The history of the First World War is commonly considered in political terms. The interests of individual powers collided and a great conflict broke out on a global scale.

However, international politics were not the only cause of this terrible carnage. The social processes and cultural changes that were taking place in the countries of Europe at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries also played a significant role.

All of the above feature in the theme of "The Rite of Spring. The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age”, the book by Modris Eksteins, the Canadian historian of Latvian origin. Published more than 30 years ago in 1989, the book was translated into Polish by Krystyna Rabińska in 1996. However, the issues it raised have acquired a renewed topicality in light of the current global situation. Moreover, it is worth noting that May 29, 2023, marked 110 years since "The Rite of Spring", the famous ballet which serves as the starting point for Eksteins' reflections, had its premiere.

Staged at the Théâtre des Champs Élysées in Paris, the performance caused a scandal. It was yet another project of the Ballets Russes, the company headed by the eccentric impresario Sergei Diaghilev. The music for "The Rite of Spring” was composed by Igor Stravinsky. The sets were designed by the painter Nikolai Roerich. The two collaborated in writing the libretto. The choreography was created by the legendary dancer Vaslav Nijinsky (he was of Polish origin but Russified in his childhood).

The title of the ballet refers to the pagan ritual associated with the spring solstice. The subtitle of the work is: "Pictures from the life of old Russia in two parts". It is a portrait of an archaic community celebrating the change of seasons.

The libretto of the ballet can be summarized as follows: initially, the awakening of nature from its winter sleep is expressed in the pranks of young people of both sexes. At some point, the old sage takes over the initiative. Preparations for the ritual begin. The community has to choose a girl who is to be sacrificed to the Mother Earth. The chosen one has to peform a sacred act expressed through an ecstatic dance. She has to dance until she falls dead from exhaustion.

"The Rite of Spring" was interpreted as a work that brings out what is wild, primal and primitive in man, including the cult of sexuality and fertility. The musical layer was shocking, characterized by violence, dissonance and cacophony. In this way, Igor Stravinsky, its brilliant composer, gained renown as one of the leading innovators of music in the 20th century.

There was a parallel story concerning the decorative designs, which by no means could be considered extravagant. As we read in the account in Modris Eksteins' book, red, green and white were used in a color arrangement evocative of icon painting "that enhanced the impression of exoticism and emphasized the influence of Russian folklore."

The ballets of Diaghilev's troupe were part of the ferment that reverberated strongly throughout world culture at the time. People in the arts were guided by the legacy of Friedrich Nietzsche, notably the command that "you should become what you are". (This was regardless of whether or how the interpretation of the German philosopher's thought agreed with what he actually preached). Artistic bohemia rebelled against bourgeois conventions, especially those concerning sexual morality. The German writer Franz Wedekind put it bluntly: "Better a whore than a bore", while his American writer colleague Max Eastman exclaimed: "Lush is sacred!"

"The Rite of Spring" was an original phenomenon in which the Russianness of its creators was manifested. In a 1916 interview with "The New York Times”, Diaghilev declared: "We were all revolutionaries". Citing the battle that was being fought over Russian art, he added that he himself had very nearly become "a revolutionary" in other areas and not just in terms of "color and music.”

Indeed, it is worth pointing out that in some respects pathological relationships were not uncommon in the Ballets Russes. Diaghilev engaged in homosexual relations with some of the company's dancers, including Vaslav Nijinsky. This at a time when he was both their manager as well as protector. On parting with Diaghilev and having left the Ballets Russes, Nijinsky began writing "The Diary", in which he mentioned that his boss had treated him as though he were his property. In the current times of the #Me Too movement, such abuse of a subordinate by a superior would not be tolerated.

In 1913, reactions of the Parisian public to "The Rite of Spring” varied. Some members of the audience were delighted while others were appalled. And it was this negative reception that we hear most about.

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A few days after the ballet's world premiere, a column appeared in the daily "Le Figaro” mocking the performance. The author of the text, Alfred Capus, compared Vaslav Nijinsky to Attila, the leader of the Huns ravaging Europe. The Ballets Russes was portrayed as a horde of barbarians who had invaded Paris and were roundly booed yet in their rudeness were unable to understand why this had happened to them.

A year later, after the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand Habsburg in Sarajevo, with the war just about to start, writing in the magazine "Le Revue Bleue", Maurice Dupont sought to explain how anxious "The Rite of Spring" had made him when he saw it performed. In his view, the performance was nihilistic -- "a Dionysian orgy dreamed up by Nietzsche and inspired by his prophetic desire to be a guiding light leading the world to death." In his book, Modris Eksteins focused on the role of Germany as a great rebel of the 20th-century world. He argues that "The Rite of Spring" was a harbinger of the First World War and its far-reaching consequences. According to Eksteins, Germany, in the name of modernist ideals, sought to change the architecture of the world -- above all, to destroy the conservative global order, guarded by Great Britain. That was why Berlin supported rebellions in other countries -- for example helping Irish nationalists in the fight against the British Empire or organizing the transport of Vladimir Lenin from Switzerland to Russia, so that he would incite revolution in Petrograd.

However, with regard to "The Rite of Spring", one should also consider what role the country which Diaghilev's troupe came from had played in shaping the history of the 20th century world. Given the balance sheet of the Soviet Union, this issue may seem trivial. Yet in this case, it is about something that goes beyond communist ideology and totalitarian practice, indeed even beyond the Soviet period in the history of Russia.

After the Bolshevik revolution, neither Diaghilev nor the creators of "The Rite of Spring" returned to their homeland. They stayed in the West. However, in the 1930s, one member did apply for a permit to reside in the USSR. But Nikolai Roerich, the painter who designed the scenery for "The Rite of Spring", was unsuccessful.

He dealt not only with art, but also with matters at the intersection of politics and religion. He was inspired by Tibetan Buddhism and other esoteric currents of Asian spirituality. He was associated with the Theosophical movement and traveled a lot. He gained influence in the White House and worked for the protection of cultural treasures (in this respect he led 21 countries of both the Americas to sign the Washington Pact in 1935). Twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, he met with politicians such as the future prime ministers of India -- Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi. Yet some were to claim, although it was never fully proven, that he was a Soviet agent.

Certainly, Roerich at some stage of his life was openly pro-Soviet, although his was rather the role of a "useful idiot" for the Kremlin. The artist had a vision of an alliance between Soviet communism and the spirituality of the East. In 1926, he went to Moscow to present the USSR's People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Georgy Chicherin, with a document purported to be a message from the "mahatmas" (sages from the Himalayas), worshiping the Soviet state.

The text, possibly written by Roerich himself, included these words: "You have liquidated the Church, which was a breeding ground for lies and superstitions. You annihilated the bourgeoisie, which was a seedbed of prejudice. You have demolished the prison of education. You annihilated a family of hypocrisy. You burned an army of slaves. (…) You have recognized the vanity of private property. You have recognized that religion is the teaching of the universality of matter. (…) You saw the urgent need to build houses of common good”.

Roerich also handed the Soviet authorities a box containing soil from the Himalayas. The painter claimed that it was a gift from the "mahatmas" with the message: "For the grave of our brother, mahatma Lenin".

Chicherin, as befits a diplomat, was polite to Roerich. But the casket, rather than being sent to the mausoleum of the Soviet Union's first leader, accompanied the message and ended up in the Lenin Institute in Moscow. This did not mean that the painter's mission had been ignored. Roerich had reasons to hope that his concept of an alliance between Soviet Communism and Tibetan Buddhism might be of interest to the USSR authorities.

Throughout the Soviet Union's existence, there was never a shortage of people interested in parapsychology, occultism or unconventional medicine. Already in the 1920s, in the Cheka [the first of a succession of Soviet secret-police organizations], headed by Felix Dzerzhinsky, there was a special department that not only carried out tasks such as cryptographic analysis, but also collaborated with people investigating paranormal phenomena. (Why this was done remains a matter of debate). Even the cult of the mummified Lenin had a quasi-religious character.

Officially, the USSR was an atheist state, which meant that it was supposed to be the heir to humanism, the Enlightenment and other progressive trends in European history. Meanwhile, beneath the surface of the propagandistic incantations justifying the existing doctrine, elements alien and hostile to the West pulsated. They can still be encountered in the Russian "glubinka" [wilderness] today and currently set the tone for the Kremlin's policy.

Could "The Rite of Spring” – a ballet associated with European modernity, one with the status of a cult work in the West – be a manifestation of these elements?

–Filip Memches

TVP WEEKLY. Editorial team and jornalists

  –Translated by Agnieszka Rakoczy