Georg von Charasoff 23
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explored (for summary accounts, see Markov 1968, Margarotto 1982, and
Nikolskaia 2000; for an autobiographical account, see Kruchenykh 1995). In her
contribution to Dada global, a book that traces the dissemination of the Dada-
movement in Eastern Europe, Ludmila Vachtova (1994: 110) contended that
Charasoff had been instrumental in transferring Dadaism from Zurich to Tbilisi.
However, this is not plausible, because Charasoff had left Zurich in February 1915,
while Dada performances in the ‘Cabaret Voltaire’ were held only from March
1916 onwards (and there are also no hints for earlier contacts between Charasoff
and Hugo Ball, Hans Arp or other members of the artistic community that were
later associated with the ‘Cabaret Voltaire’).
As already mentioned, one of Charasoff’s presentations in the Fantastic Little
Inn led to the publication of the article ‘Son Tat’iany (Opyt tolkovaniia po Freidu)’
[Tatiana’s dream (A Freudian interpretation)] in the newly founded literary journal
ARS (Kharazov 1919a), which also published a transrational poem titled ‘Fuga
[poem]’ by him (1919b). It concerns the interpretation of a dream sequence of the
main female character, Tatiana, in Pushkin’s famous poetic epos Evgenij Onegin.
Charasoff’s interpretation, according to which Tatiana’s dream is a nightmarish
mirror-like doubling of Onegin’s obsessions, is frequently mentioned with approval
in contributions on Russian avant-garde literature.
34
According to Harsha Ram
(2004: 374), Charasoff’s article was instrumental in turning Aleksei Kruchenykh’s
attention to psychoanalysis and in introducing Freudian ideas into Zaum poetry:
35
It was in Tbilisi that Kruchenykh was to assimilate the lessons of Freud,
specifically The Interpretation of Dreams and The Psychopathology of
Everyday Life; it was also in Tbilisi that the first attempt was made to apply
Freudian theory to the interpretation of Russian literature. … Kruchenykh
found in Freud a new means of interpreting the randomness of phonetic play.
If the mystical and the infantile had long been claimed as analogues to avant-
garde linguistic practice, they were now joined by the erotic and the obscene.
Facsimile reproductions and English translations of five transrational poems by
Georg Charasoff, which he wrote in 1917 and 1919 into Sudeikin’s album, as well
as some further information on his literary activities, can be found in the
magnificent Salon Album of Vera Sudeikin-Stravinsky, which was edited by John E.
Bowlt (1995: 35, 36, 41 and 42).
36
According to Bowlt (1995: 35), an entry in Vera
Sudeikin’s diary shows ‘that Kharazov also interpreted Vera’s dreams according to
the principles of Freud (Diaries, 6 May 1919)’.
In the winter of 1919-20 many poets left Tbilisi because of the deteriorating
economic conditions in Georgia. The Menshevik government had difficulties with
controlling corruption and with raising taxes, and even the Head of State, Noe
Zhordania, admitted that the economic and social conditions were unbearable.
Many of the Russian poets moved from Tbilisi to Baku (Azerbaijan) where the
newly founded University had just opened. Charasoff stayed on until spring 1921
and continued to participate actively in the literary activities in Tbilisi. The poetess
Melitta Rafalovich, the wife of the leader of the ‘Guild of Poets’, recalled the
meetings in the winter 1920-21:
We met once a week, read and discussed sixty poems an evening … about
fifty men and women … half sang half read their verse … Life was getting
very difficult. Rooms were requisitioned. It was unprecedentedly cold in
Tiflis, but the Guild still went on meeting. Wrapped up in their coats, people
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24
History of Economics Review
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huddled around the miserable stoves, reading poetry. The electricity went out
every minute, but even if it was on, you could not read by it. Paraffin lamps,
which smoked, appeared. Cold and hunger stopped this activity. (Nikolskaia
1980: 320)
Charasoff not only participated in those meetings but also led another group of
writers, the so-called ‘Academy of Verse’:
Apart from the sessions of the Guild of Poets, in 1920 in Tiflis a literary circle
called the Academy of Verse, headed by Kharazov, was also functioning.
Apart from readings of poetry at its meetings there were lectures devoted to
analysing literary works from a psychoanalytic point of view. … Not only
Kharazov, but also Terentiev, the poetess K. Arsenieva, Tatishvili and the
author of prose miniatures, Shepelenko, were active visitors to the Academy
of Verse. (Nikolskaia 1980: 320)
From 1919 to 1921 Charasoff earned his living as a professor of mathematics at the
Polytechnical University in Tbilisi. According to Marzaduri, ‘Kharazov left Tbilisi
in 1921 and moved to Baku, in order to teach political economics at the newly-
founded University. In Baku, he continued to work on literature and
psychoanalysis, to write poetry and to study Pushkin’s works’ (Marzaduri 1982:
127). This is also confirmed in the reminiscences of Mosei Altman (1990), a poet
and literary critic, who notes that from 1921 to 1924 Charasoff lectured on
mathematics, physics and political economy in Baku. Altman also referred to two
books that were published by the University of Baku in 1922 and 1924, and which
summarise Charasoff’s lectures on political economy. The 1924 book, of which a
copy has been found, is entitled Introduction to Theoretical Political Economy
(Kharazov 1924); it was compiled with the help of students from Charasoff's
lectures on political economy that he gave in Baku in 1923-24.
37
An assessment of
the content of Charasoff’s 1924 book with his ‘Baku lectures’ requires a separate
paper.
Charasoff’s contributions to debates in physics and psychoanalysis
In 1925, Charasoff gave several lectures in Moscow and also published a short
article in the journal of the Communist Academy which aimed at a mathematical
refutation of Einstein’s relativity theory (Kharazov 1925a).
38
On the basis of this
article Charasoff has been associated with the so-called ‘mechanist group’, whose
objections to relativity theory triggered heated debates in Russia during the 1920s
(Plyutto 1998: 78; Tikka 2008: 187). The debates in the 1920s among Russian
physicists on relativity theory were burdened with political and ideological
considerations, and articulating a particular view which did not become the
official Party line could have far-reaching practical consequences for those
involved:
The engineers with a bias to mechanistic thinking (N P Kastarin, Ya I Grdina,
G A Kharazov, later V F Mitkevich and others) went much further in their
criticism of relativity than the Deborin group did. … Bringing academic
discussions on the relation of philosophy to physics down to the level of
admonitions on the adherence of science, Communist Party principles, the
class struggle in science, sabotage of scientists, etc. was fraught with a ban on
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