Thursday, 11 February
Seventh day of the first lunar month
At 9:20 a.m. we took a Sino-Soviet airline to depart for Dihua. All the Xinjiang Province officials and the Soviet Union Consul General came to the airport to see me off. At 11.15 we arrived at Yili airport. The Section Chief immediately phoned Executive Chief Xu Boda (徐伯達). He then came with Deputy Executive Chief Wang Liangui (王蓮桂), and the Security Chief Jin Guozhen (金國珍), Air Force Chief Ling Mingjie (寗明堦), and Consul General and the Soviet Union Deputy Consul General came to the airport to welcome me and have lunch. At 2.00 in the afternoon we left Yili, and arrived at Alma-Ata at 3.30. The Special Envoy Zenienov, and Mayor Aziof, the Chairman of Yelmaganbabrov Soviet, Security Chief and the Airforce Chief and others were at the airport to welcome me and also took us to a mountain resort place. Alma-Ata is the provincial capital of Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. During the war the population was only just over 200,000. It has now increased to more than 600,000. The streets are wide, straight, and well planned. Most of the houses are newly built. Because, 7 years ago, the whole city was renovated, the result is quite encouraging. The schools and the official buildings are especially nice. The resort place is situated at the mid-level of mountains which are about 8 kilometres outside the city. Alma-Ata is next to the mountain. The mountain is high and at its peak snow is piled up throughout the year. There are a lot of mountains and lakes, therefore it is called the Switzerland of the Middle East.
After dinner the Mayor invited me to to the theatre to see a show. The name of the show was Bahshisaraisky Mountain. There were 4 scenes. It was a story about 19th century southern Russia. The playwright was Alexander Pushkin. The music composer was Asafyev. The first scene was the big park inside the Polish Palace of Poland. Princess Maria and her young lover Girei fall in love. The music and the dance all reflected happiness and satisfaction. The actress playing Maria was H.B. Vikiutyeva. She danced quite well. In order to show her mood of extreme happiness, it was easier to use dancing for expression. So dancing for this part was particularly good. But the joy did not last long. Crimean soldiers of the local king from southern Russia arrived, killed all the young men and captured the princess. The second scene was in the palace of the local king, and his queen and courtesans were all beautifully dressed to please him. But in the eyes of the king there was only Princess Maria. The other courtesans had no place. The dancing in this scene was performed by H.M. Skorulskoja, the one who played the Queen, and she was the main character of this scene The music and dance were all trying to be alluring. Unfortunately the dancer’s figure was not very good, and therefore the show was just average. The third scene was Maria’s bedroom, and the King was asking for her love. Maria was moved by his sincerity, and made up her mind towards him. The King went out, Maria thought of Girei and confessed before God’s statue. The facial expressions were quite striking. At this time, the Queen came to Maria’s room and initially asked Maria not to love the king. Then she saw the king’s clothes on Maria’s bed and she was furious. She hated Maria very much and this part of the dancing was first rate. The King heard about this and came into the room. The Queen killed Maria. The dance in this scene was one of sorrow and anger, and this was a brilliant performance by the main character playing the Queen. Really good. The fourth scene was where the King sentenced the Queen to death by drowning her in the Black Sea. He no longer cared about his lands and beauties. The end dwelt on his reminiscence of his affection for Maria and the Queen. The music was quite good and the dancing kept to a minimum.
At 11.30 I returned to the resort. The Mayor had already prepared a banquet and also asked 1) Undedbajer, a very famous tenor, to sing some Kazakh and operatic songs. 2) Shara Shandarbekova to sing all kinds of songs, among them was a Chinese song called “Poor Qiuxiang”. It was absolutely not as a Chinese would sing it, and the pronunciation was not right. But as a Russian it was rare. Miss Shara Shandarbekova is a famous actress, so the Mayor asked her to come to give a performance and this showed the Government was very favourable towards me. 3) Bisecover, the soprano, to sing Kazakh and several opera songs. 4) Dancer Bellerina Topolova to perform an operatic dance. Miss Topolova is one of the principal actresses of the main theatre, it was with honour that I could see her performance tonight. She has a wonderful figure, beautiful eyes and red lips, and a lovely dimple. She is a great beauty. All the artists were at the same table and we talked happily. It was a pity they forced me to drink, and this made me drunk and gave me a bad headache. We carried on until 3.00 in the morning and Miss Topolova asked me to dance with her. With regard to ballroom dancing, the Russian women are not as good as the British and American and they are a long way from Chinese women.