Anastasia Otroshchenko. Century=text: abroad, issue 6

Century=text: abroad, issue 6
Anastasia Otroshchenko

Date of publication: October 6, 2000

1930

LITERARY QUESTIONNAIRE | ABOUT LITERATURE IN SOVIET RUSSIA | LIFE AND DEATH | BOOK CHRONICLE | HUMOR

Literary questionnaire

“The editors of “Numbers” turned to a number of writers with a request to answer the following questionnaire:

1. Do you think that Russian literature is currently experiencing a period of decline?

2. If yes, what do you see as signs of this phenomenon and

3. what are its reasons?

M. Aldanov: “I don’t see any signs of particular decline. Both in emigration and in Soviet Russia there are many talented writers, and they work hard, despite difficult conditions...”

Iv. Bunin: “In my opinion, there has been no decline over the last decade. Of the prominent writers... not one, it seems, has lost his talent; on the contrary, almost all have strengthened and grown. And, besides, here, for Abroad, several new talents have appeared, undeniable in their artistic qualities."

V. Veidle: “Russian literature is not in decline, if by decline we mean organic decay, like senile insanity, but the catastrophe that we have experienced and is experiencing could not but respond to it and could not cause a rise in it either...”

Ivan Lukash: “It’s a common phenomenon: contemporaries always tend to consider the literature of their “period” to be in decline. And Pushkin was considered “decline” in his time... Yes, there are signs of decline, and many of them. The main one, probably, is that ideas, experiences and the images of current literature seemed to stop and freeze on the ideas, experiences and images of the end of the 19th century. In Russian literature there is still no new idea, it only seems to be repeated one way or another..."

Mikh. Osorgin: “Only others can truly evaluate what is being written now, but it’s difficult for us, for us it’s too close, nearby...

But it is possible, of course, that the time now is not suitable not only for the flourishing, but also for the normal growth of Russian literature. The era is transitional, more militant than working, and life is not stable, and new words have not yet been found for it, and previous literary forms do not accommodate it. The old generation of writers is tired and frayed, the younger generation is cut off from the literary tradition, and has not yet laid down its own paths."

Peter Pilsky: “Perhaps we are not talking about the decline of literature, but of writers’ moods? It exists... There can be no talk of literary decline. Talented people, beautiful, brilliant things appear in emigration literature, many gifted people came to the fore in Soviet Russia ..."

Mark Slonim: “Russian literature of the last decade is not experiencing a decline, but a movement that usually marks a near rise...”

G. Fedotov: “It’s somehow awkward to talk about the decline of Russian literature when you remember that complaints about its decline for more than a century accompanied its truly wonderful flourishing...

I do not see decadence in the literature of revolutionary Russia: on the contrary, in comparison with many phenomena of the pre-war period, I see in it a revival rich in hopes, wild with strength... However, recent years speak of the impoverishment of its sources. For 2 years - nothing significant...
Just in these last years, incomparably weaker foreign literature has gifted us with very significant works: Bunin and Sirin..." ("Numbers", #2-3, 1930).

About literature in Soviet Russia.

“Over the past two years, important events have taken place in Russian literature: the “literary NEP” has been cancelled, the “Carta of Liberty” for fellow travelers has been destroyed... As in all of Russia, stupid and mediocre Stalinism has reigned in literature, and several dozen literary apparatchiks rule the arts under with the help of mandatory regulations...

With the growing and ominous silence of genuine writers, a handful of graphomaniacs and officials who have seized the “commanding heights” fill the literary arena with the noise of gossip and denunciations...

Literature should become something like a “department of artistic propaganda and agitation” under the Communist Party. Its role is similar to the role of advertising in a capitalist society...

A completely unbearable atmosphere of denunciation and search has been created in the literary environment. In art bodies, almost every review is an interrogation with passion...

Any vulgarity is guaranteed the right to publication, as long as it is painted in the protective colors of Stalin’s obedience. After all, the State Publishing House published "Children's International" with poems of this kind:

Fez - ripe carrots,
Brotherly love in my heart..."

( M. Slonim. Stalinism in literature. “The Will of Russia”, #10, 1930).

Georgy Adamovich:

about Anna Akhmatova: “Whether she is a genius or not is all the same... But that Akhmatova is a most original, most gifted poet, there is no doubt about that.

It's been 10 years since Akhmatova fell silent. Whether she writes anything is unknown. Probably writing. But she has nowhere to publish.

She is an “imperialist”, at best a “petty-bourgeois hysterical”. The editors of Soviet magazines prefer to publish the fruits of inspiration of Mikhail Golodny and Ivan Pribludny." ("Illustrated Russia", #30, 1930).

about Valentin Kataev: “Kataev is a “Soviet” writer, i.e. living in Soviet Russia. Reading his book (“Father” - A.O.) you are once again convinced that all the talk is false, as if there literature has become brutal, stupefied , "became mean." Undoubtedly, there is more than enough stupidity and servility there. But nearby there is honest and truthful literature, tormented by censorship, but still alive...

Kataev writes about life and people. He is not afraid to show human traits in the guise of some “class enemy”, whom official Soviet criticism recommends portraying as crooks and cretins..." (Illustrated Russia, #34, 1930).

about Yuri Libedinsky: ““The Birth of a Hero”... This is the name of the novel about which there has been the most talk in Russia lately...

The author of the novel is Yuri Libedinsky, a communist, “party member.” The main character of the novel, Shorokhov, is also a communist, a “party member.” But the author depicted him not in the process of fighting for the future happiness of mankind, but in a home environment. The hero falls in love, is jealous, gets angry, gets bored, eats, drinks... Moscow criticism reproaches Libedinsky for this. She is offended that in the “party member” Libedinsky discovered an ordinary person, with ordinary sins and weaknesses...

As the poet Bezymensky, Libedinsky’s main opponent, recently stated at a party congress:

First of all -
party,
Class,
And then everything else.

Psychological subtleties, in his opinion, should be left to emigrant literature and to the “rotten West” in general, and Soviet writers should depict only the “building of socialism”..." (Illustrated Russia, #50, 1930).

about the novels of Anatoly Mariengof: “They have any number of shortcomings. They contain everything that the imagination can come up with that is disgusting and repulsive. In them, the last remnants of feeling are “eaten up” by irony, as if by sulfuric acid. But nothing can be done, the author is an intelligent and talented person And his books are very unpleasant, but “genuine” books...

"The Shaved Man", Mariengof's new novel, seems to have broken all records in terms of disgustingness. What words are in it, what scenes are described, in what places these scenes take place - I won’t tell you..." (Illustrated Russia, #13).

On the death of Mayakovsky

“Having shot himself in Moscow - out of unhappy love! - the futurist poet Vl. Mayakovsky gave his considerable talent to the service of the Bolsheviks: he was, along with Demyan Bedny, the official bard of the Soviet regime...

In short moments of enlightenment, forgetting government orders, the poet wrote lyrical poems...

She flashed lightning with her eyes:
"I saw -
another one with you,
you are the lowest
you are the meanest one." -
And she went
and went
and went away, cursing.
I'm a scientist, my dear,
leave your rumblings,
if lightning didn't kill me -
then thunder to me
By God I'm not afraid.

( Without signature. "Illustrated Russia", #17, 1930).

“The failure that haunted Mayakovsky all his life did not leave him even after his death. True, he was given a magnificent funeral, and tens of thousands of people followed his coffin; mournfully laudatory articles were dedicated to him in the newspapers; hundreds of capital and provincial Lefovites everywhere read enthusiastically apocryphal things about him memoirs, proletarian writers began collecting for the construction - instead of a monument - a tractor column named after Mayakovsky; in the Literary Gazette they started talking about the Mayakovsky Museum and the need to preserve every line of his works, they decided to include his poems in the curriculum of secondary and higher educational institutions - in a word, in "Soviet glory" came like a drumbeat of thunder. But, as in life, this entire frivolous parade was accompanied by the most stupid assessments, the most cruel, unfair and sometimes offensive misunderstanding of the work of the one who was proclaimed the greatest poet of our time." ( M. Slonim. “The Will of Russia”, #5-6, 1930).

“Mayakovsky’s suicide was not easy to predict. For some critics, perhaps the most insightful ones, it even became a reason to reconsider their previous attitude towards the poet...

Although Mayakovsky’s life cannot be called tragic, despite its end, there is still a lot of complexity in it, more, perhaps, than Mayakovsky himself imagined and certainly more than he showed it...

Bohemia, to which Mayakovsky always belonged, strives to squander itself, to squander, to squander what it has accumulated. A bohemian man, although he knows how to become (better than many) a money-grubber and a careerist, can, with unusual ease, one day throw away everything he has acquired: authority, “merits” and much more.

But no matter how we explain Mayakovsky’s fate, we must not forget that he made every effort to simplify and coarse what in fact was neither too simple nor very crude.

The poet strives to find a fourth dimension for life. Mayakovsky often had three too many. It seems that there has never been a flatter world than in some of his poems in Russian poetry.

Re-reading “Selected Poems”... one is struck by their monotony, poverty, and lack of depth.

You have to be with an iron chest,
To answer the caresses with this...

This is how Nekrasov wrote about his muse. Mayakovsky did not possess this power. The revolution was his muse, but he did not greet its embrace with an iron chest. He offered no resistance to the revolution. There was no fight between them.

Everything that she said at communist meetings and in the columns of Izvestia and Pravda, everything, without reservation, he repeated in his poems...

But without struggle, without personal drama, the poet cannot exist. The communist period became for Mayakovsky the decline and destruction of his poetry. It has not developed, has not reached its best strength, because the person from these verses disappears without a trace, giving no indication of the approaching catastrophe, not calling anyone for help, not believing in it (and in nothing in the world) and, of course, , preparing to “send everything to hell” and die.” ( N. Otsup. “Numbers”, #2-3, 1930).

Life and death

In 1930, a new “thick” magazine “Numbers” was organized in Paris .

""Numbers" are conceived as primarily literary collections... Without imposing on the writers any special tasks that lie outside literature, "Numbers" will still strive through it to touch upon everything that is now happening in the world..." ( Editorial, "Numbers", #1, 1930).

“Their peculiarity is the absence of politics. The magazine is devoted exclusively to literature and art. The first issue is compiled very successfully, and leaves an excellent impression... The material in the magazine is extremely lively. And “Numbers” was published in a way that no other book has been published in our country for a long time was published." ( G. Adamovich. “Illustrated Russia”, #20, 1930).

“The new magazine “Numbers” (edited by I. deManziarli and N. Otsup, 4 times a year), the first book of which was recently published, in its art department focuses on literary youth... In addition to the extensive fiction department, The magazine devotes a lot of space to painting, theater, cinema, and issues of art in general, and in this regard it seems to be the only undertaking in emigration.” ( M. Slonim. “The Will of Russia”, #3, 1930).

In 1930, - a literary and artistic monthly edited by Karapetyan, M. Klochkov, G. Matveev - began to be published in Riga, and "Russian Store" - a literary and artistic monthly edited by Y. Ivask and S. Shlifshtein - began to "Mansarda" be published in Reval.

“In Estonia and Latvia, the same thing is happening among Russian literary youth as in Paris and Prague. Literary associations are being created, where young people read and discuss their works and try to find new ways of creativity. Young writers... feel and life, and art, and are in a hurry to express what new things excite them.Hence the systematic appearance of magazines and collections compiled and edited by young writers...

Neither the Revel nor the Riga magazine can be called successful. They have a lot of good intentions, but very little artistic implementation..." ( M. Slonim. "The Will of Russia", #10, 1930).

celebrated its tenth anniversary The magazine "Modern Notes" .

“Someone recently said that Sovremennye Zapiski is conservative. This definition is correct and accurate. The creators of the magazine deliberately set themselves this task: conservation, i.e. collecting and preserving “Russian culture”. The task is wonderful, and what another can be done by a group of old public figures, cut off from their usual work?

"Modern Notes" does not pretend to be the highest court in a field that was recently so alien to its leaders; and they wisely stick to only the undoubted, recognized, they prefer to act for sure..." ( Anton Krainy. "Numbers", #2-3, 1930).

Book chronicle

Aldanov M. Escape. Novel. "Modern Notes", #43-44.

From a notebook. "Modern Notes", #44.

Amphiteatrov A.V. A weeping wall and an indestructible wall . - Belgrade.

Balmont K. Complicity of souls . - Sofia.

Belotsvetov N.N. Wild honey . - Berlin.

Berberova N.N. The last and the first: a novel from emigrant life . - Paris.

Berdyaev N. On the nature of Russian religious thought of the 19th century. "Modern Notes", #42.

Breshko-Breshkovsky N.N. Liquid gold . - Warsaw.

Bunin I.A. Life of Arsenyev. - Paris.

“I have already had to point out a rare feature of Bunin’s creative path - his continuous artistic upsurge: each new work of his is better than the previous ones. Let us now note something else. In place of masterpieces thickly painted in black, in place of pessimistic books... came one of the brightest books of Russian literature..." ( M. Aldanov. "Modern Notes", #42)

Murderer . - Paris.

Sister . - Paris.

Varshavsky V. From the notes of a shameless young man. "Numbers", #2-3.

"...The second memory is about the most joyful and happiest morning in my life. It was when we still lived in Moscow, but I don’t know how old I was then. I woke up with a feeling of happiness. My head didn’t hurt at all There was a joyful lightness in my body, as if it was the first awakening, the first morning on earth, and I still carried the imperishable freshness of some other world from which I came. I lay on a white nickel-plated bed, in a room filled with the shine of the sun. I knew that there was a street below; from there came a strange and mysterious, joyful noise. I could never remember whether it was the sound of hooves on the stones of the pavement, or the cry of a man, or the rumble of a truck. Sometimes it seems to me that it was the voice of a tall janitor in white apron. But when I look closely, the janitor disappears, and I cannot find out the secret of this former noise, which then gave birth to a feeling in me never again after unexperienced happiness..."

Vysotsky A. Saturday and Sunday. Novel. - Paris.

Gazdanov G.I. Hawaiian guitars. "The Will of Russia", #1.

Evening at Claire's. - Paris.

“Gazdanov’s book, whose main muse is memory, Mnemosyne, cannot help but fall into the mainstream of the greatest poem about creative recollection - I’m talking about Proust’s poem “In Search of Lost Time”. Like Proust, the young Russian writer has the main place of action.. ... the soul of the author, his memory...

Lying next to Claire, a not very young and not very seductive woman, the hero of Gazdanov’s novel, who for the first time and finally achieved possession of her, remembers his whole life and the whole path of his many years of love." ( N. Otsup. "Numbers", #1, 1930).

Ginger A. Evening at the station. "Numbers", #2-3.

Gippius Z. Poems. "Modern Notes", #43-44.

Poems. "Numbers", #1.

Gorny S. Photographs. "Numbers", #1.

Danilenko V.V. Torn off. Tale. - Harbin.

Villa Eternal Calm. Novel. - Harbin.

""Torn Off" - the author himself admits this in the introduction - is an autobiography; but it reads like a good story... A story - as a story should be: its plot is life. The book is written simply, well, with excellent everyday pages and without attempts to decorate complex fiction on already meaningful pages.

The second book is an experiment in a novel... Let us only note an interesting phenomenon: the author had enough talent for a simple and ingenuous narration about his life, but there was no luck in artistic fiction... What is most unfortunate is the style of the work, made to repeat the worst examples of “women's” literature , with a corresponding number of extra adjectives and exaggerated feelings in small provincial experiences..." ( M. Osorgin. "Modern Notes", #43)

Dixon V. Poems and prose. With a foreword by A. Remizov. - Paris.

Zaitsev B. Life of Turgenev. "Modern Notes", #44.

Ivanov G. Third Rome. Excerpts from the second part of the novel. "Numbers", #2-3.

Poems. "Numbers", #1.

Kilchevsky E. In the forest. Novel. - Paris.

“The new “novel” by E. Kilchevsky belongs to the type of good stories. The author went... along the line of less resistance and creative tension, giving us a work with a “romantic”, i.e., love plot...

More than the development of the plot, we are interested in the author's artistic technique. He gives his story the form of a diary - very dangerous and unprofitable. But he did a great job with it. His hero simultaneously describes his entire previous life, including his love story. The chapters alternate successfully and, imperceptibly, the past merges with the present. There is a strong dramatic effect attached to the end, and everything ends happily. The reception is somewhat naive, but pleasant..." ( M. Osorgin. "Modern Notes", #44).

Komarov S. Eternal dance. Novel. - Paris.

Korsak V. At the Reds. - Paris.

Kuznetsova G. Morning. - Paris.

“It seems that it was Flaubert who said that the worst reader is the one who “wants to know what happens in the book.” Until quite recently, our young fiction writers seemed to be trying to please only the worst readers... Now our... prose writers... They lost interest in adventure... They realized that the action is not always limited to the plot.

Galina Kuznetsova is one of the most characteristic writers of this direction... Galina Kuznetsova writes as if about nothing, but touches on a lot. Nothing or almost nothing happens in her stories; chance plays no role in them. She doesn’t talk about what sometimes happens in life, but only about what always happens in life..." ( G. Adamovich. "Modern Notes", #42).

Kuprin A.I. Wheel of Time. - Belgrade.

“The attentive reader will find in Kuprin’s new book old, familiar, typical features of this writer: fire-breathing, greedy, almost pagan love for the land, for the sea, for simple and strong people, glory to “our friends - women,” a hymn to free and courageous love , admiration for courage and dexterity, an unconcealed sigh about the passing, disappearing from the world romance of muscles, an open and tremulous heart, femininity and stern male nobility... The whole book is a sigh and a memory. And, probably, that’s why it’s sad..." ( Without signatures. "The Will of Russia", #11-12).

Merezhkovsky D. Why did Atlantis perish? "Modern Notes", #43.

Nikiforov N. Woman. - Berlin.

Odoevtseva I. Isolde. A novel. - Paris.

The Ballad of Gumilyov. "Numbers", #2-3.

Rose in the snow. Story. "Illustrated Russia", #9.

Jasmine Island. "Numbers", #1.

Osorgin M. The Tale of a Sister. "Modern Notes", #42-43.

“If I were a real writer and wanted to create an artistic image, I would probably be embarrassed to talk in such detail about a woman who has not created anything in her life, who has not guessed her path, who has not even been able to forge her share of happiness...

What previously gave rise to doubts and created insoluble spiritual dramas now barely evokes a smile. Life has changed so much: outwardly it has become much more complicated, but internally it has become much simpler. Now everything is open and accessible to a woman... And there’s only one thing I don’t know: is the current, spiritually simplified and independent woman really happier than the old one, who squeezed her will with the hoop of family customs and responsibilities, afraid to cheapen herself and her life? It still seems to me that the image of a wife and mother, more capable of sacrifice than resistance, has some kind of special value, like in a painting by an old master. True, this purity and this integrity are now not in demand on the everyday market..."

Peskov G. In Your Memory. - Paris.

“Among the relatively young emigrant writers there are talents that are formally stronger, newer and sharper in their style of writing, but Georgy Peskov has one advantage. In his stories there is never a desire to interestingly develop a literary plot that comes to mind or comes to hand. In everything What he writes can be heard as an obsession with a certain theme, a certain vision of the world, almost a vision of the world...

What is Peskov’s main theme? It can be called differently: nevertheless, I would say that the main thing in Peskov is duality. Peskov’s themes, both externally (plot-wise) and internally (spiritually and experientially), seem to oscillate between two poles. One pole is the true reality of the otherworldly world: faith, miracle, human soul, love. Another: obsession, superstition, chance, psychopathology, crime..." ( F. Stepun. "Modern Notes", #42).

Remizov A. Thirty dreams of Turgenev . "The Will of Russia", #7-8.

Savich O. Imaginary Interlocutor. Novel. - Berlin.

“Savich’s novel was conceived boldly and developed with great internal logic. There is a lot of truthfulness, human, character in it. The author, of course, did not succeed in everything; his task was difficult... he failed in one of the main figures of the novel, the mysterious actor Cherkess, who called the hero to revolt; it is not very clear why the author needs it. But, without dwelling on the shortcomings, I would like to comprehend the talented book and the author, who is not afraid to “imitate” Dostoevsky and develops one of the main themes of Russian literature: the theme of the supreme value of the individual; his rights are all judge and overthrow..." ( M. Tsetlin. "Modern Notes", #43)

Sirin V. (Nabokov V.) Luzhina Defense. - Berlin.

“Sirin writes his novel as if it had no literary predecessors. The story of Luzhin’s childhood is interrupted by descriptive digressions, the main threads of the plot are laid bare calculatingly and without coquetry, and all those periods of time and parts of the action that could suppress the growth of the psychological theme are given in an unexpected and original aspect. War and revolution did not and could not change Luzhin’s spiritual paths - and they are skillfully excluded from the neighborhood of his soul. The missing biographical link is replaced by the writer’s doubts of his father, the illusory nature of his writer’s memories - and this technique beautifully and wittily liberates a novel from many overly consistent details..." ( Al. Novik. "Modern Notes", #45)

Spy. Tale. "Modern Notes", #44.

Pilgram. Story. "Modern Notes", #43.

Return of Chobra. Stories and poems. - Berlin.

“V. Sirin collected his stories, written over several years, into one book... Not everything in the book is equally valuable... Thus, the story “The Fairy Tale” would be better not to be included in the book. Sirin’s poems are less interesting and original than his prose. But many of the stories are written masterfully...

If, not content with the impression of Sirin's undoubted originality, one still looks for similarities between him and other writers, then the name comes to mind... Leonid Andreev. Of course, such a comparison can only be conditional. Like Andreev, Sirin loves to lean over the tragic deformities of life, over strange and isolated cases... Like Andreev, Sirin has the now rare gift of plot. Like Andreev, he often gives the impression of artificiality..." ( M. Tsetlin. "Modern Notes", #42).

Sosinsky B. Coward. "The Will of Russia", #10.

Tolstoy A. Peter the Great. - Berlin.

“Only the extraordinary talent of Alexei Tolstoy allows him to conduct the entire long narrative in such a non-epic style, which with any other author would certainly come out tedious and boring... But Tolstoy is an exception...

Our historical literature is quite poor - apart from the third-rate works of Mordovtsev or Merezhkovsky, of course, Tolstoy’s novel will occupy an exclusive and only his place in it." ( V. Petrov. "The Will of Russia", #5-6)

Teffi N.A. Gilded chair. "Illustrated Russia, #17.

Tsvetaeva M. Mayakovsky. "The Will of Russia", #11-12.

Nereid. Numbers, #2-3.

Poem of the Air. "The Will of Russia", #1.

Sharnipolsky S. Poems. - Paris.

Shah E. Urban spring. Second book of poems. - Paris.

Shkrobov V.V. Among dreams and rhymes. - Riga.

Shmelev I. Soldiers. Novel. "Modern Notes", #41-42.

Ehrenburg I. United Front . - Berlin.

Time visa. - Berlin.

Yanovsky V. Wheel. - Paris.

Collections:

Union of Young Poets in Paris. Collection 3.- Paris.

Crossroads. Collection of poems. - Paris.

Humor

Ardov V. Life collapse. (From Soviet life). "Illustrated Russia", #2.

“In the morning, at the beginning of ten, a respectable client entered the Nikipor hairdressing salon, in the Tverskaya area, holding a huge bay briefcase by the handle... The client was distinguished by his enviable plumpness, rosy cheeks, a pink, appropriate bald head, a handsome nose and a representative belly. A jacket suit , which clothed his well-fed body, was of the most respectable cut, and the tie allowed itself to play with shades of only decent tones of moderate brightness.

But the biggest trump card in the respectable appearance of the respectable client was his beard. This common type of secondary sexual characteristics represented a truly rare specimen on the face of a respectable client. Extending up to 20 centimeters in length, the said beard of an exquisite chestnut color could, in the sense of the order in which it was kept, serve as a model for lawns around the world. And it must be said that the presence of such a wonderful piece of jewelry on the face of a respectable client invariably evoked a counter wave of respect and even adulation from those around him. In this case, ordinary male hair became a factor of social significance...

The respectable client sank into a chair, and immediately the bowels of the store belched out a servant with a tray on which a razor was emitting steam..."