“IN ORDER TO LIVE WELL, YOU NEED TO WORK HARD”

INTERVIEW: NIKOLAJ IVLEEV       

OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity / work. 

Nikolaj Ivleev: I was ashamed of our miserable existence in the USSR, the richest country in the world, unable to feed itself, which had 2/3 of the planet’s black soil and two streams of fish of several million tons, spawning in our seas and rivers. I am struck by the stupidity and cruelty of the Communist Party, which Gorky called a “company of adventurers”, unable to establish a normal life in the country. About how we, for this party, destroying our fellow citizens, won power and built socialism, having learned how in the 19th century to write in long complex sentences, including the Onegin stanza, I began to describe in my works. I was able to start publishing only in 2008 on the STIHI.RU website. Then I took a break and in 2018 the poem “From Our Biography” was published in the Union of Writers magazine. Since then, having joined the ISP and ECG(London), I have been published in many magazines and published three books of poetry.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life? 

NI: Our people in their lives are accustomed to focusing on the “life” of Ivan the Fool, who moved on a self-propelled stove, ate from the tablecloth of self-assembly and worked “at the command of a pike, in my opinion”.  And Lenin corrected this oversight by promising us golden toilet bowls. The people got off the stove, followed him, and despite the fact that Lenin said: “Let 90% of Russians die, if only 10% live to see the world revolution,” together with Lenin, having ruined his own country, won power for him. Few of us died in the Civil War, but Lenin tried to correct this oversight and in 1922 starved to death 5-7 million people, trying to make us meek and loving him like a god. 

Stalin followed the same path: in 1933, during collectivization, he also starved to death 6 million people and destroyed the peasantry, dooming the country to a starvation existence. In 1937, Stalin destroyed the leadership of the army, and in 1941 put the army under the blow of the German army, which cost the USSR 27 million human lives. We also included Stalin in the pantheon of great leaders.

When Gorbachev became General Secretary, he knew that agriculture had not been working in our country since 1917 and that it needed to be reformed, which he did. But the leadership of the party, not wanting to change anything, ruined the country. Gorbachev was blamed for the collapse of the Union and we still curse, despite the fact that Russia began to feed not only itself, but also sell agricultural products abroad.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 2021-2022?

NI: The main achievement in 2021 – 2022 was the youth of the main character written in detail in Onegin stanzas for the poem “Youth of Sergei” and the review requested for it. After receiving a negative response, I compared this passage with the beginning of “Eugene Onegin”, where I showed that, in comparison with Pushkin, I did not turn out so badly. In Russia they are accustomed to bad poetry and cannot distinguish between the classics and “Polozkovism” and encourage the kind of poetry for which more positive reviews have been received from cooperating mediocrities.

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?

NI: When comparing my poem “Youth of Sergei” with the beginning of the novel “Eugene Onegin”, I calculated that the average number of verbal rhymes in a stanza in Pushkin is 2.5, I have 3, the average number of stanzas in a work written in one sentence is 1.5 times more than Pushkin. None of the Russian-speaking poets after Pushkin wrote like that. I specially wrote the poem “From Our Biography” with the same stanza as Pushkin’s “My Genealogy”, so that I could alternate my and Pushkin’s stanzas for comparison.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?

NI: Due to my age and poor health, I cannot travel and participate in Guild events, but I take part in contests, (so far unsuccessfully), published in the Voices of Friends magazine, trying to show that I can write a Onegin stanza in one sentence, besides being a sonnet.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?

NI: To follow the wrong path is the road to the abyss, and I would like the truth to triumph on the planet. I have a glimmer of hope that someday our people will understand that in order to live well, you need to work hard and work well, and, anticipating the happy future of our people, I would like to begin the rehabilitation of people who called us not into the abyss of ruin and poverty, but to the future.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?

NI: I would wish the members of the Guild and other creative people to be honest people, improve their skills and not stray into packs for the collective defence of imaginary achievements.