INTERACTION OF THE “RUSSIAN” AND THE “SOVIET” MYTHS IN ITALIAN TRAVELOGUES ABOUT THE SOVIET UNION OF THE 1950s

Abstract

The article analyzes travelogues about the USSR of the second half of the 1950s written by Italian authors Carlo Levi, Alberto Moravia, Curzio Malaparte, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Goffredo Parise and Guido Piovene. We draw the conclusion that the reception of the Soviet Union of that period is determined by two mythological paradigms: the “Russian” one, dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries, and the “Soviet” one, which was formed in the epoch of Stalin. A complex interaction of the “Russian” and “Soviet” myths generates certain concepts concerning the USSR: fi of all, the USSR as a basically rural society and, second, the USSR as a land of childhood (meaning both individual childhood of the authors and collective “childhood” of Europe and of the whole world). These motifs play a key role in Italian perception of Soviet society of the second half of the 1950s. By the 1960s the influence of both paradigms on Italian travel prose is sharply reduced, but getting rid of mythological schemes in travelogues of the 1960s and 1970s comes at a price: the authors start avoiding broad conclusions and prefer to focus on local issues and descriptions of their private contacts with Soviet people.