I really like the heck out of some historical past, particularly firsthand historic accounts. A YouTube channel dedicated to giving these voices from the previous a spot on the web did a two-part collection on two Soviet journalists driving from New York to LA and again once more.
Voices of the Past is one in every of my favourite YouTube channels. It highlights actually fascinating factors of view all through historical past. I really like studying about, say, what China considered the Roman Empire, or a day within the lifetime of a mediocre Samurai. But my absolute favourite is his studying of excerpts from Ilf and Petrov’s U.S. Road Trip.
Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov had been two good satirical writers within the Soviet Union, and it actually reveals of their typically humorous, typically pointed prose. The two launched into a 10-week, 10,000 mile journey from New York to LA to New Orleans and again as much as the Big Apple within the firm of an American couple, the Adams.
The two Soviets took copious quantities of photographs that might be printed in the united states model of Time journal, Ogoniok. The Russian paper Pravda printed the 2 humorists’ observations in a five-part collection. The photos and tales from the street journey would later be printed in a e book which translate to One-Story America
Throughout their travels by way of Great Depression America through Ford station wagon, they couldn’t recover from how abject poverty and unbelievable wealth reside aspect by aspect. They’re rightfully horrified by the therapy of Black Americans, particularly within the south, and that indigenous individuals within the west. They observe Americans can say something they like, as long as they go to church (really believing in God is elective) and don’t profess an curiosity in Communism. Still they arrive throughout staff in unions that cheer their Soviet hearts.
Numerous their criticisms may as properly be from the pages of a present cultural commentator:
“America is a land that loves explicitness in all its affairs and ideals. It is better to be rich, than to be poor. So instead of wasting time on thinking of the causes of poverty and eliminating them, the American tries in every possible way to acquire a million dollars,” they wrote.
Sounds acquainted!
The two are amazed by the Grand Canyon, and fall in love with San Francisco, although they discover Hollywood extremely boring and downright unsettling, noting the crowds of lovely younger girls with eyes sharpened by related disappointment. They additionally discuss how Hollywood produces tons of of movies a yr, virtually all of them crap. Again, it’s creepy how a lot 1936 American doesn’t appear all that faraway from 2023 American.
In the top (and maybe, fairly predictably in Stalin’s USSR) the 2 discover American tradition has been wrapped right into a vapid, one-dimensional worship of cash and wealth which makes them miss their socialist homeland. Still, their commentary is extra loving lampoon than critical critique and, printed a yr earlier than Stalin’s purges started, it’s wonderful their account survived in any respect. You can nonetheless purchase the whole translated e book right this moment. It’s a captivating tackle the U.S. through that the majority American previous time, the street journey, from two males who couldn’t be extra international.
Source: jalopnik.com