during the Civil
War that immediately followed Lenin's coup. The only exception that
comes to mind is one gentleman who had been of the nobility but favoured
the Revolution. He actually managed to be the People's Commissar of
Foreign Affairs from 1918 to 1930. His story is an interesting one
although not one likely to be told in a TV series:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgy_Chicherin

--
Rhino