Tagore India & Soviet Union: A Dream Fulfilled

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A. P. Gnatyuk-Danil' chuk (born 1923). Ph. D. (Moscow), D. Litt. (Honoris Causa) Rabindra Bharati University (Calcutta). Graduated from the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies in 1950. From 1954 teaches Bengali at the Institute of International Relations, Moscow.

Celebrated scholar of Tagore studies. Author, editor and translator of over 100 works including Bengali text books. Member of the Executive Committee of Soviet-Indian Friendship Society.

Currently on a visit to India under the INDO-USSR Cultural Exchange Programme, for further research on Tagore.

Result of his many years' work, this monograph is published in India in memory of 125th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore.

The 125th Birth Anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore is being celebrated this year in India and abroad. The year-long programmes include cultural functions, performances of the Poet's dance dramas, exhibitions of his paintings, exhibitions on his life and times, seminars and conferences, publication of commemorative volumes and research monographs unfolding new facets of the genius of Tagore and his manifold contributions to human civilization, international peace and under- standing. Professor A. P. Gnatyuk-Danil'chuk's Tagore, India and Soviet Union a Dream Fulfilled is a work of the last category.

When the English version of Tagore's 'Letters From Russia was first published in 1960, a few months before his Birth Centenary, it was hoped that the letters, 'warm with a sense of adventure and high expectation, will be a link between continents of mind because they provide a basis of companion- ship and understanding in an age of conflict. The necessity of such understanding is greater today in a World threatened by the fearful prospect of a 'Nuclear Winter'. A wider under- standing and appreciation of a poet, savant and messenger of peace and universal brotherhood like Gurudeva Rabindranath Tagore is not merely an academic necessity. It has much wider dimensions and significance. The work of Professor Danil'chu's is particularly important in that context.

Professor Danil chuk has covered an extensive ground. He has used a vast amount of original and secondary materials. He enjoys a great advantage. Besides Russian, which is his mother tongue, he knows Bengali very well, as also English. What is even more important, he has a genuine love for the Bengali language and, along with it, Bengali culture and mind. This has enabled him to understand Tagore in depth which is reflected in his book. Danil'chuk has yet another quality. He is ardently devoted to the promotion of Indo-Soviet friend- ship which is a formidable factor in strengthening the movement for international peace and harmony. Tagore, to him, is a powerful inspiration in consolidating and furthering that cause we all share his conviction and, hence, particularly welcome his book. The chapter arrangements are very thoughtful.

The present book is being first published in English for the convenience of the larger circle of readers interested in Tagore. For Bengali readers, a Bengali edition will soon come out.

Here I have endeavoured to convey the vast interest and depth of feelings of our peoples for India. I have also tried to show the singularity of the profound, unabated interest of the great Poet in the Soviet Union, the country where he saw the fulfilment of his dreams.

He foresaw with prophetic eyes how fruitful and creative the collaboration between the peoples of India and Soviet Union could be. He was particularly impressed by the Soviet Union because this country had done away with greed (one of the great ills of capitalism), thus putting into practice the upanishadic idea of Ma gridhah [Do not covet].

The book also aims at giving Indian scholars material for a still more complete, all-round assessment of the life and work of the great Poet.

The work chronologically, covers the period of Tagore's own life time. Of Tagore studies in the Soviet Union after 1941 I hope to write in another book.

I am indebted to a large number of Indian institutions, libraries and individuals for help in various forms. I would specially wish to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Nemai Sadhan Bose, Vice-Chancellor, Visva Bharati, for his gracious foreword to this volume; to the Director and special officer of the Rabindra Bhavana, Visva Bharati, for permission to use the most valuable collections of the Bhavana (which have helped in enriching this work with many unknown facts and documents), and to the authorities of the National Archives of India.

I wish to express my deep gratitude to the Rabindra Bharati University, and its Vice-Chancellor, Professor Rama Ranjan Mukherjee, for the high assessment of my humble work, which I regard as an assessment of Tagore studies in Soviet Union on the whole.