# Glazunov's Writings, Blog 3: Collaborative Diatribe against the Autocracy, 1905



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Being written in collaboration, I can only guess that Glazunov wouldn't have normally spoken this harshly unless he had people to stand with him, i.e. other St. Petersburg Conservatory Professors. With that said, it is still impressive statement.

Context: In the winter before, Rimsky-Korsakov was dismissed from the Conservatory for supporting student demonstrations (see 1905 demonstrations of Russia). Glazunov, Liadov, and a few others in turn left the school, basically shutting down the conservatory for that spring and into the fall of 1905. Finally agreements were made on Nov. 20, 1905, that those controlling the Conservatory (as well as other Academic institutions) would not be inaugurated by the Aristocracy, but voted on by the students themselves. Well... you can guess WHO was voted in as the new Director of the Conservatory that winter...

Comrades!
When all the new and free Russia, starting with representatives of the workers and ending corporate intellectuals, united, stubbornly defending their rights - only we, the musicians fell behind ... Does society have the right with its steady gaze on us to say: the musicians - free ministers of free art? What irony, what a delusion! We are not free servants of free art, but slaves for an unsecured piece of bread! We "fortified" our "feudalists" - we contractors and entrepreneurs. Instead of science -- we bring the music of science - life soon learned we soon understood...
Let us remember, comrades, we fell ill during service, and we have relentlessly been driven away. Away from our closed ones we have had to beg for help from the good people. Not far from this time, the musicians were looked down upon as slaves. Any petty landowner in order to maintain their noble rank, kept horses, dogs ... and musicians. Heavy, but also a happy time we are going through. Now, when all Russia is swept by concern for the present and the struggle for a happy future, many of us have been thrown into the street, starving. Immediate organized help is needed. November 20, 1905 is a historic day. It will be recorded in history that day of Russian musicians throwing off the shackles of slavery and exploitation. And we, the St. Petersburg musicians who decided on this day to unite and form the All-Russia Union, we encourage you, comrades, for unity.
Executive Committee: Glazunov,
AI Ziloti, Rimsky-Korsakov and others.

EDITOR'S REMARKS (from the anthology I took this article from):
_This document - a circulated letter to the Executive Committee of the St. Petersburg Union of orchestral figures. It was placed in an evening newspaper "Exchange Gazette" on February 3, 1906 and then reprinted in the journal "Russian musical newspaper" 1906 March 5, number 10, p. 253.
As one of the organizers of the trade union leaders orchestra, Glazunov in 1918 he was elected an honorary member of the Union. In connection with this event April 17, 1918 a gala concert. Glazunov met by a standing ovation, he conducted his "Festival Overture", which played a large combined orchestra. F. Chaliapin sang accompanied by the orchestra "Bacchic Song" Glazunov (evening edition of "Commercial Gazette" on April 18, 1918, № 50)._


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