"Glasnost and the Guitarist"

by Drew Tekulve and Melody Chow

     In our piece, “Glasnost and the Guitarist”, we focused on a time in Russia when great cultural changes were taking place. During the mid 80s, Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev instituted "Glastnost," an opening of the country to foreign influence.  Our script centered around Glasnost and how new foreign influence began to make its way into the country.  This unique era of openess contrast against the past closed off, isolated mindset of previous Soviet doctrines. 

      During our exposition and development of main character Pavel, there is a flashback to another time of great cultural upheaval in Soviet History. After World War II, hundreds of thousands of political dissenters in Russia were arrested and forced to labor in Gulag concentration camps. Many of these laborers lived normal lives before being falsely or purposefully accused of political dissent against the Communist party. Many of them would “disappear,” never to be heard of again. This specific time is well recorded by Alexandr Solzhenitysn, a political author who beautifully described this time period in his novel, “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich." The Gulag is  defined as the reader follows the difficult life of Ivan Denisovich Shkuhov.  Solzhenitsyn did a balanced job of mixing fact with fiction while still staying true to major historical events.  We tried to follow after Solzhenitsyn's example and measure the right amount of invention with reality.

     This flashback to a period of reclusiveness was contrasted against the rest of the plot which takes place during a period of openness. Up until the late 1950s, political dissenters were forced to work in Gulags because of their foreign ideas.  During the mid 1980s, Russia experienced an era of "Glasnost," or "openness."  People were no longer sent to the Gulags for thinking differently from the traditional communist doctrine, and new musical expression like Rock n' Roll made its way into the country.  "The Veil," by Marjane Satrapi describes another event in history which dealt with freedom.  Satrapi portrays the effects of the Islamic revolution in depth while remaining familiar and entertaining.  The author took much liberty when creating her historical story, a concept that should be reiterated as students produce their own account of an historical event.  In "Glasnost and the Guitarist," we took much liberty in fabricating multiple characters who were not based on any actual authentic figures from history.  This freedom allowed us to write a story in which we were not tied down to any set plot and gave us the option to explore many different destinies for each character.  

     Our script "Glasnost and the Guitarist" was derived from two happenings in history-- the institution of the Gulags and the opening of Russia known as Glasnost.  The attitude of Pavel towards this new Rock n' Roll music shifts from one of apprehension to an attitude of reverie.  He learns to open his heart to foreign things, much like his Mother Russia is doing with foreign influences.  We tried to balance out historical story with the right amount of fact and fiction while taking artistic liberty of the portrayal of events to make the past our own.    This customization of the past teaches us that history is subjective and can viewed differently depending on one's station in life.