One thing Ted: if someone was born into a BELARUSIAN family, he shouldn’t be described as Russian - he just happened to be born in the Russian Empire. Just like Marie Curie was Polish, not Russian. For us from this corner of the world (I’m Polish) it’s a very important distinction, and it’s we end with giving to Russia the achievements of people born under its oppressive regime while their ethnicity is different.
Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania share a common heritage that dates back hundreds of years before falling into Russian oppression. Being mistaken for Russians is infuriating for us.
Thank you for bringing up this complicated issue! As you know, imperial identities are not easy to tease apart. Duke, as far as we know, had Russian, Polish, and even Georgian roots. The name Dukelsky itself is most commonly found among Jews, but his immediate family were not Jewish (which doesn’t mean that there weren’t converts in the their line). He spent his formative years in Ukraine—Kyiv and Crimea—but, like many Russophone people living in Ukraine before 1917, thought of himself as Russian. Were he alive today, we would likely call him a Russophone Ukrainian, because he was shaped in large part by the landscape and way of life of Ukraine, but retrospective labels don’t stick so very firmly… We can say with certainty that he considered himself Russian—or, even more accurately, a Russian American. Having lived with his words for some time, I’ll add that I believe he would have been as incensed and disgusted by Russia’s actions in Ukraine since 2014 as he was by the Soviet regime’s many crimes in his lifetime.
Yeah, the identities in this part of the world are a pretty crazy thing! For us Poles it’s probably easier, but I imagine it’s more complicated for Belarusians and Ukrainians. Even in the times of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, people in the Ruthenian parts of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania used to define themselves as “gente Ruthenus, natione Polonus”, which means “of Ruthenian people, of Polish nationality” - and at that time Polish nationality meant the citizenship of the Commonwealth, not only being ethnically Polish. Crazy, huh?
I believe it all comes down to what Duke himself thought of himself. If, as you say, he thought of himself as Russian, we should (probably) accept that. But then I think the most accurate description would be that he was Belarusian/Russian.
Fun fact: the greatest Polish poet, Mickiewicz, was from Belarus, he wrote in Polish, defined himself as Lithuanian.
From the Western perspective, the Commonwealth was a weird place.
Not to mention religious tolerance: when the West was doing things like St Bartholomew’s Night, here people of different faiths lived peacefully next to each other.
Just because he was born in what’s now Belarus doesn’t mean he’s ethnically Belarusian. If he was an aristocrat, his family could be of Russian descent.
"Passport to Paris" is one of the most interesting and enjoyable memoirs I've ever read. There are not many people who knew Diaghilev, Prokofiev, Braque, Duke Ellington, Balanchine, both Gershwins, and a pool full of Hollywood stars. Duke writes well and presents himself with a wry self-awareness. How good to see it back in print after seventy years.
@Ted Gioia what a coincidence. I am just reading Natasha's Dance by Orlando Figes (see p451)and thought about your writing about not being able to fake or force good music or art. The Soviets tried and it didn't work. People secretly wanted to learn couples dancing rather than communal patriotic folk dances, hung decorative icons in their rooms rather than propaganda posters, and didn't care for the forced avant-garde concerts.
Great piece Ted. A truly inspiring piece that I'll be sharing with the team at Brain Drain Unlimited and adding to our series on inspiring immigrant stories! 👍
One of the few benefits of reading on line is scrolling slowly (because I am a slow reader) down the screen. When I came to the photo of Duke, my first reaction was, wow, he doesn't look Russian, he looks like an American. And in the paragraph below the photo there is this sentence:
"But one of the great values of Duke’s account lies precisely in this lightness and looseness: his irrepressible buoyancy counterbalances the well-worn image, still haunting our culture, of the morose, melancholy East European émigré, mourning irrecoverable losses."
There is a great lesson in this. A man wears his personality on his face.
As a nascent writer of memoir born from undistinguished peasants and working class forbears in a family that wasn't aware until recently of the Scottish lords in our family tree, I almost quailed before the richness of Nabokov's Speak Memory, which was assigned reading in a memoir-writing class I took long ago. Nabokov's life as you write, was quite similar to Duke's. They both came from wealth and were surrounded by interesting people and lived in interesting times. Thanks for introducing us to Duke. Those of us without wealthy exotic backgrounds have to rely on other ways to make our memoirs interesting.
As a player, I have always found Autumn in NY uniquely structured with key changes that flow effortlessly, and wondered about Vernon Duke, only a name to me. Thank you for this, very enlightening!
One thing Ted: if someone was born into a BELARUSIAN family, he shouldn’t be described as Russian - he just happened to be born in the Russian Empire. Just like Marie Curie was Polish, not Russian. For us from this corner of the world (I’m Polish) it’s a very important distinction, and it’s we end with giving to Russia the achievements of people born under its oppressive regime while their ethnicity is different.
Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania share a common heritage that dates back hundreds of years before falling into Russian oppression. Being mistaken for Russians is infuriating for us.
Thank you for bringing up this complicated issue! As you know, imperial identities are not easy to tease apart. Duke, as far as we know, had Russian, Polish, and even Georgian roots. The name Dukelsky itself is most commonly found among Jews, but his immediate family were not Jewish (which doesn’t mean that there weren’t converts in the their line). He spent his formative years in Ukraine—Kyiv and Crimea—but, like many Russophone people living in Ukraine before 1917, thought of himself as Russian. Were he alive today, we would likely call him a Russophone Ukrainian, because he was shaped in large part by the landscape and way of life of Ukraine, but retrospective labels don’t stick so very firmly… We can say with certainty that he considered himself Russian—or, even more accurately, a Russian American. Having lived with his words for some time, I’ll add that I believe he would have been as incensed and disgusted by Russia’s actions in Ukraine since 2014 as he was by the Soviet regime’s many crimes in his lifetime.
Yeah, the identities in this part of the world are a pretty crazy thing! For us Poles it’s probably easier, but I imagine it’s more complicated for Belarusians and Ukrainians. Even in the times of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, people in the Ruthenian parts of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania used to define themselves as “gente Ruthenus, natione Polonus”, which means “of Ruthenian people, of Polish nationality” - and at that time Polish nationality meant the citizenship of the Commonwealth, not only being ethnically Polish. Crazy, huh?
I believe it all comes down to what Duke himself thought of himself. If, as you say, he thought of himself as Russian, we should (probably) accept that. But then I think the most accurate description would be that he was Belarusian/Russian.
Fun fact: the greatest Polish poet, Mickiewicz, was from Belarus, he wrote in Polish, defined himself as Lithuanian.
From the Western perspective, the Commonwealth was a weird place.
It was very weird indeed, and, strangely, far more democratic—at least for the szlachta—than any nation to the west, or the east, of that period.
Not to mention religious tolerance: when the West was doing things like St Bartholomew’s Night, here people of different faiths lived peacefully next to each other.
Just because he was born in what’s now Belarus doesn’t mean he’s ethnically Belarusian. If he was an aristocrat, his family could be of Russian descent.
Of course, but he’s described as being born into a Belarusian family, not as being born in Belarus.
Izzy Baline thanks you for the unsolicited attention.
You’re the best, Ted! Your columns are so damn interesting!
"Passport to Paris" is one of the most interesting and enjoyable memoirs I've ever read. There are not many people who knew Diaghilev, Prokofiev, Braque, Duke Ellington, Balanchine, both Gershwins, and a pool full of Hollywood stars. Duke writes well and presents himself with a wry self-awareness. How good to see it back in print after seventy years.
@Ted Gioia what a coincidence. I am just reading Natasha's Dance by Orlando Figes (see p451)and thought about your writing about not being able to fake or force good music or art. The Soviets tried and it didn't work. People secretly wanted to learn couples dancing rather than communal patriotic folk dances, hung decorative icons in their rooms rather than propaganda posters, and didn't care for the forced avant-garde concerts.
I've got to get this book.
I’ve just bought it on Apple on the strength of this post. What a treat!
Great piece Ted. A truly inspiring piece that I'll be sharing with the team at Brain Drain Unlimited and adding to our series on inspiring immigrant stories! 👍
Wow. Cool. Thx. More on this later … my grandparents were from Lithuania, Belarus, Romania and Ukraine … or what my grandmother called Russia.
One of the few benefits of reading on line is scrolling slowly (because I am a slow reader) down the screen. When I came to the photo of Duke, my first reaction was, wow, he doesn't look Russian, he looks like an American. And in the paragraph below the photo there is this sentence:
"But one of the great values of Duke’s account lies precisely in this lightness and looseness: his irrepressible buoyancy counterbalances the well-worn image, still haunting our culture, of the morose, melancholy East European émigré, mourning irrecoverable losses."
There is a great lesson in this. A man wears his personality on his face.
Indeed! Beautifully put.
As a nascent writer of memoir born from undistinguished peasants and working class forbears in a family that wasn't aware until recently of the Scottish lords in our family tree, I almost quailed before the richness of Nabokov's Speak Memory, which was assigned reading in a memoir-writing class I took long ago. Nabokov's life as you write, was quite similar to Duke's. They both came from wealth and were surrounded by interesting people and lived in interesting times. Thanks for introducing us to Duke. Those of us without wealthy exotic backgrounds have to rely on other ways to make our memoirs interesting.
I’m glad you found the comparison apt!
The photo of Duke bears an uncanny resemblance to this one, of another Russian emigre, Irving Berlin-https://www.songhall.org/profile/irving_berlin.
The photo is definitely Berlin.
One fascinating piece of music history!
This is such an awesome write-up !!!! Fantastic !
As a player, I have always found Autumn in NY uniquely structured with key changes that flow effortlessly, and wondered about Vernon Duke, only a name to me. Thank you for this, very enlightening!
Excellent tribute 💎 Thanks a lot 🙏
Have you read the story April in Paris by Ursula Le Guin? It actually fits with the song very well.