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Anastasia Otroshchenko. Century = text. Issue 7: 1907

Century = text. Issue 7: 1907
Anastasia Otroshchenko

Poem of the Year

Nocturne

It's midnight... An unclear moment...
Sorrowful gloom... Silence...
The flapping of weak wings is in vain,
A thought is like an ear without grain!

All my life, like a gloomy slave,
In a secret, dark mine
I make passages, holds,
With a heavy hammer in hand... Many in the world knocked on us,
Digging a narrow corridor, -
We don't know where the beginning is
In the labyrinth of our holes... All that knowledge - that from centuries
Millions of different hands
Just like a man's heart
They repeated the same knock: That in their granite prison
Being did not justify
The one whose hammer is a battering ram
He fell without perseverance!.. The century goes by - hundreds of them will pass, -
There is no end to the dungeon!
Only Death is our Sabbath Day, -
The pallor of the spark is our whole light!

J. Baltrushaitis . "Libra" #11.

Book of the Year

Fedor Sologub. Little demon . - St. Petersburg.

“A terrible book... A terrible book... Karamazovshchina, Dostoevshchina, the devil, the devil, the nonsense, Peredonov... A man, naked to the point that “there’s nowhere else to go,” exposed to the very recesses of his dirty, base soul, the quintessence of everything inhuman - the rude and vile that can be in a living being - this is the hero of Fyodor Sologub’s story “The Little Demon”, living in a meaningful, spiritualized soul. There is something to be horrified by...

Is Sologub's novel good? This word is completely inapplicable to him. It is written in an amazingly simple and enticingly interesting way... The characters and types are outlined in an amazingly concise and vital way. There are scenes that are simply incomparable in the power of depiction with the external economy of epithets and the seeming dullness of words... Great talent, great skill... And I repeat: scary, creepy... and a wonderful book" ( A. Chebotarevskaya . "Education" #7 ).

Scandal of the year

The books “Thirty-three Freaks” by L.D. Zinovieva-Annibal and “Wings” by M. Kuzmin were published .

“That pornography, pornographic fiction... has reached unusual proportions and unexpected prosperity in our country - this is an indisputable fact...

Both criticism and the press in general, in my opinion, were completely in vain to pay so much attention to them... And I, a sinner, am inclined to think that this was only to the benefit of the authors: Scold, denounce, ridicule, just don’t keep silent!..

Pathetic losers, unable to make a name for themselves through honest writing, they set out, under the wing of “liberal” censorship, to go to great lengths, hoping only for the success of the scandal.

Their efforts were crowned with this success. Then, with the assistance of their critics, they began to call themselves “anti-bourgeois immoralists”, proclaimed themselves successors of Nietzsche, and so on. and so on.

But the great religious paradoxist and polemicist foresaw their appearance and, carefully protecting himself and his teaching from such adepts, gave them an exhaustive definition: “grunting pigs who call themselves disciples of Zarathustra.”

Well, let’s talk about them, reader... Let them grunt!” ( M. Nevedomsky . On outdated topics . “Comrade”, September 22).

“Given our general lack of culture, a kind of general, atmospheric lack of culture, an obvious hooligan chord could not help but flow into our erotic nakedness and exposure...

All this, albeit involuntary, forced, due to our general lack of culture, is still not a good thing: replacing art with physiology and pathology, artistic creativity with nakedness.

The more mediocre such a “work of art” is, the more innocent its author. For example, Mrs. Zinovieva-Annibal is very innocent with her “33 Freaks,” a lesbian novel. Even a moralist will not feel any “nasties” there, he will not have time - so he will feel sorry for Mrs. Zinovieva-Annibal.

And why did she have to write all this! By God, she is not stupid, a beautiful, simple woman, and she even knows how to write quite well... There are sweet, sincere, feminine-warm passages... Especially at the beginning of the book, where you rarely come across alien, forced words and “vicious” squeals. And this “viciousness” was given to our barbarism!

Here is another novel, by a different author, that ranks in line with her “33 Freaks.” "Freaks" is a sexist novel, this one is sodomy. It is, however, of a different aspect: with accessories, with yesterday’s “aestheticism”, with “talent”. It is precisely thanks to its accessories and claims to culture that it exposes the full width of the ulcer of our lack of culture, reminds us of it more sharply than the novel Hannibal...

I have nothing against the existence of a sodomy novel or its author. But I have a lot against his tendency , his undoubted... preaching of pathological nakedness, full of complacency, and I feel pain for all those who can accept this tendency as an artistic preaching of culture" ( Anton Krainy (Z. Gippius) . "Libra" # 7).

“The wave of eroticism that washed over Russian literature confused many. Some started talking about the degeneration of Russian literature. Others regretted the lack of preliminary censorship. Everyone was somehow confused and did not know what to think...

Modern writers dealing with the issue of gender can be divided into two groups: optimists and pessimists. The first ones are hopeless, but the second ones are deep and serious...

The most typical representative of sexual optimism is Mr. Kuzmin... Thanks to the easing of censorship conditions, he had the opportunity to touch upon a topic that had not yet been touched upon in our literature. This, in the end, exhausts his significance, and it was in vain that fashionable aesthetes saw something new in his works. There is nothing new in Kuzmin... He is not the creator of a new one, but a product of an old, decaying culture, from which he does not even think of leaving... Attitudes towards gender have changed in history, but the vices have always been the same. Kuzmin’s attitude towards gender is the oldest, and in vain they make him into some kind of bearer of new words" ( D. Filosofov . Spring Wind . "Russian Thought" #12).

“Modern criticism tends to view Kuzmin as a preacher , to consider him a bearer of some dangerous ideas. So, I had to hear the opinion that “Wings” for our time corresponds to the novel “What is to be done?” by Chernyshevsky. I think that this is an opinion not devoid of wit, although very tendentious, does not withstand the slightest criticism" ( A. Blok . About drama . "The Golden Fleece" #7).

Conflict of the Year

The conflict between Libra and the Golden Fleece causes a number of employees to leave the Golden Fleece. A. Bely, V. Bryusov, Z. Gippius, D. Merezhkovsky “bring to the attention of readers that they no longer consider it possible to collaborate in the Golden Fleece and no longer take any part in the magazine.” This letter was “fully joined” by M. Kuzmin and Y. Baltrushaitis (“Scales” #8). The editors of "Golden Fleece" publishes a letter from L. Andreev, I. Bunin, B. Zaitsev, G. Chulkov, in which they state that "in view of the reorganization of "Golden Fleece" ... they are again joining the staff of the magazine" ("Golden Fleece" " #9).

“The first two issues of The Golden Fleece for this year raise bewilderment. There are so many contradictions in them...

In #2 of “The Golden Fleece” for this year there suddenly appears the following editorial note: “The editors ask to correct the unfortunate error that crept into Mr. Maestro’s article, in which the poems of the Eros cycle are attributed by the author to Mr. Val. Bryusov instead of Vyach. Ivanov.” Let me! Isn't the author's negligence too great... How can this be? To talk for three pages about Val. Bryusov, scold him for his “failure” and suddenly declare that this was an accident - one should have talked about Vyach. Ivanov... But this is not enough: after all, Vyach. Ivanov does not have a “long and complex poem” , where the “gardens of Eros” would be described and where, “how and what we should enjoy at this hour would be calculated according to the calendar”...

We are afraid that for the Golden Fleece such accidents... will become commonplace...

One can only regret that “The Golden Fleece,” which gave several wonderful numbers at the end of 1906, is again turning into some kind of barn for random materials” ( Pentaur . “Libra” #3).

“Opening the latest books of the Libra magazine for the current year, you can’t help but wonder: is this modernist and slightly eclectic magazine really the same Libra that was once a militant body and broke many copies for the principles of new art in the fight against aesthetic realism and contributed to the disintegration of the positive worldview that dominated among the Russian intelligentsia. How did it happen that “Libra”... deviated so much from its program and from the critical body, which deliberately excluded all works of creative literature, which, we read in the editorial manifesto, “place in a separate collection, and not in a magazine", turned into a specially literary organ reflecting the latest trends...? At the same time, we have to sadly admit that the ideological physiognomy of "Libra" has become very dim, that their critical sensitivity has decreased; the magazine even appears amazing ability to combine contradictions (A. Bely’s manifestos and Kuzmin’s neo-Hellenism); perhaps this is a sign of the approaching era of blissful old age of the spirit...

Having entrenched itself in the stronghold of aesthetic individualism, “Scales” does not consider it necessary to pay serious attention to the aspirations for a new synthesis emerging in the depths of modern consciousness, limiting itself to cheap “reprimands” that have almost completely replaced objective criticism. The entire bibliographical section of "Vesi" is of a narrowly analytical nature and is filled with random, petty picky articles...

In fact, the metamorphosis that occurred with “Libra” has deep reasons: individualism, which makes up the ideological skeleton of “Libra”, has already completed the logical cycle of its development... Now, when the moment comes to give an organic synthesis of the elements of a new worldview, one cannot engage in endless summing up .

“Libra” can either leave the quiet haven of aesthetic individualism, or remain silent” ( Empiricist , “The Golden Fleece” #4).

“Vulgar mockery, forced wit, comic indications of the “danger” of all problems that go beyond the limits of traditional principles and schemes - all this once again confirms the wretchedness of the ideology of criticism of “Libra”. Such criticism is completely unable to establish a forecast for the future; at best, it notes what has already been experienced, it has only retrospective significance. In general, the “cultural” critic of “Libra” is very reminiscent of a camel, too loaded with values and exhausted under their weight...

What is dangerous is not “The Pass” - the “magazine of free thought” with its slightly external synthesis of aestheticism and political radicalism, - not “conciliar individualism” and “mystical anarchism” (these bogeymen of Comrade Herman), but that which discolors everything, levels everything, uses only ready-made parasitic criticism, which casts such a twilight on all phenomena under consideration that all cats seem gray" ( Empiricist . On cultural criticism... "The Golden Fleece" #5).

article A. Blok’s “On Realists ,” published in “Golden Fleece” #6, irritated A. Bely , who, in a letter to Blok in August 1907, accused the latter of “currying favor” with the realists and called his article a “petition” ( A. Blok and A. Bely. Correspondence . - M., 1940). After this, Blok challenged Bely to a duel, which, however, did not take place.

First publication

A.A. Akhmatova made her debut with the poem “There are many shiny rings on his hand” in the Parisian magazine “Sirius” #2.

M.L. Hoffman published the collection “The Ring. Quiet Songs of Sorrow” (St. Petersburg).

Poetic debut of O.E. Mandelstam : Blue peaks will embrace with pitchforks... "Awakened Thought" #1.

Chronicle

In January begins publishing in Moscow , the magazine "Asmodeus" .

From January to September the last issues of the magazine "Bulletin of Life" were published .

The first book of the literary and artistic almanac of the Rosehip publishing house, edited by Leonid Andreev, was published, in which L. Andreev himself ("The Life of a Man"), N. Garin ("Once Upon a Time"), B. Zaitsev ("Colonel Rozov" took part) ), A. Kuprin ("Nonsense"), A. Serafimovich ("At the Cliff"), S. Sergeev-Tsensky ("Forest Swamp"), V. Bryusov ("City").

“In the just-published almanac, only two things deserve serious attention: “Forest Swamp” by Sergeev-Tsensky and L. Andreev’s drama “The Life of a Man.” The rest, despite the “names,” is sluggish, gray, neither good nor bad, - and is simply not typical for the authors. We should talk about “The Forest Swamp”... Sergeev-Tsensky is an interesting writer, and “The Forest Swamp” is no weaker, and perhaps stronger, than all his other stories; Sergeev-Tsensky was especially emphasized in it. ..

"The Life of a Man" by L. Andreev is undoubtedly the weakest, the worst thing that this talented fiction writer has ever written... Fantastic plots, a "mystical" setting are extremely unfavorable for L. Andreev: all the rudeness, all the primitiveness of it lack of culture and the helplessness that follows from it appear especially prominently and sharply as soon as L. Andreev wants to break away from the real forms of life... L. Andreev cannot cope with the questions that he himself raises" ( A. Krainy (Z. Gippius) . Man and the Swamp . "Scales" #5).

“The boldness of the plan, the unusual form, the strong, lyrical temperament of the author, his undoubted outstanding talent, the caustic satire and deep pessimism, infecting with the gloomy ugliness of life in its bare skeleton and the eternal tragedy of death - all this attracts special attention to the new work of Leon. Andreev "The Life of a Man", which almost simultaneously appeared in print and on the stage of the theater" ( F. Batyushkov . "Modern World" #3).

Sergeev-Tsensky - “he is a man with talent and knows how to observe. He has richness, colors and experience. But his “Forest Swamp”... is all strewn with sophisticated Babylons and patterns of artificial imagery... Crows knocking together clouds of smoke, a face, sharpened like a knife blade, words like belt whips, or spitting into the air, rubbed with bricks - what kind of unnecessary, absurd and powerless childish grimace is this! Who says that, who thinks so, who can be pleased with such nonsense? This is not new school. This is an old, old mannerism of bad taste, which cannot for a moment captivate a reader with real taste, who knows the beauty and charm of sincere creativity and feels a natural contempt for everything forced, artificial, made up from thin air" ( A. Izmailov . "Birzhevye Vedomosti" ", 21 July).

“Despite the fact that the stories contained in this collection belong to authors whose names are famous, there is not a single thing in the entire fiction department of the collection that could be recognized above the level of the most modest mediocrity.

The stories are dull and tediously boring, just as hours of fruitless waiting are boring" ( P. Dmitriev . "Education" #4).

“This almanac won the sympathy of readers because it contains a number of interesting and talented works; apparently, the publishing house was striving to make it a collection of selected ones. This goal was not fully achieved: Kuprin’s story “Delirium”, due to its obvious bias, is lower than artistic level. But everything else attracts attention...

The public is most interested in those pages of the almanac on which it finds deliberate dryness, mattely written in dry and strict tones, “The Life of a Man” by Leonid Andreev...

The most valuable part of the collection seems to us to be a small, as always, story by Boris Zaitsev “Colonel Rozov”. An unusually loving, jubilant and close... approach to nature and man - a simple, small, inconspicuous person whom you want to bless just because he lives and breathes! In our gloomy books, Zaitsev sings and drinks the sun, and his stories are like meadows" ( Yu. Aikhenvald . "Russian Thought" #4).

The second book of the almanac "Rose Hip" - I. Bunin ("At the Source of Days"), B. Zaitsev ("May"), V. Muizhel ("For now"), poems by A. Blok, I. Bunin, S. Gorodetsky.

The third book of the almanac "Rosehip" - L. Andreev ("Darkness"), I. Bunin ("Asthma"), B. Zaitsev ("Sister"), A. Kuprin ("Emerald"), A. Serafimovich ("Sands" ), F. Sologub ("The Legend in the Making"), poems by A. Blok and G. Chulkov.

began to be published The magazine "Pereval" .

“A hump, an inverted nostril, a gumboil, a cowlick, a wart - and, behold, from all these warts, gumboils and nostrils, a wild and ridiculous whole is formed - “Pass”... The direction is amazingly maintained: every employee certainly brings his wretchedness there... .

"Pereval" immediately announced to us that it was necessary to combine aesthetics with the public, and revolution with decadence, and that he, "Pereval", would do it, prepare the food and serve it" ( Comrade German (Z. Gippius) . "Scales" #5 ).

was published The 15th collection "Knowledge" , in which I. Bunin ("Elements"), M. Gorky ("My Interviews", "Priest of Morality"), S. Naydenov ("Walls"), A. Serafimovich ( “He Came”), Wanderer (“On the Volga”), N. Teleshov (“Sedition”), E. Chirikov (“Legend of the Old Castle”).

was published The 16th collection “Knowledge” , where “Poems” by I. Bunin, “Judas Iscariot and Others” by L. Andreev were published, and M. Gorky’s novel “Mother” began to be published.

“It is not very difficult to be convinced that Gorky has lost his former strength... Some of the harmony of the story, and that is comparative, depends only on the fact that Gorky has “get the hang of it.” But there is not a single new thought and not a single bright line .The old Gorky psychology, castrated by himself; old techniques: the father dies - a pale shadow of the father of Foma Gordeev; - and remains to live with his mother, read forbidden books and be searched by ferocious officers and soldiers - the son is a pale shadow of Foma Gordeev and some others from Gorky’s former “people” ( A. Blok . About the realists . “The Golden Fleece” #6).

“The triumph of the decadents... was greatly helped by the collapse... of one large in size, significant in concept, realistic novel. This is M. Gorky’s “Mother”...

Having lifted his unbearable weights onto his shoulders, M. Gorky relied too much on his own strength. He made a mistake in his calculations and created a work in which, behind the dreary monotony of the whole, individual undoubtedly beautiful, sincerely written pages drown and pass unnoticed" ( Vl. Kranichfeld . "Modern World" #11).

17th collection "Knowledge" - V. Veresaev ("On the Japanese War"), N. Garin ("Engineers"), etc. The 18th and 19th collections, published in the same year, continued these novels , as well as “Mother” by M. Gorky.

In April , the collection “Ships” (M.) was published, in which V. Bryusov, A. Blok, K. Balmont, Vyach. Ivanov, A. Bely, B. Zaitsev, M. Kuzmin and others took part.

In July was published in Moscow , the collection "New Word" , where the works of I. Bunin ("Figures"), Skitalets ("Manifesto"), S. Yushkevich ("Panorama") and others were published.

“The thin, empty, no one knows why or for whom, the magazine “New Word”, published in Moscow, ceased its one-year existence, without saying a single new word, and turned into a plump, but no less empty, non-periodic collection, moreover, of purely fiction programs" ( A. Kursinsky . "Scales" #6).

was published in St. Petersburg The almanac "Flower garden Or. Koshnitsa first" , where poems by A. Blok, V. Bryusov, K. Balmont, Vyach. Ivanov, M. Voloshin, S. Gorodetsky, A. Remizov, F. Sologub were published, and there was also M. Kuzmin's comedy "About Evdokia from Heliopolis, or the Converted Courtesan" was published.

“...Bryusov gave a poem that can take a place in the most strict anthologies, as an example of real Russian poetry: there is no individualism, no super-individualism, but art...

“The Comedy about Evdokia...” is saturated with sadness and an elusive aroma; its author is M. Kuzmin, one of the brightest young talents...

Fresh poems by S. Gorodetsky. It's really dawn here, not a curtain...

A. Remizov is good as always. M. Voloshin is interesting.

Rest?

I would like to keep silent: lush metaphors and nearby prosaic, unnecessary words, a tower of Babel of three-tiered comparisons that often express an uninteresting, banal, bare thought. I repeat, I would like to remain silent. After all, here are the dear names of Balmont, Vyach.Ivanov, Sologub, Blok!..

At least Blok. He blasphemes tirelessly. In "Flower Garden" his blasphemy only causes a yawn - nothing more. What a pity!.. From a mystic Blok turned into a pure lyricist... And the lyricist has a range of responsibilities: to hold high the banner of art. But he also blasphemes the lyrics... Slanders Spring, as if she

Brimstone and unwashed.
She is depraved to the end.

Oh, is Spring depraved? Spring is indifferent in itself; everyone brings their own content into it... And I want to sigh: “I’m tired of the jumbled depths: at least be a lyricist, Mr. Blok, if you are not a mystic; otherwise, out of old habit, you are still talking in places where the question is only in the finishing of the verse.”

Vyach.Ivanov is even more congested: his words are better than his lines, and his lines are better than the whole...

Dirty and unkempt, as always, in the poems of Mr. Chulkov...

This is what “Koshnitsa” Or gave us. But let us thank “Koshnitsa” for a few poems, and not for the nettles” ( A. Bely . “Scales” #6).

was published in St. Petersburg The almanac "Thawed Land" was published in Moscow , and "White Nights" .

In November was published in St. Petersburg , a “historical-revolutionary almanac” , edited by V.L. Burtsev, where the works of A. Kuprin (“Events in Sevastopol”), L. Andreev (“In Memory of Vladimir Mazurin”) and others were published.

On March 27, died Angel Ivanovich Bogdanovich , editor of the magazine “World of God,” . A. Kuprin wrote an article “In Memory of A.I. Bogdanovich” (“Modern World” #4).

On October 17 , “Lydia Dmitrievna Zinovieva-Annibal died. It’s somehow amazing to write these words. Her living face is still so close and clear; it’s so difficult to combine the calmed pomp of the word “death” with its swift energy, with its quivering vitality...” ( Sergey Auslender . "Golden Fleece" #10).

Characters and performers

Us and them . "Libra" #6.

“We” are those people who have gone through... a long and difficult path of solitude, isolation from everyone, extreme individualism; we went down into the “underground”... and suddenly we saw that a white dot appeared at the end of the corridor. And this white dot is a way out of the underground, exactly where they have been striving all their lives - a way out “to the other side” of the world.”

Gornfeld A.

Celebration of the winners . "Comrade", August 23.

“The decadents are trumpeting victory... We recognize it too. If the victory is that “the leviathans of the press are beginning to flirt with the symbolists, writing laudatory feuilletons”, that such magazines as “Education”, “World of God”, “Journal” for everyone" and others are in a hurry to place the works of recently persecuted poets," then this victory of the Symbolists is beyond doubt. However, its price is great: if the mob was unenlightenedly mistaken, not recognizing the decadents, then what is the price of its recognition?.. The crowd is still the same. And if she now quotes Bryusov, it is not because she came to him from Fet. She has no yesterday: this is the first and most lasting symptom of her lack of culture. An easy and superficial victory over her is worth little; This is a victory for fashion...

What place do they occupy in the soul of the modern Russian reader?.. Their books are sold out and remain in the role of elegant trinkets that decorate an easy life. Their poetry is pleasing to their audience, “like sweet lemonade in summer”...

And literature has its own Gothic and its own Baroque: the art of prayerful aspiration to heaven and the art of fancy curlicues. Sometimes the latter wins. For how long and for good?

Kranichfeld Vl.

Literary Responses . "Modern World" #11.

“They” won, and their victory is “without a doubt,” the newspaper “Comrade” testifies...

“We” won, and our victory is “without a doubt” - “Libra” also states...

But who are these “they” or “we” who withstood the campaign with such brilliance?.. I will talk about the victories of the “decadents”...

Not so long ago, our decadents lived in their own little isolated world, when no stranger penetrated their sanctuary, one would think that they were all in love with each other. There were no limits to mutual admiration for the beauty of their creations, there was no place for criticism... The entire table of ranks of the circle was limited to one single rank - genius, they would not tolerate anything less. It happened, of course, that they assessed each other's creative productivity in more detail, but their reviews and critical articles, at best, resembled hymns, at worst, they resembled advertising.

And only from the time when people from the street began to approach them and mingle with them, did the need arise for a more serious attitude towards themselves and towards newcomers. The overproduction of geniuses erupted into a crisis, and in order to improve matters, it was necessary to part with too general and meaningless definitions and begin to study the features of the physiognomy and style of each artist individually. If previously it was enough to declare oneself a decadent in order to receive a prize, now, in addition to this, some other qualities are required from the writer."

Filosofov D.

The end of Gorky . "Russian Thought" #4.

“Two things destroyed the writer Gorky: success and naive, ill-conceived socialism. I say “ruined” because his last works - “Barbarians”, “Enemies”, “In America”, “My Interviews”, etc. caused damage his literary glory, they discovered signs of such a serious decay of his talent that it is in the revival of the writer Gorky... somehow impossible to believe

Success did not give Gorky the time and energy for the necessary internal work of thought and stopped the growth of his consciousness. Deafened by the external noise of success, he was unable to understand his own ideas and feelings."

Balmont K.

Our literary today. The note . "Golden Fleece" #11-12.

"Atlantis - a volcano, Egypt - a mystery stem, Mexico - Maya - a patterned flame flower, India - many branches, China - a sunflower, Chaldea - a seven-star, Assyria - a lion's roar, Judea - the smell of blood, Hellas - a man, Rome - a city, Scandinavia - a fairy tale in a thunderstorm, Slavism - a pipe...

As legend says, the Spanish, Italian and French languages initially coincide with the beginning of the World: the first conversations between God, the Serpent and Man took place in them. Forbidding him to touch the Tree of Knowledge, God spoke to Adam in Spanish, for in Spanish there is importance, authority, command and nobility. The snake spoke Italian, for Italian, among languages, is insinuating, gentle and sweet. Having sinned, the Man answered in French, for what language is more convenient for apologies?

Firebird. Slavic flute . - M.

“There was a time when works of folk poetry were looked at as crude, unskillful creations of poets who had little knowledge of poetics...

Unfortunately, K. Balmont in “The Firebird” resumed such an inartistic attitude towards folk poetry. Apparently, finding that our Russian epics, songs, and legends are not good enough, he spruces them up in every possible way, adapting them to the requirements of modern taste...

It must be said that K. Balmont decisively failed... he did the worst thing that can be done with folk poetry... Having preserved the original fabric of folk art in separate parts, Balmont put the most modern patches on it; Having retained the general concept of individual creatures, he arbitrarily modified the particulars, imitating the general structure of speech of our ancient poetry, he at the same time distorted the most essential thing in its form" ( V. Bryusov . "Scales" #10).

Block A.

Stranger . "Libra" #5-7.

“What idea, what symbol can be grasped in this arch-modernist play, where truly everything is spinning in a wild “sarabande” and everything “stands upside down”...

Is it really true that a fantastic poem, whose subject is to glorify the eternal dream of humanity, rushing into the high heavens, yearning for the eternally feminine and capable of missing, not noticing, missing, living through this heavenly, if it came down from the clouds and for a minute came into contact with the earthly and trashy? result in such a puzzling confusion, where the main idea with such difficulty must be cleared of the gray and tasteless husk that covered the grain of thought.

In fiction... the law is fair that the author at least wants to be understandable...

Anyone who is not accustomed to having everything “standing upside down” in a literary work will, of course, abandon “The Stranger” at the first sight, without being curious anymore” ( A. Izmailov , “Birzhevye Vedomosti”, September 14).

Krechetov S.

The Scarlet Book. Poems . - M.

“The poetic cut of today’s poets is a template, and just like the style of a dress, it was not invented by those who wear it. There have become an awful lot of poetic vests - short, bitten, multi-colored and armless! No matter what book you open - old, familiar, familiar decorations , used props. Bryusov and Balmont, Balmont and Bryusov, occasionally Bunin, sometimes Blok...

Sergei Krechetov has talent and his poetry is quite smooth. However, who doesn’t have talent now and is there any unsmooth poetry now? Sergei Krechetov’s poems have one thing of their own: temperament. He knows how to be indignant, knows anger and delight, loves to shout, is prone to terrifying metaphors, ominous epithets, and is often carried away by the noisy music of bravura words" ( Petr Pilsky . "Modern World" #12).

Berdyaev N.

Decadence and the public . "Russian Thought" #6.

“What does Mr. Berdyaev accuse decadence of? He finds that “decadence is a reflection of the illusory nature of existence,” that “the horror of decadence lies in the loss of sensation and consciousness of reality, in extreme anti-realism.” But isn’t all art, by renouncing this reality, gives the feeling of another reality, rising above real being (given in experience), communicates the feeling of another being? Penetration into another reality is the tragedy by which the soul of a true artist lives. And Mr. Berdyaev in vain contrasts “decadent experiences,” supposedly illusory, with experiences mystical, which, according to him, are real in the sense that they are “accompanied by a feeling and consciousness of the reality of the object, the object of his discretion” ( Ellis . In Defense of Decadence . “Libra” #8).

Muizhel V.

Stories, volume 1 . - St. Petersburg. (Marked 1908.)

“Muizhel is a writer of everyday life, a writer of always a specific and favorite motif. But the heavy layers of everyday material from which he tries to create a large, varied drama of peasant life are not transformed into elements of pure art in his deeply anti-artistic soul, as if squeezed by the framework of the party program...

Muizhel's realism is dead, inactive: he is never imbued with the living spirit of the moment...

And therefore, whether he talks about the silently submissive death of a peasant (“A Man’s Death”), or about how a Cossack raped a girl under an apple tree (“Soldiers”), or about how Katerina (the heroine of the story “A Woman’s Life”) gave birth in beam in the middle of a field of a dead child,” he tells in detail, lovingly stringing together horrors, “everything sounds miserable, gray and dead in the repetition of plots and words used” ( Nina Petrovskaya . “Scales” #11).

Kuprin A.I.

Collected Works, Volume 3 . - St. Petersburg.

“ Kuprin does not have his own style , and style is the highest helplessness and the highest strength of a writer. Will he really not exist? Will it really always be necessary to look for Kuprin through the thickness of various “knowledge”?” ( E. Anichkov . Allez . "Scales" #2).

“A.I. Kuprin is the greatest writer of our time. He is the best adornment of new literature, and it, in fairness, can be proud of him...

Everything written about Kuprin is very subjective and distinguished by unusual lyricism. It is felt that everyone who talks about him wants to talk about himself, to find convincing, inner words for this and to put into them his own , most intimate and valuable. This is the best praise for the artist - his sensitivity, sincerity and strength, recognition of his ability to awaken everyone and force them to be themselves" ( E. Koltonovskaya , Kuprin, as an exponent of the era . "Education" #4).

Sologub F.

Decaying Masks . - M.

“The new collection “Decomposing Masks” reveals a significant evolution in Sologub’s work, both in terms of content and in form. The author is faithful to his pessimism. His attitude towards life remains, as before, negatively critical, but still there is a big change in him ... Sologub's new stories are dedicated to life, not death, or, rather, to spiritualized insights into a new life, as the title suggests" ( E.K-skaya . "Modern World" #10).

“If in prose Sologub often tends to embody the monstrous of life, then in poetry he speaks more often about beautiful life, about beauty, about silence. His muse is sad or crazy” ( A. Blok . The works of Fyodor Sologub . “Pass” #10).

Bely A.

Memorial service. Lyric poem . "Libra" #6.

They fell on my yellow face
Stains.
Flowers
We fell asleep.
With your lips
Celebrated.
With candles
Set...
Oliger N.

Stories . - St. Petersburg.

“Oliger has the main thing that is needed for creativity and what all modern literature is so poor in: spontaneity and inspiration. His plots are born in him internally, sincerely captivate him, and always bear the sharp imprint of his individuality, very original, sophisticated and complex. .. But the stories collected in the first book (there are 11 of them) are far from being of equal merit and, in general, cannot be called consistent and complete. Most of them, on the outside, suffer from excessive length and unevenness of tone, and on the inside - sometimes naivety and sentimentality, sometimes melodrama and inept exaggeration of colors, in general, defects of youth.

Everything that Oliger writes bears the stamp of some kind of haste in the feuilleton genre; and one always feels that he gives much less than he can give. That is why it is especially scary for Oliger, so that he is not ruined by the modern ebullient haste of the book market, which encourages authors to bake their works like pancakes and publish them as quickly as possible" ( E.K-skaya . "Modern World" #12).

Toporkov A.

About new realism (Boris Zaitsev) . "Golden Fleece" #10.

“New realism does not know reality, known, familiar, identified. It knows reality, given to it for the first time, revealed for the first time without the help of past experiences. Its object is “new experience”, new reality... All of B. Zaitsev’s paintings are imbued with this sense of novelty ", fanned by the first spring air, the most ordinary, the most insignificant attracts his attention, as if he noticed it for the first time. His descriptions would be protocol, fragmentary and petty if they were not as innocent and alive as freshly picked flowers." .

Tarasov E.

Earthly distances . - St. Petersburg.

“My God, what an outrageously unnecessary, weak and mediocre book!.. Although earlier I had to celebrate... other poems by Tarasov with joy” ( A. Blok . “The Golden Fleece” #11-12).

Other works

Zhakov K.F. From life and fantasy . - St. Petersburg.

Kovalsky K.A. Crown of thorns . - St. Petersburg. (Marked 1908.)

Wanderer. Stories and Songs, Volume 2 . - St. Petersburg.

Sergeev-Tsensky S. Stories, volume 1 . - St. Petersburg.

Naydenov S. Plays, volume 1 . - St. Petersburg.

Pretty . - St. Petersburg. (Marked 1908.)

Prishvin M.M. In the land of unafraid birds . - St. Petersburg.

Kamensky A. Stories, volume 1 . - St. Petersburg.

Block A. Snow mask . - St. Petersburg.

About love, poetry and public service (Dialogue) . "Pass" #6.

King in the square . "Golden Fleece" #4.

Soloviev S. Flowers and incense . - M.

Fedorov A. Stones . - St. Petersburg.

Nature . - St. Petersburg.

Nazhivin I.F. Mene... tekel... fares... - M.

Andreev L. Stories and plays, volume 4 . - St. Petersburg.

Gorodetsky S. Perun . - M.

Bashkin V. Poems. Civic motives. Lyrics . - M.

1906 year