Путешествие в Россию 1928 г. глазами Элени Самиос-Казандзакис: в защиту Панаита Истрати
A Trip to Russia in 1928 through the Eyes of Eleni Samios-Kazantzaki: in Defense of Panaît Istrati

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with gender-based perception of Bolshevik Russia at the end of 1920s by proletarian author Panaît Istrati, “Rumanian Gorki”, and Eleni Samios-Kazanzaki, wife of Greek writer Nicos Kazanzaki. Invited to the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution, Rumanian and Greek writers, as well as theirs girlfriends, made a long journey together through the Soviet Union. It is reflected in the sensational book by P. Istrati “To another flame” published in the West and memories of E. Samios- Kazantzaki “The real tragedy of Panait Istrati”, written shortly after his death in 1935, but published only in 2013. During the trip, which lasted from August 1928 to January 1929, travelers had visited a number of large cities along the Volga from Kazan to Astrakhan, Baku, the Caucasus. The Soviet realities observed by Istrati led him to disillusionment with the regime, which he enthusiastically had supported in the beginning of the journey, and determined the nature of his official testimonial — passionate journalistic accusations against Stalin's Soviet Union. The main aim of Samios-Kazantzaki book was to excuse Istrati, hunted by Soviet and Western left press, to testimony in his favor, to explain why he had not fulfilled the hopes pinned on him by Soviet propaganda. Parallel analysis of texts by Istrati and Samios-Kazandzaki shows that the authors of notes of a journey observed soviet realities in different manners but converged in the main — in opposition to the regime, witnesses of which they had become by fate.

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