From Russia with loathing
QUESTION Why did Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich despise playwright George Bernard Shaw?
DMITRI shostakovich denounced George Bernard Shaw for his support of Stalin and his denial of the famine in the Soviet Union in the Thirties.
The Dublin-born author is best known for his plays Pygmalion (later made into the hit musical My Fair Lady) and Man and Superman.
Shaw was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925, but his reputation has been tarnished by some of the controversial causes he supported.
Like many members of the socialist Fabian Society, he advocated eugenics. ‘If we desire a certain type of civilisation and culture, we must exterminate the sort of people who do not fit into it,’ he wrote.
Shaw praised dictators, whatever their creed. he defended Mussolini throughout the Thirties and, while condemning hitler’s anti-Semitism, he praised the Nazis’ supposed economic reforms.
he was an enthusiastic supporter of the 1917 Russian revolution, regarding the Soviet Union as the pinnacle of civilisation. In 1931, he made a pilgrimage to Stalin’s Russia.
accompanied by Lord and Lady astor, Shaw had a two-hour personal audience with Stalin. ‘I expected to see a Russian worker and I found a Georgian gentleman,’ he proclaimed.
The writer was so impressed by his trip that he said: ‘Tomorrow I leave this land of hope and return to our Western countries — the countries of despair.’
he went on to deny the Soviet regime had imprisoned significant numbers of political dissidents, even describing the gulags as popular holiday destinations.
Worst of all, he denied the famine in the Soviet Union, boasting that in Russia he ‘ate the most slashing dinner in my life’.
In 1933, Shaw wrote an infamous letter to the Manchester Guardian, denouncing Malcolm Muggeridge’s exposé of Stalin’s terror and famine in Ukraine as a ‘lie’ and a ‘slander’.
It was this denial that drew the ire of
Shostakovich, who derided the notion of Shaw as a ‘noted humanist’. In his autobiography Testimony, the composer stated: ‘Shaw just came to visit a dictator.
‘It was Shaw who announced upon his return from the Soviet Union: “hunger in Russia? Nonsense. I’ve never been fed as well anywhere as in Moscow.”
‘Millions were going hungry then and several million peasants died of starvation. and yet people are delighted by Shaw, by his wit and courage. I have my own opinion on that . . .’
Matt Scott, Malvern, Worcs.
QUESTION Why is striking someone in anger called lamping them?
ACCORDING to lexicographer Eric Partridge: ‘To lamp a bloke is to attack him with your bunch of fives [fists] or knives or razors. To job ’im means the same thing.’
The term has been around since the 1800s, though it had a revival in the late 20th century.
an example from 1895 has: ‘I’ll lamp his hide when I catch him.’
It seems probable that it stems from the mostly forgotten verb lamm, meaning beat, bruise or strike, derived from the anglo-Saxon lama or the Irish lamh.
The 19th- century bibliophile John camden hotten suggested it came from the old Norse lam, meaning to strike with the hand, equivalent to smack or slap (the Irish word smac means the palm of the hand).
R. C. Finch, Chesterfield, Derbys.