LeningradPoet

Who am I? What do I write about? Why do I call myself, "Leningrad Poet"?

Leningrad is not just a beautiful, wonderful city, but it suffered the longest siege in human history. For almost 900 days, the Nazis cut off Leningrad from the outside world, resulting in over 100,000 deaths from starvation PER MONTH, for a total of over 1 1/2 MILLION DEAD. Humanity has never experienced anything like it in terms of pain, suffering, sorrow and death. Leningrad is the epicenter of history.

I write poetry and plays (many dealing with Leningrad) and I am a student of Russia; both the Tsarist period and the Soviet period. Many of the subjects or fictional characters that I create and write about are conflicted Soviet citizens who are torn between their love of Mother Russia, their "duty" to the State (if there really is one, Ayn Rand didn't think so) and their own humanity.

And, I have always loved Russia and the Russian people. I believe that in the mid-19th century, Russians created one of the most intellectual, artistic, culturally superior civilizations that has ever existed on Earth. Great works of art, poetry, music, and literature were created and thrived in Russia from that time to the present day. And some of these great works, (which ennoble the human spirt) were created during the Soviet period in history: not because of Communism, but is spite of it: as a defiant protest against it and its dehumanizing effects upon humanity.

Also, just because one of my characters in one of my plays or stories says something, that doesn't mean that those are my views. If you read Ayn Rand's works, you can see that she often uses her fictional characters to make a point about "duty to the State" but those are hardly her own views.