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Common Knowledge

Canonical name: Engström, Albert
Legal name: Engström, Albert Laurentius Johannes
Birthdate: 1869-05-12
Date of death: 1940-11-16
Burial location: Hults kyrkogård
Gender: male
Nationality: Sweden
Birthplace: Lönneberga, Kalmar County, Sweden
Place of death: Stockholm, Sweden
Places of residence: Hult, Sverige
Norrköping, Sverige
Uppsala, Sverige
Göteborg, Sverige
Grisslehamn, Sverige
Education: Norrköpings högre allmänna läroverk
Uppsala universitet
Occupations: Tillförordnad professor (teckning, Konsthögskolan)
Relationships: Engström, Christian (great grandson)
Organizations: Kungliga Akademien för de fria konsterna
Svenska Akademien (stol 18)
Publicistklubben
Awards and honors: Bellmanpriset (1931-1942)

Members

Reviews

Moskoviidid by Albert Engström

Muscovites circa 1923
Review of the Loomingu Raamatukogu edition (2020) translated from the Swedish language original “Moskoviter” (1924)

Albert Engström (1869–1940) was a beloved Swedish artist and prolific writer, a member of the Swedish Academy since 1922.
In 1923, he made a long trip to post-Civil War Russia, on a mission to sketch portraits of characters from this unique era. He gained entrance to the lofty doors of the Kremlin as well as to the most terrible corners of the underworld. He drew Trotsky and Kalinin, Clara Zetkin and Aleksandra Kollonta, as well as plenty of wanderers and outcasts. He does not philosophize about the crazy course of history, and makes no predictions or generalizations, but records what he sees and hears and tells the reader about his impressions. - translated from the Estonian language synopsis.

Cover image of the original 1924 Swedish language edition. Image obtained from a Russian auction site at https://egorovs.art/auction32/lot95

Moskoviidid (Muscovites) is again one of those fortunate translations which I am able to read in my heritage language of Estonian and which is not even available in English. It actually looks like there are no other works by Swedish essayist/artist Albert Engström that are available in English either (based on what is listed on Goodreads anyway)

Albert Engström was able to travel to the new Soviet Russia in late 1923 thanks to his contacts in the Swedish diplomatic and business community who hosted him there. This gained him access to some of the highest figures in the then fledging Communist government, including Trotsky, whom Lenin had promoted as his heir-apparent as General Secretary of the Party. Lenin himself was incapacitated with strokes and paralysis at this time and would die in January 1924, upon when Stalin usurped power and ousted Trotsky.

Early in his journey, Engström worries that he will only be allowed access to "Potemkim Villages" i.e. controlled views of society that only show the best conditions and progress. In the event though, there seems to have been no barriers to his access as presumably the authorities were yet to have developed their monitoring and propaganda machine to that extent.

The early part of the book covers Engström's visits with government figures, diplomats and business personalities. The latter part has him visiting the lower edges of society, street beggars, the homeless, the drug addicted etc. Along the way he makes his observations and sketches everything that he sees. This Estonian translation provides the complete series of accompanying sketches along with a translation of the Swedish text.

Trivia and Link
The original 1924 Swedish edition of Moskoviter is not listed on Goodreads. However, you can examine a digitized facsimile of the 1946 Swedish edition including all of the sketch illustrations at http://runeberg.org/moskovit/… (more)

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alanteder | Sep 16, 2020 |

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