Soviet soldier reading Pravda (Cassowary Colorizations)‘Back in the U.S.S.R.’ and Other Poetry by Brian Yapko The Society May 11, 2025 Culture, Poetry 26 Comments . Back in the U.S.S.R. —St. Petersburg, Russia. The present. Your borscht, Dmitri. Come and eat, smart boy. You asked me how life was? Well take a seat And hear what your babushka has to tell Of times before the Politburo fell, When nothing—truly nothing—was the same. St. Petersburg then had a different name. Our clothes were patched and worn. We had no heat. Proud Leningrad in winter! Such a joy. Kolpino—that is where we had our flat, Where father slaved from sunrise until dark, While mother processed barley at the stalls. We had no telephone. There were no calls And not a living soul whom we could trust. The windows were all darkened with coal dust. We bowed to some black-market oligarch For stale bread from the commissariat. When I turned ten—I always shall remember— My parents chastised me one tear-stained night And said God was a myth, men had no soul. Religion was a threat which had no role For loyal Bolsheviks. No Christmas tree. And we must make one boiled beet feed three. We had cheap blankets and one dim-watt light To help us through that starving, cold December. Dmitri, you are free to shout and play. There’s food upon your table and your parents Will not be stolen from you and arrested, Interrogated, tortured, starved and tested For loyalty to Khrushchev and the State. My father once arrived home twelve months late— A victim of the gulags where the errants Who displeased Moscow were all locked away. In those days everything was gray or red And stamped with a blunt hammer and sharp sickle. The faith Old Russia cherished was now mocked; Communication with the West was blocked; When politicians spoke they freely lied. The Kremlin spied and where were we to hide? Our leaders were corrupt, depraved and fickle. Be grateful the old Soviet is dead! Cheer up, Dmitri! There’s your parents’ car. Don’t let your father know you saw me cry. Let’s pray that no one resurrects the past And that the freedoms we have gained will last— For communism is a toxic drug. Now give your old babushka a big hug. Be glad you’re old enough to now learn why There is no longer a U.S.S.R. . . Peter the Great Taxes Men’s Beards —Moscow, 1698 The Romanovs have always ruled with strength From Sweden to Siberia—the length And breadth of Russia—steady with a sword; Commanding while commanded by the Lord. And every Russian ruler’s royal face Has been bewhiskered as befits our race. Each tsar before the Romanovs as well— None sought to ape the West’s descent to hell, Condemning men to foreordained defeat By shearing us like sheep and made effete. Think back to Godunov! Remember Ivan— Russ Samsons whose long whiskers would enliven Their strength as emperors to make their mark. Each Metropolitan, each patriarch Is bearded—every soldier, peasant, priest… All Russian men from wealthiest to least! No Cossack, serf or nobleman of note Would let a barber’s blade approach his throat! Our father Abraham was never sheared. The Bible holds that Adam had a beard And Moses, David, Solomon and Saul, The twelve apostles, John the Baptist, Paul; God’s prophets would not have their bristles sliced, And never would our Savior Jesus Christ! But our “great” ruler, Peter, orders change— A tsar whose Western fetish is so strange He stayed in venal Holland in disguise, To spy unrecognized and thus grow wise On ships and shoes and all that he thought best To be imported from the wanton West. The unmanned men of Europe—the clean-shaven May think themselves enlightened but are craven And scarcely the example we should follow. It’s clear that Dutch virility is hollow And though we’re neither Danish, French nor German, This scheming Romanov would deem us vermin And backward since we value our tradition. He links our holy faith now to sedition! How can I let my manhood be defaced— This beard of mine which flows down to my waist? I’ve grown it since a boy of just thirteen And yet this tsar now thinks he can demean My dignity with laws to have it shaved Or pay a crippling tax. This is depraved— A violation of God’s will for men! Coercion! Still, I value my “Amen,” So pay I must. He’ll never see me shave! That’s my decision even to the grave. Nor would I brook the slur of “Sodomite”— Debased, unvirile in my lady’s sight. Can Peter say beards are not good enough When one was right for Boris Godunov? His wish to shave grown men down to their stubble Is but a harbinger of deeper trouble: This scheming tsar would abrogate all choice And turn us into children with no voice. What arrogance would make this tsar decide To force destruction of what’s true and tried? He thinks he’s herald of a modern age But nothing in such tyranny is sage. It weakens Russia! Worse, it is transgressive. He calls this “progress?” How is this progressive? It’s just a beard? No! This is more than vanity. It proves a prideful tsar’s insanity. . Poet’s Note: In 1698 Tsar Peter I of Russia (Peter the Great) instituted a beard tax as part of an effort to bring Russian society in line with Western Europe as part of a wide range of economic, social, political, educational and military reforms. By attempting to Westernize Russia, however, Peter made decisions which undermined traditionalism and religion. His goal of eliminating men’s beards was in direct conflict with the Russian Orthodox Church’s declaration that being clean-shaven was blasphemous. Because many men believed that maintaining a beard was a religious requirement, the Tsar empowered the police to forcibly and publicly shave those who refused to pay the tax. In 1772, the unpopular tax was formally repealed by Catherine the Great. . . Brian Yapko is a retired lawyer whose poetry has appeared in over fifty journals. He is the winner of the 2023 SCP International Poetry Competition. Brian is also the author of several short stories, the science fiction novel El Nuevo Mundo and the gothic archaeological novel Bleeding Stone. He lives in Wimauma, Florida. NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets. The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary. ***Read Our Comments Policy Here*** 26 Responses Cynthia L Erlandson May 11, 2025 Brian, these are such well- told stories, with well-personified narrators! I couldn’t stop reading. And I had to laugh out loud at your “good enough / Gudonov” rhyme! Reply Brian Yapko May 12, 2025 Thank you so much, Cynthia! I’ve been wanting to use that rhyme in poetry for a long time and finally found the right vehicle. I was over 60 when I realized that the cartoon character’s name “Boris Badenov” was a pun on Boris Godunov. Boris and Natasha, if you recall, were the hapless Soviet spies in Rocky and Bullwinkle. Reply Cynthia L Erlandson May 13, 2025 Oh, yes, I sure do remember Rocky and Bullwinkle! I liked that cartoon; but I remember that my dad clearly understood it better than I did, and got a big kick out of it! Mark Stellinga May 11, 2025 Impressive pieces both, Brian. In the 1st, and in a very difficult rhyme scheem, you paint a clear and vivid picture depicting virtually everything I’ve ever read or viewed in films exposing how utterly hopeless life was for the destitute in the Soviet Union only a few tyrants back. In the latter, you stringently denounce one of Tsar Peter I’s most outrageous sectarian decrees. Typically excellent and extremely enlightening Brian-Yapko-work. 🙂 Reply Brian Yapko May 12, 2025 Thank you so much, Mark! I spent four months slogging through The Gulag Archipelago and, although it was a difficult read, I was much moved. As a result, I very much wanted to say something about communism and its corrosive effect on the human spirit. As for Peter the Great, I’ve always admired him but the older I get the less I appreciate control freaks. And his deciding to place a tax on men’s beards is a form of micromanagement that is one for the books. Reply Roy Eugene Peterson May 11, 2025 Having spent seven years (sporadically from 1983 to 1995) in Russia on military duty in Moscow and Votkinsk; and as the first US Foreign Commercial Officer, I can vouch for the first poem as a great and fantastic vision of the changes from Soviet rule with the jettisoning of many Republics and the election of Boris Yeltsin. I remember as an Army Attaché in Moscow the sudden appearance of half rotting “Nile” branded oranges in boxes at Christmastime and the enthusiastic purchase of them from street vendors. My partner and I (we always went in twos) went into a downtown cafeteria in which the only thing to order was mashed potatoes with grease poured over them. As Commander of Portal Monitoring in Votkinsk at the formerly secret missile factory where Tchaikovsky’s father once worked (before missiles were invented), those in charge requested that we bring our own meat and eggs from the west, since they did not have enough to feed the 30 Americans stationed there. I remember when I went to the Moscow factory to purchase a Lada vehicle as a second car, I understood that attaches jumped the one to two-year wait line. My stories are manifold and are in some of my books. I cannot overemphasize how great is the detailed picture you portrayed. When I started to read your story on Peter the Great, I was surprised by your superb knowledge of Russian history. As it began, my first thought was of a disguised Peter working on the docks in Holland, partly to learn “modern” boat construction. Then to my amazement you delved into his stint as a Russian spy. You told the story of the beard incident again in great detail and with fantastic rhyme and rhythm. Hats off to one of the great historical poetic storytellers! Reply Brian Yapko May 13, 2025 Roy, thank you not only for your generous assessment but for your fascinating first-hand insights into what life was like in the U.S.S.R. and the changes that you witnessed as it began to abandon communism. I must get around to reading some of your books as the experiences you have had are first-hand accounts of important history! The things you have witnessed are both amazing and fascinating! My knowledge and love of Russian history is spotty but sincere. I read Robert Massie’s biographies of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great during a period when I was particularly fascinated by the Romanovs — a fascination I do not anticipate evaporating any time soon. I imagine it started with the film Nicholas & Alexandra which left me enraged and horrified that a country could be so dishonorable and callous as to execute not only its tsar but the tsar’s wife and five innocent children (one of whom was a hemophiliac) along with some loyal household retainers. I then became fascinated with Anastasia and the possibility of her survival (I covered that in another poem some years ago https://classicalpoets.org/2021/04/anastasia-by-brian-yapko/) And it all came together when I visited Russia (St. Petersburg) in 2012. But my knowledge of Peter the Great (who actually founded Petersburg) is only the knowledge of a dilettante addressing a subject of personal interest. I’m glad to know a fellow poet, Roy, whose knowledge of Russia far exceeds my own! Reply Joseph S. Salemi May 11, 2025 Brian, you are proving yourself to be not only a master of the dramatic monologue, but also of historical narrative. “Back in the U.S.S.R.” combines both genres. The grandmother tells young Dmitri the family’s history, but also intertwines it with the historical context of what Russia was like under Communism. She is filled with joy for the new Russia, freed from the yoke of the Soviets and resurrected back into its old faith and its old traditions. (No wonder our left-liberals and neocons are in an apoplectic rage about it.) Small typo in the fifth line of the second stanza — “who” should be changed to “whom”. The second poem (“Peter the Great Taxes…”) is in fact complementary to the previous piece. The fanatical impulse of Czar Peter and a few others to “Westernize” their subjects is what led — inevitably — to the growth of radicalism and leftism in their land. Marxism and all of its offshoots were a diseased import from the West. Those Czars picked up (unconsciously, I believe) the left-liberal need to control and regulate and manage and dictate every little thing in the populace’s private lives. What bloody difference did it make if Russian men had beards? But a fanatical ideologue only thinks of what MUST BE DONE, and imposes it come hell or high water. And the beards had no political significance — they were merely a long-established custom based on a religious interpretation of scripture. Peter the Great should have been called Peter the Ideologue. That really shows how “Western” he was. Reply Brian Yapko May 13, 2025 Thank you so much, Joe, for your kind words. I love history and I love first-person narratives and I love poetry so somehow historically-based dramatic monologues are my favorite thing to write. Even as Russia has regained its soul and restored its devotion to the Russian Orthodox faith, leftists have come to hate it more and more. You see a corrolation and I can’t say that I disagree in the least. I’ve watched many Russian dance and music performances on Youtube and am always struck by how patriotic and appreciative the Russian audiences are. I think it would be hard to find an American audience in a major city showing that kind of pride in American culture. Russians have a strong sense of identity and good boundaries. They unapologetically know and like who they are. I respect that. As for Peter the Great, the idea of regulating men’s facial hair is so absurd and intrusive it almost sounded like something a leftist would attempt. In fact, this poem was conceived as my oblique poetic response to the criminilzation of “misgendering” people in the U.K. If a state can lower itself to inprison people in jail for calling a bloke who wears a dress “him”, then where does it end? The state can potentially involve itself in every intimate detail of our lives! That’s not right. It wasn’t right in 1698 and it’s not right now. Reply Julian D. Woodruff May 11, 2025 Brilliant, Brian, both in terms of mastery of rhyme and meter, but also command of subject matter. Peter I put me in mind of Pope Francis (I) and the spiteful distrust and suppression of the Mass in Latin, plus the widespread suspicion of / distaste for Communion on the tongue, celebration ad orientem, and use of altar rails (to promote receiving while kneeling. I sincerely hope all that dissipates under Leo XIV. Reply Joseph S. Salemi May 11, 2025 I hope so too, but I’m not holding my breath. This guy Prevost was the one who went after Strickland. Reply Brian Yapko May 13, 2025 Thank you very much indeed, Julian. We’ll just have to see how things play out. Reply Margaret Coats May 12, 2025 I can imagine, Brian, the strong-spoken attitude of Dmitri’s babushka. My great-aunt Alberta met her like in Lithuania when the USSR was crumbling. Alberta, a visiting American who knew the language, was shocked at the boldness of many who had lived through decades of Soviet tyranny and taken risks–even little ones like buying and selling on the black market. Your touch about everything being gray or red rings true. They were transgressively delighted with blue curtains or fresh white paint. Your bearded traditionalist is a powerhouse fully stocked with all the arguments. Always a pleasure to listen and learn from one like him–though it can take some time! Reply Brian Yapko May 13, 2025 Thank you very much for your appreciative comment, Margaret. Reply Yael May 13, 2025 Your historical narrative poems are a pleasure to read Brian, great job. I wish that poems such as yours would be included in history text books. It would make learning about history a lot more attractive. Reply Brian Yapko May 14, 2025 Thank you so much, Yael! Reply Warren Bonham May 13, 2025 These were both fantastic! My education continues. I was surprised to learn that governments did crazy things like regulate beard growth way back then, but then I remembered that we regulate much crazier things now. We never seem to learn any lessons from history. Reply Brian Yapko May 14, 2025 Thank you, Warren! I agree about regulating much crazier things now. In particular, I think of the tyranny of misgendering and the malicious use of pronouns. Reply Julia Griffin May 17, 2025 Life was hideous in the old USSR, certainly. Though there is now more and better food, the present government of Russia is also a corrupt tyranny (how many of Putin’s enemies have fallen out of windows now ..?). It makes no more sense to romanticize this than the other. Stalin talked about his “useful idiots” in the West; Putin has his too – and in the highest places. Reply Brian Yapko May 17, 2025 I appreciate your commenting, Julia, but I had no intention in these poems of addressing present-day politics, either Russian or American. Neither Putin nor Trump (nor Zelenskyy, for that matter) are even obliquely addressed in these poems. “U.S.S.R.” was 100% inspired by my read of “The Gulag Archipelago.” Believe me, when I DO want my work to address current affairs, I’m exceptionally direct. Reply Susan Jarvis Bryant May 17, 2025 Brian, as ever these informative and entertaining poems are written with clarity, sensitivity, and a passion for history that shines in every line. While the poems don’t address modern day politics (as you mention above) I cannot help but make comparisons, especially since I’ve read Solzhenitsyn’s amazing book too – a long and tough journey that I recommend to anyone who truly cares about humanity. There are many significant lessons to be learned in this painful and spiritual work and both poems reflect this. I’m especially drawn to these lines: The faith Old Russia cherished was now mocked; Communication with the West was blocked; When politicians spoke they freely lied. The Kremlin spied and where were we to hide? Perhaps all those marveling at the modern Smart technology, might like to think about the consequence – what is the price we pay for an interactive Smart system that can hear you, see you, and collect data on you? History tells us it’s not pretty. “Peter the Great Taxes Men’s Beards” is superb and serves to remind me that the eradication of a culture begins with seemingly trivial things that mean a whole lot to those who know the history of them – which is just why tyrants are keen to demonize and stamp out the past – especially the art. Brian, thank you very much indeed! Reply Joseph S. Salemi May 17, 2025 Susan, you are right. Brian’s poems do have a bearing on contemporary attitudes. Yes, it starts out with seemingly trivial things, like beards, or how many and which fingers you should use for making the sign of the cross (this was also a bitterly fought issue in Czarist Russia). But so-called little things are not trivial to ideologues and fanatics. Hence the current obsessions with pronouns and virtue-signalling and identity politics. This fanatical tendency is what lies behind the common left-liberal maxim: “The personal is political.” Reply Brian Yapko May 18, 2025 Thank you for this additional insight into my work, Joe. As I just responded to Susan, my poems, though not directly on the subject of present-day politics, are intended to offer resonances or echoes of previous periods in history in which similar challenges were faced, or similar solutions were attempted and found to be wanting. In these two Russian-themed poems, two solutions to societal problems were attempted — both of which failed: Communism in the first poem; and the micromanagement of personal appearance in the second. The problems perceived were daunting: poverty and injustice which led to the Bolshevik Revolution; and Czarist Russia’s falling behind Western Europe in political power and intellectual achievement. But neither Lenin nor Peter seized upon the “right” solution to either of these problems. In the 21st Century we are fools indeed if we attempt to repeat their failed experiments. And yet we keep doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. That is the proverbial definition of “insanity.” The very word with which I close my Peter the Great poem. Intentionally. Brian Yapko May 18, 2025 Susan, thank you so much for this insightful comment! Although I know you understand what I’m going for, others may be uncertain regarding my intent and so let me just clarify what I mean when I say my poems don’t address present day politics. I just mean very literally that they are not about Trump and Putin. That does not mean, however, that I did not intend for the two poems to offer some insights into the politics of today and the social phenomena that we experience. I write hoping to capture resonances. The way in other poems I’ve written I’ve identified China’s Cultural Revolution in our BLM riots. Or the way I’ve seen Revolutionary France’s Reign of Terror in the way we try to rewrite history and cancel our own culture. In this case, I have brought up the U.S.S.R. as something of a cautionary tale concerning our ill-conceived present-day flirtations and romancing of communism and socialism. And I bring up Peter the Great because tyranny can take all sorts of forms of (ostensibly) innocuous micromanagement of other people’s behavior. I’m glad you brought up the dangers of Smart technology. I can’t tell you the number of times Jerry and I have discussed some subject only to have YouTube on our TV set start producing advertisements directly responsive to what we’ve been discussing. Coincidence or are we under surveillance in some way? I still can’t quite bring myself to believe the latter and yet the evidence is right there on the set in living color. And as you say, the results of data collection in the annals of history are not only “not pretty” — they are catastrophic. Lastly, Susan, I heartily endorse your recommendation for those who care about humanity to read Solzhenitsyn’s “Gulag Archipelago.” There’s a reason why it won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970. It describes Stalinist Russia but has not aged a single day. Reply Paul Burgess May 18, 2025 I love to read this kind of ambitious work in formal verse. You have done a great job of combining narrative, musical verse, and political commentary in a way that people–regardless of political beliefs or background–should be able to reflect on, enjoy, and connect with. Literature has the power to make people at least think about things they might reject if presented in a prose polemic or academic argument, and the human narrative in the first piece does an especially good job of making the ideas relatable and concrete. Reply Brian Yapko May 19, 2025 Thank you very much indeed, Paul! I especially appreciate your suggestion of “musical verse” as I do tend to think of my poetry in musical terms, both structurally and in terms of the situations I create for my dramatic monologues. I agree wholeheartedly about the power of literature. And, just to add to your thought, I find that first-person narrative is often more powerful than third-person narrative to create sympathy and personal insight. Like Atticus Finch observes in To Kill a Mockingbird, there’s nothing like walking around in someone else’s shoes to get a different perspective on things. 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Cynthia L Erlandson May 11, 2025 Brian, these are such well- told stories, with well-personified narrators! I couldn’t stop reading. And I had to laugh out loud at your “good enough / Gudonov” rhyme! Reply
Brian Yapko May 12, 2025 Thank you so much, Cynthia! I’ve been wanting to use that rhyme in poetry for a long time and finally found the right vehicle. I was over 60 when I realized that the cartoon character’s name “Boris Badenov” was a pun on Boris Godunov. Boris and Natasha, if you recall, were the hapless Soviet spies in Rocky and Bullwinkle. Reply
Cynthia L Erlandson May 13, 2025 Oh, yes, I sure do remember Rocky and Bullwinkle! I liked that cartoon; but I remember that my dad clearly understood it better than I did, and got a big kick out of it!
Mark Stellinga May 11, 2025 Impressive pieces both, Brian. In the 1st, and in a very difficult rhyme scheem, you paint a clear and vivid picture depicting virtually everything I’ve ever read or viewed in films exposing how utterly hopeless life was for the destitute in the Soviet Union only a few tyrants back. In the latter, you stringently denounce one of Tsar Peter I’s most outrageous sectarian decrees. Typically excellent and extremely enlightening Brian-Yapko-work. 🙂 Reply
Brian Yapko May 12, 2025 Thank you so much, Mark! I spent four months slogging through The Gulag Archipelago and, although it was a difficult read, I was much moved. As a result, I very much wanted to say something about communism and its corrosive effect on the human spirit. As for Peter the Great, I’ve always admired him but the older I get the less I appreciate control freaks. And his deciding to place a tax on men’s beards is a form of micromanagement that is one for the books. Reply
Roy Eugene Peterson May 11, 2025 Having spent seven years (sporadically from 1983 to 1995) in Russia on military duty in Moscow and Votkinsk; and as the first US Foreign Commercial Officer, I can vouch for the first poem as a great and fantastic vision of the changes from Soviet rule with the jettisoning of many Republics and the election of Boris Yeltsin. I remember as an Army Attaché in Moscow the sudden appearance of half rotting “Nile” branded oranges in boxes at Christmastime and the enthusiastic purchase of them from street vendors. My partner and I (we always went in twos) went into a downtown cafeteria in which the only thing to order was mashed potatoes with grease poured over them. As Commander of Portal Monitoring in Votkinsk at the formerly secret missile factory where Tchaikovsky’s father once worked (before missiles were invented), those in charge requested that we bring our own meat and eggs from the west, since they did not have enough to feed the 30 Americans stationed there. I remember when I went to the Moscow factory to purchase a Lada vehicle as a second car, I understood that attaches jumped the one to two-year wait line. My stories are manifold and are in some of my books. I cannot overemphasize how great is the detailed picture you portrayed. When I started to read your story on Peter the Great, I was surprised by your superb knowledge of Russian history. As it began, my first thought was of a disguised Peter working on the docks in Holland, partly to learn “modern” boat construction. Then to my amazement you delved into his stint as a Russian spy. You told the story of the beard incident again in great detail and with fantastic rhyme and rhythm. Hats off to one of the great historical poetic storytellers! Reply
Brian Yapko May 13, 2025 Roy, thank you not only for your generous assessment but for your fascinating first-hand insights into what life was like in the U.S.S.R. and the changes that you witnessed as it began to abandon communism. I must get around to reading some of your books as the experiences you have had are first-hand accounts of important history! The things you have witnessed are both amazing and fascinating! My knowledge and love of Russian history is spotty but sincere. I read Robert Massie’s biographies of Peter the Great and Catherine the Great during a period when I was particularly fascinated by the Romanovs — a fascination I do not anticipate evaporating any time soon. I imagine it started with the film Nicholas & Alexandra which left me enraged and horrified that a country could be so dishonorable and callous as to execute not only its tsar but the tsar’s wife and five innocent children (one of whom was a hemophiliac) along with some loyal household retainers. I then became fascinated with Anastasia and the possibility of her survival (I covered that in another poem some years ago https://classicalpoets.org/2021/04/anastasia-by-brian-yapko/) And it all came together when I visited Russia (St. Petersburg) in 2012. But my knowledge of Peter the Great (who actually founded Petersburg) is only the knowledge of a dilettante addressing a subject of personal interest. I’m glad to know a fellow poet, Roy, whose knowledge of Russia far exceeds my own! Reply
Joseph S. Salemi May 11, 2025 Brian, you are proving yourself to be not only a master of the dramatic monologue, but also of historical narrative. “Back in the U.S.S.R.” combines both genres. The grandmother tells young Dmitri the family’s history, but also intertwines it with the historical context of what Russia was like under Communism. She is filled with joy for the new Russia, freed from the yoke of the Soviets and resurrected back into its old faith and its old traditions. (No wonder our left-liberals and neocons are in an apoplectic rage about it.) Small typo in the fifth line of the second stanza — “who” should be changed to “whom”. The second poem (“Peter the Great Taxes…”) is in fact complementary to the previous piece. The fanatical impulse of Czar Peter and a few others to “Westernize” their subjects is what led — inevitably — to the growth of radicalism and leftism in their land. Marxism and all of its offshoots were a diseased import from the West. Those Czars picked up (unconsciously, I believe) the left-liberal need to control and regulate and manage and dictate every little thing in the populace’s private lives. What bloody difference did it make if Russian men had beards? But a fanatical ideologue only thinks of what MUST BE DONE, and imposes it come hell or high water. And the beards had no political significance — they were merely a long-established custom based on a religious interpretation of scripture. Peter the Great should have been called Peter the Ideologue. That really shows how “Western” he was. Reply
Brian Yapko May 13, 2025 Thank you so much, Joe, for your kind words. I love history and I love first-person narratives and I love poetry so somehow historically-based dramatic monologues are my favorite thing to write. Even as Russia has regained its soul and restored its devotion to the Russian Orthodox faith, leftists have come to hate it more and more. You see a corrolation and I can’t say that I disagree in the least. I’ve watched many Russian dance and music performances on Youtube and am always struck by how patriotic and appreciative the Russian audiences are. I think it would be hard to find an American audience in a major city showing that kind of pride in American culture. Russians have a strong sense of identity and good boundaries. They unapologetically know and like who they are. I respect that. As for Peter the Great, the idea of regulating men’s facial hair is so absurd and intrusive it almost sounded like something a leftist would attempt. In fact, this poem was conceived as my oblique poetic response to the criminilzation of “misgendering” people in the U.K. If a state can lower itself to inprison people in jail for calling a bloke who wears a dress “him”, then where does it end? The state can potentially involve itself in every intimate detail of our lives! That’s not right. It wasn’t right in 1698 and it’s not right now. Reply
Julian D. Woodruff May 11, 2025 Brilliant, Brian, both in terms of mastery of rhyme and meter, but also command of subject matter. Peter I put me in mind of Pope Francis (I) and the spiteful distrust and suppression of the Mass in Latin, plus the widespread suspicion of / distaste for Communion on the tongue, celebration ad orientem, and use of altar rails (to promote receiving while kneeling. I sincerely hope all that dissipates under Leo XIV. Reply
Joseph S. Salemi May 11, 2025 I hope so too, but I’m not holding my breath. This guy Prevost was the one who went after Strickland. Reply
Brian Yapko May 13, 2025 Thank you very much indeed, Julian. We’ll just have to see how things play out. Reply
Margaret Coats May 12, 2025 I can imagine, Brian, the strong-spoken attitude of Dmitri’s babushka. My great-aunt Alberta met her like in Lithuania when the USSR was crumbling. Alberta, a visiting American who knew the language, was shocked at the boldness of many who had lived through decades of Soviet tyranny and taken risks–even little ones like buying and selling on the black market. Your touch about everything being gray or red rings true. They were transgressively delighted with blue curtains or fresh white paint. Your bearded traditionalist is a powerhouse fully stocked with all the arguments. Always a pleasure to listen and learn from one like him–though it can take some time! Reply
Yael May 13, 2025 Your historical narrative poems are a pleasure to read Brian, great job. I wish that poems such as yours would be included in history text books. It would make learning about history a lot more attractive. Reply
Warren Bonham May 13, 2025 These were both fantastic! My education continues. I was surprised to learn that governments did crazy things like regulate beard growth way back then, but then I remembered that we regulate much crazier things now. We never seem to learn any lessons from history. Reply
Brian Yapko May 14, 2025 Thank you, Warren! I agree about regulating much crazier things now. In particular, I think of the tyranny of misgendering and the malicious use of pronouns. Reply
Julia Griffin May 17, 2025 Life was hideous in the old USSR, certainly. Though there is now more and better food, the present government of Russia is also a corrupt tyranny (how many of Putin’s enemies have fallen out of windows now ..?). It makes no more sense to romanticize this than the other. Stalin talked about his “useful idiots” in the West; Putin has his too – and in the highest places. Reply
Brian Yapko May 17, 2025 I appreciate your commenting, Julia, but I had no intention in these poems of addressing present-day politics, either Russian or American. Neither Putin nor Trump (nor Zelenskyy, for that matter) are even obliquely addressed in these poems. “U.S.S.R.” was 100% inspired by my read of “The Gulag Archipelago.” Believe me, when I DO want my work to address current affairs, I’m exceptionally direct. Reply
Susan Jarvis Bryant May 17, 2025 Brian, as ever these informative and entertaining poems are written with clarity, sensitivity, and a passion for history that shines in every line. While the poems don’t address modern day politics (as you mention above) I cannot help but make comparisons, especially since I’ve read Solzhenitsyn’s amazing book too – a long and tough journey that I recommend to anyone who truly cares about humanity. There are many significant lessons to be learned in this painful and spiritual work and both poems reflect this. I’m especially drawn to these lines: The faith Old Russia cherished was now mocked; Communication with the West was blocked; When politicians spoke they freely lied. The Kremlin spied and where were we to hide? Perhaps all those marveling at the modern Smart technology, might like to think about the consequence – what is the price we pay for an interactive Smart system that can hear you, see you, and collect data on you? History tells us it’s not pretty. “Peter the Great Taxes Men’s Beards” is superb and serves to remind me that the eradication of a culture begins with seemingly trivial things that mean a whole lot to those who know the history of them – which is just why tyrants are keen to demonize and stamp out the past – especially the art. Brian, thank you very much indeed! Reply
Joseph S. Salemi May 17, 2025 Susan, you are right. Brian’s poems do have a bearing on contemporary attitudes. Yes, it starts out with seemingly trivial things, like beards, or how many and which fingers you should use for making the sign of the cross (this was also a bitterly fought issue in Czarist Russia). But so-called little things are not trivial to ideologues and fanatics. Hence the current obsessions with pronouns and virtue-signalling and identity politics. This fanatical tendency is what lies behind the common left-liberal maxim: “The personal is political.” Reply
Brian Yapko May 18, 2025 Thank you for this additional insight into my work, Joe. As I just responded to Susan, my poems, though not directly on the subject of present-day politics, are intended to offer resonances or echoes of previous periods in history in which similar challenges were faced, or similar solutions were attempted and found to be wanting. In these two Russian-themed poems, two solutions to societal problems were attempted — both of which failed: Communism in the first poem; and the micromanagement of personal appearance in the second. The problems perceived were daunting: poverty and injustice which led to the Bolshevik Revolution; and Czarist Russia’s falling behind Western Europe in political power and intellectual achievement. But neither Lenin nor Peter seized upon the “right” solution to either of these problems. In the 21st Century we are fools indeed if we attempt to repeat their failed experiments. And yet we keep doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. That is the proverbial definition of “insanity.” The very word with which I close my Peter the Great poem. Intentionally.
Brian Yapko May 18, 2025 Susan, thank you so much for this insightful comment! Although I know you understand what I’m going for, others may be uncertain regarding my intent and so let me just clarify what I mean when I say my poems don’t address present day politics. I just mean very literally that they are not about Trump and Putin. That does not mean, however, that I did not intend for the two poems to offer some insights into the politics of today and the social phenomena that we experience. I write hoping to capture resonances. The way in other poems I’ve written I’ve identified China’s Cultural Revolution in our BLM riots. Or the way I’ve seen Revolutionary France’s Reign of Terror in the way we try to rewrite history and cancel our own culture. In this case, I have brought up the U.S.S.R. as something of a cautionary tale concerning our ill-conceived present-day flirtations and romancing of communism and socialism. And I bring up Peter the Great because tyranny can take all sorts of forms of (ostensibly) innocuous micromanagement of other people’s behavior. I’m glad you brought up the dangers of Smart technology. I can’t tell you the number of times Jerry and I have discussed some subject only to have YouTube on our TV set start producing advertisements directly responsive to what we’ve been discussing. Coincidence or are we under surveillance in some way? I still can’t quite bring myself to believe the latter and yet the evidence is right there on the set in living color. And as you say, the results of data collection in the annals of history are not only “not pretty” — they are catastrophic. Lastly, Susan, I heartily endorse your recommendation for those who care about humanity to read Solzhenitsyn’s “Gulag Archipelago.” There’s a reason why it won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970. It describes Stalinist Russia but has not aged a single day. Reply
Paul Burgess May 18, 2025 I love to read this kind of ambitious work in formal verse. You have done a great job of combining narrative, musical verse, and political commentary in a way that people–regardless of political beliefs or background–should be able to reflect on, enjoy, and connect with. Literature has the power to make people at least think about things they might reject if presented in a prose polemic or academic argument, and the human narrative in the first piece does an especially good job of making the ideas relatable and concrete. Reply
Brian Yapko May 19, 2025 Thank you very much indeed, Paul! I especially appreciate your suggestion of “musical verse” as I do tend to think of my poetry in musical terms, both structurally and in terms of the situations I create for my dramatic monologues. I agree wholeheartedly about the power of literature. And, just to add to your thought, I find that first-person narrative is often more powerful than third-person narrative to create sympathy and personal insight. Like Atticus Finch observes in To Kill a Mockingbird, there’s nothing like walking around in someone else’s shoes to get a different perspective on things. Reply
