Yuri Sergeyevich Rytkheu (; ; 8 March 1930 – 14 May 2008) was a Chukchi writer, who wrote in both his native Chukchi and in Russian. He is considered to be the father of Chukchi literature.
Early life Yuri Rytkheu was born 18 March 1930 to a family of trappers and hunters. His birthplace, the village of Uelen, was then in the Chukotsky District, Far Eastern Krai; it is now part of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. His grandfather was a shaman.
At birth, he was given the name "Rytgėv", which means "forgotten" in the Chukchi language (from the Chukchi word "рытгэватъё" (rytgėvatʺjo) – "unremembered" or "forgotten"). Since Soviet institutions did not recognize Chukchi names and the Chukchi do not commonly use surnames, in order to obtain his passport he used his first name as his surname and assumed the first name and patronymic of a Russian geologist he knew.
He graduated from the Soviet 7-year school in Uelen. He wanted to continue his education at the Institute of the Peoples of the North, but was not selected to study there, because of his young age. Consequently, he decided to go to Leningrad on his own, to continue his study. This travel was delayed for several years. In order to earn money for this journey, the future writer took odd jobs; for instance, he worked on the seas and on geological expeditions and trapped animals, stevedored at a hydrography base. He moved to Anadyr and enrolled in a vocational school. In 1947 he started writing articles for the Anadyr district-based magazine Soviet Chukotka (Советская Чукотка), which published his first stories and poems. In Anadyr, he met the Leningrad-based scholar , who was leading a linguistic expedition in the area and who was responsible for helping the young writer move to Leningrad.Biography at kolyma.ru
Career
Soviet years From 1949 until 1954 he studied literature at Leningrad State University. He was only slightly older than 20 when his works started appearing in Young Leningrad (Молодой Ленинград), and then later on in other periodicals such as Ogoniok, Young World (Молодой мир), The Far East (Дальний Восток) and (Смена). In 1953, the publishing company Molodaya Gvardiya (Young Guard) published his first collection of stories The People of Our Coast (Люди нашего берега), in Russian. This book was later translated into Chukchi by A. Smolyana (А. Смоляна). While still a student, Rytkheu also translated the works of Pushkin, Tolstoy, Gorky and into Chukchi. In 1954, he was accepted into the Union of Soviet Writers.
Upon graduating from Leningrad University, he spent a few years living in Magadan, working as a correspondent for the newspaper Magadanskaya Pravda. After two years in Magadan, a collection short stories Chukotkan Saga (Чукотская сага) was published, and brought the writer recognition from both Soviet and foreign readers.
After Magadan, he moved to Leningrad, where he spent the rest of his life. In 1967, he joined the Communist Party.
Post-Soviet career After the collapse of the Soviet Union, his works were no longer published in the new post-Soviet states. Finding himself in a difficult position, he even said that he would emigrate to the United States. However, through Chinghiz Aitmatov, he met with Lucien Leitess, founder of the Swiss publishing company, , who signed a contract to publish Rytkheu's works in German, and who would go on to become his literary agent. Rytkheu's works were introduced to readers in France, Finland, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Spain, Japan, and other countries. The German editions of his books have sold more than 250,000 copies. The situation in Russia, however, was quite the opposite since the time his book Путешествие в молодости (Youthful Travels) was published in 1991. Beginning in 2000, the governor of Chukotka, Roman Abramovich, sponsored the distribution of a small run of Rytkeu's works in Russia, approximately one a year, all of which were issued only in Chukotka. The first of these books was a new work called In the Mirror of Oblivion (В зеркале забвения).
His works have been translated into numerous languages, including several national languages of the former USSR. In addition, the composer Eduard Artemyev set his poems to music in a 1985 vocal-instrumental suite The Warmth of the Earth (Тепло Земли). Only a few of his works have been translated into English, including A Dream in Polar Fog (), originally published in 1970, which was published by Archipelago Books in 2005. It was also adapted as a film in 1994; directed by .
Other activities and death He travelled extensively around the world on creative trips and with cultural and goodwill visits. As he spoke fluent English, he was invited to give lectures at American universities. He also worked with UNESCO for a time.
He died in Saint Petersburg on 14 May 2008, after a long battle with myeloma. He is buried in near the grave of his wife.
Evolution and reception Colin Thubron summarized his career as follows: For his earlier books, there are those who never forgave him. His slavish pursuit of the Party line and open repudiation of his people's traditions are embarrassingly manifest in works that celebrate the (nonexistent) transformation of his native Chukotka into a Soviet paradigm. ... But by the late 1970s, as the slow literary thaw continued, he started to write differently. Perhaps influenced by the derevenshchiki, the "village writers" who turned for their values to the unspoiled countryside, he began to extol precisely the Chukchi oral culture that he had once repudiated.Colin Thubron, "The Last Shaman" (review of Yuri Rytkheu, The Chukchi Bible, Archipelago Books, 2009), The New York Review of Books, 18 Aug. 2011, p. 56
Works in translation All of Rytkheu's works are related in some way to the lives of the Chukchi:
Catalan Transliteration of author's name into Catalan: Iuri S. Ritkheu. El darrer xaman txuktxi, (Pagès editors, 2007).
English Reborn to a Full Life, (Moscow : Novosti Press Agency Pub. House, 1977). From Nomad Tent to University, (Moscow : Novosti Press Agency, 1980). Old Memyl Laughs Last: Short Stories, (Moscow: Foreign Languages Pub. House, no date). A Dream in Polar Fog, trans. by Ilona Yazhbin Chavasse (New York: Archipelago Books, 2006). The Chukchi Bible, trans. by Ilona Yazhbin Chavasse (New York: Archipelago Books, 2009). When the Whales Leave, trans. by Ilona Yazhbin Chavasse (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2019).
French Transliteration of author's name into French: Youri Rytkhèou. L'Étrangère aux yeux bleus, (Babel Series, Actes Sud, 2002). Original title in Russian: Anna Odintzowa (Zurich: Unionsverlag, 1998).
German In German, the author's name is transliterated as Juri Rytchëu. Der Mondhund Unna Der letzte Schamane (The Chukchi Bible) Die Reise der Anna Odinzova Traum im Polarnebel (1993) (A Dream in Polar Fog) Die Suche nach der letzten Zahl Wenn die Wale fortziehen (When the Whales Leave) Unter dem Sternbild der Trauer Im Spiegel des Vergessens (In the Mirror of Oblivion)
Russian "В зеркале забвения" (In the Mirror of Oblivion)
When the Whales Leave
Overview When the Whales Leave was originally published in 1975. It is a short novel which takes as its starting point the Chukchi creation myth, and segues into a generational saga. It also has a similarity—in its reliance upon realism—to the oral storytelling tradition of the Chukchi. In her introduction to When the Whales Leave, Gretel Ehrlich writes of the importance of the whale to the peoples of the northeastern coast of Chukotka, where Yuri Rytkheu was born. The Chukotka ice was lined with whale skeletons, Rytkeu remembered.
Plot The novel begins with the first woman, Nau. She lives in harmony with nature, amongst the birds and beasts of her coastal home. She is alone, until one day she spots the giant whale, Reu, swimming in the ocean. She feels an instinctual pull towards him, and begins to awaken to the world around her and, for the first time, feel herself to be separate from it. The whale Reu shape-shifts into the form of a man. Reu and Nau are attracted to one another, and they sleep together. After each time they see one another, Reu turns back into a whale. This continues as the days shorten and the seasons turn towards the winter. Reu tells Nau that he has to leave her each night, because he would have to remain on land forever if he did not return to the ocean before the sun set. On the day that the winter’s ice has almost reached the shore, Reu returns to the land—this time, for good. He picks life with Nau over life as a whale with his brothers and father. Reu and Nau set about building a shelter and gathering provisions for the winter. Nau is pregnant; soon after the ice breaks in the lagoon, she goes to the water and gives birth to whale calves.
Reu and Nau raise their children, and Nau hopes all the while that they will eventually become people, like their father did. Reu makes a boat out of walrus skins, and the couple take to the sea. Reu sees his whale brothers, and tells Nau of something his mother told him—that all the people who live by the sea are descended from whales who became human after falling in love with humans. Reu and Nau release their now-grown whale children to the care of Reu’s whale family. Soon after, Nau gives birth to twin boys. The couple continues to have children, and their village—the Shingled Spit—grows. Reu becomes an old man, and dies, happy with the human life he has led with Nau, and ready to go to the world beyond the clouds. Nau grieves as her sons send their father back through the winter ice, into the sea.
In the second part of the novel, Nau lives on as an incredibly old woman; she dispenses wisdom to the settlement’s inhabitants, who do not take seriously her claims about humanity being descended from whales. In particular, she tells Enu, a young wise man of the Shingled Spit, that there are no gods—that humans made them up purely out of fear of the unknown. She argues it is better to do as she and Reu did, and exercise reason to understand mystery. The great mystery which they had attempted to understand was the Great Love which sprang up between them and turned Reu into a man. Enu struggles to accept the literalness of Nau’s claims. Yet he tries out reason, and concludes that his people could follow the sun as the whales do, and live in perpetual warmth. While Enu is distracted by these thoughts, a bull walrus destroys the hunting ship he is captaining. A pod of whales comes to save the men from drowning. Enu creates the Sacred Dance of the Whale, which reaffirms the faith of his people in their whale ancestors. Kliau, who also survived the shipwreck, teaches Nau’s creation myth to his children. He and Enu set off on a voyage in search of the warm lands. They return after many years, telling tales of volcanoes and great forests, and encounters with other coastal peoples, who speak of Nau as their common ancestress.
Givu, Enu’s grandson, whose name means “All-Knowing,” is full of burning questions about the nature of the world. He begins even to have thoughts of killing Nau. He takes a wife, seeking happiness and the Great Love of which Nau speaks in the creation of new life. While walking on the tundra, an all-pervasive voice tells him he has been granted special insight and knowledge. A sickness spreads through the village, and the people turn to Givu for help. He goes out walking, following his instincts, and stumbles upon the rekken, a tiny people, each no bigger than the size of his pinkie. They are the involuntary carriers of the sickness; to save his people, Givu has to help them pass the village by loading them onto his sledge.