The man who showed Soviets how to laugh

(Czech Republic)

Russians are mourning the first great Soviet comedian, said Vitaly Portnikov. Mikhail Zhvanetsky, who died last week at age 86, was a Ukrainian-born writer and stand-up comic who dared to make fun of the tedium and indignities of Soviet life. By the time he began writing sketches in the 1960s, “not only had satire been destroyed but all trace of humor.” Comedy had been “trampled under Stalin’s boots.” Zhvanetsky delighted audiences with his dry Jewish wit, mocking the powerful without their realizing it. Rifling through his trademark battered briefcase, he would read off a joke skewering the short life span of Russian cars or lamenting the

impossibility of happiness. At a time when criticizing the government was punishable by years of hard labor, Zhvanetsky “could say from the stage what his audience members were afraid to say to each other even in their kitchens.” He taught Russians “to think and reflect—important qualities that had atrophied in the Soviet environment.” True, he accepted honors from Russian President Vladimir Putin, but we can forgive him that, since he had been deprived of official recognition for so much of his career. “His contribution to the collapse of authoritarianism was enormous,” and those who lived through that era will think of him with a smile.