HERO OF THE ASIAN FRONTIER IN SOVIET POETRY OF THE LATE 20s – 30s
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17072/2073-6681-2019-4-123-130Keywords:
neoromanticism, Soviet poetry, frontier, Nikolay Tikhonov, Vladimir Lugovskoy, Konstantin Simonov, Rudyard Kipling.Abstract
The paper deals with the image of the hero-civilizer that appeared in Russian poetry during the establishment of the Soviet system in Central Asia. The research aims to argue that poetical reflection of the modernization on the Southern frontier gave rise to oriental neoromanticism of the Kiplingian type in early Soviet literature. The comparative studies of Kipling’s characters and ‘the Bolsheviks of the Desert and Spring’ in the writings of classic Soviet poets (Nikolay Tikhonov, Vladimir Lugovskoy, Konstantin Simonov) reveal the typological proximity of the colonial poetics and allow us to identify multiple examples of the direct borrowing of poetic themes, motifs and forms.The ideological superiority over the West was consolidated in Soviet Russia in the early 30s through resurrection of the imperial mythologems. However, addressing the national epic past did not meet the conditions of the ideological struggle in the South-East, which compelled Soviet poets to refer to the colonial poetics of Rudyard Kipling. The neoromantic colonial discourse was manifested through poetry depicting the men of the new ideology – bearers of the new ‘white man’s burden’ who were civilizing the wild Turkestan. By the early 30s, the combination of the neoromantic style and current ideology produced a specific type of Soviet oriental discourse that was gradually losing its topicality as a consequence of modernization of the Soviet frontier. The Kipling-like model of the firm civilizer, the man of duty, had been seriously corrected by the end of the pre-war decade. It can be concluded that the early Soviet epic ideal of the conqueror carrying out the task of the Party gradually gave place to the paternalistic rhetoric of the protector-liberator.References
Киплинг Р. Избранные стихи из всех книг / сост., ред. новых переводов, послесл. и примеч. В. Бетаки. Б.м.: Salamandra P. V. V., 2011. 331 c.
Кукулин И. В. Лирика советской субъективности: 1930–1941 // Филологический класс. 2014. № 1(35). С. 7–19.
Липовецкий М. Н. Неоромантизм в русской поэзии XX–XXI веков: смысл и границы понятия // Филологический класс. 2018. № 1(51). С. 13–18.
Луговской В. А. Собрание сочинений: в 3 т. Т. 1: Стихотворения / сост. и подгот. текстов Е. Быковой-Луговской; вступ. ст. И. Л. Гринберга. М.: Худож. лит., 1988. 477 с.
Луговской В. А. Собрание сочинений: в 3 т. Т. 3: Поэмы; Проза / сост. и подгот. текстов Е. Быковой-Луговской. М.: Худож. лит., 1989. 525 с.
Мартынов И. Ф. Киплинг и Гумилев – поэты двух империй. К вопросу о судьбе поэтического наследия Р. Киплинга в России // Вестник русского христианского движения. 1987. № 3(151). С. 166–189.
Миллер Ф. Сталинский фольклор / пер. с англ. Л. Н. Высоцкого. СПб.: Академ. проект; Издательство ДНК, 2006. 190 с.
Мирский Д. П. Статьи о литературе / вступ. ст. Н. Анастасьева; сост. и коммент. М. Андронова. М.: Худож. лит., 1987. 303 с.
Пичугина В. С., Поплавская И. А. Творчество Д. Р. Киплинга в рецепции русских писателей и критиков первой половины XX в. // Вестник Томского государственного университета. Филология. 2015. Вып. 6(38). С. 136–146.
Симонов К. М. Собрание сочинений: в 10 т. Т. 1: Стихотворения. Поэмы. Вольные переводы / вступ. ст. Л. Лазарева; коммент. А. Александровой. М.: Худож. лит., 1979. 670 с.
Симонов К. М. Собрание сочинений: в 10 т. Т. 10: Далеко на Востоке (Халхин-Гольские записки). Япония-46. Воспоминания / подгот. текста и примеч. Л. Лазарева. М.: Худож. лит., 1985. 624 с.
Шкловский В. Б. Жили-были: воспоминания, мемуарные записи, повести о времени: с конца XIX в. по 1964 г. М.: Сов. писатель, 1966. 552 с.
Эткинд А. Русская литература, XIX век: Ро-ман внутренней колонизации // Новое лит. обозрение. 2003. № 1(59). С. 103–124.
Эткинд А. Внутренняя колонизация. Имперский опыт России / авториз. пер. с англ. В. Макарова. М.: Новое лит. обозрение, 2013. 448 с.
Hodgeson K. The Poetry of Rudyard Kipling in Soviet Russia // The Modern Language Review. 1998. № 4 (Vol. 93). P. 1058–1071.
References
Kipling R. Izbrannye stikhi iz vsekh knig [Selected verses from all books]. Comp., ed. of new translations, afterword by V. Betaki. Sine loco, Salamandra P. V. V., 2011. 331 p. (In Russ.)
Kukulin I. V. Lirika sovetskoy sub’’ektivnosti: 1930–1941 [Poetry of the Soviet subjectivity: 1930–1941]. Filologicheskiy klass [Philological Class], 2014, issue 1(35), pp. 7–19. (In Russ.)
Lipovetsky М. N. Neoromantizm v russkoy poezii 20–21 vekov: smysl i granitsy ponyatiya [Neoromanticism In Russian poetry of the 20th–21st centuries: Meaning and scope of the concept]. Filologicheskiy klass [Philological Class], 2018, issue 1(51), pр. 13–18. (In Russ.)
Lugovskoy V. A. Sobranie sochineniy: v 3 t. [Collected works in 3 vols.]. Comp. and ed. by E. Bykova-Lugovskaya, preface by I. L. Greenberg. Moscow, Khudozhestvennaya Literatura Publ., 1988, vol. 1. Stikhotvoreniya [Poems]. 477 p. (In Russ.)
Lugovskoy V. A. Sobranie sochineniy: v 3 t. [Collected works in 3 vols.]. Comp. and ed. by E. Bykova-Lugovskaya. Moscow, Khudozhestvennaya Literatura Publ., 1989, vol. 3. Poemy; Proza [Poems; Prose]. 525 p. (In Russ.)
Martynov I. F. Kipling i Gumilev – poety dvukh imperiy. K voprosu o sud’be poeticheskogo naslediya R. Kiplinga v Rossii [Kipling and Gumilev as poets of the two empires. On R. Kipling’s poetic legacy In Russia]. Vestnik russkogo khristianskogo dvizheniya [Russian Christian Movement Herald], 1987, issue 3(151), pр. 166–189. (In Russ.)
Miller F. Stalinskiy fol’klor [Folklore of the Stalin era]. Transl. from Eng. by L. N. Vysotskiy. St. Petersburg, Akademicheskiy Proekt Publ., DNK Publ., 2006. 190 p. (In Russ.)
Mirskiy D. P. Stat’i o literature [Essays on literature]. Preface by N. Anastas’ev, comp. and comm. by M. Andronov. Moscow, Khudozhestvennaya Literatura Publ., 1987. 303 p. (In Russ.)
Pichugina V. S., Poplavskaya I. A. Tvorchestvo D. R. Kiplinga v retseptsii russkikh pisateley i kritikov pervoy poloviny 20 v. [Works of J. R. Kipling in the reception of Russian writers and critics of the first half of the 20th century]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Filologiya [Tomsk State University Journal of Philology], 2015, issue 6 (38), pр. 136–146. (In Russ.)
Simonov K. M. Sobranie sochineniy: v 10 t. [Collected works in 10 vols.]. Preface by L. Lazarev, comments by A. Aleksandrova. Moscow, Khudozhestvennaya Literatura Publ., 1979, vol. 1. Stikhotvoreniya. Poemy. Vol’nye perevody [Verses. Poems. Free Translations]. 670 p. (In Russ.)
Simonov K. M. Sobranie sochineniy: v 10 t. [Collected works in 10 vols.]. Moscow, Khudozhestvennaya Literatura Publ., 1985, vol. 10. Daleko na Vostoke (Khalkhin-Gol’skie zapiski). Yaponiya-1946. Vospominaniya [Far in the East (Khalkhin Gol notes). Japan-1946. Memoirs]. 624 p. (In Russ.)
Shklovskiy V. B. Zhili-byli: vospominaniya, memuarnye zapisi, povesti o vremeni: s kontsa 19 v. po 1964 g. [Once upon a time: Memoirs, memoir notes, novels on time: From the late 19th century to 1964]. Moscow, Sovetskiy Pisatel’ Publ., 1966. 552 p. (In Russ.)
Etkind А. Russkaya literatura, 19 vek: Roman vnutrenney kolonizatsii [Russian literature, the 19th century: Novel of internal colonization]. Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie [New Literary Observer], 2003, issue 1(59), pр. 103–124. (In Russ.)
Etkind А. Vnutrennyaya kolonizatsiya. Imperskiy opyt Rossii [Internal colonization. Russia’s imperial experience]. Transl. from Eng. by V. Makarov. Moscow, Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie Publ., 2013. 448 p. (In Russ.)
Hodgeson K. The poetry of Rudyard Kipling in Soviet Russia. The Modern Language Review, 1998, issue 4 (vol. 93), pp. 1058–1071. (In Eng.)
