Eurasianism Today and What Lev Gumilev Was Right About

Lev Gumilev, the son of the famous Russian poets Nikolai Gumilev and Anna Akhmatova, according to all the canons of history, had to remain in the shadow of his great parents. However, Lev Gumilev went down in history as a very outstanding personality, the author of the original idea of the birth and development of ethnicities, which was called the “passion” theory of ethnogenesis. This theory causes great controversy about its scientific nature to this day. Lev Gumilev developed his theory within the framework of the concept of Eurasianism. Among the wide variety of Eurasian peoples, Gumilev saw a common ethnic origin, common stereotypes of behavior that could lead to the geopolitical unity of the territory inhabited by them. At the end of the last century, primordialism in ethnology was rejected by the majority of the scientific community, and Gumilev’s ideas were criticized. However, last years the Eurasianist ideas of Lev Gumilev are experiencing a new wave of importance in connection with the strategic path of development that the Russian Federation has chosen for itself, which is progressively building the United Eurasian Community.

Literary Translation as a Polemic Manifestation of Program Mindsets of Silver Age Trends (translations by V. Bryusov and N. Gumilyov)

The question of literary translation of poems that are important in the context of developing a new artistic strategy by the leaders of the poetic movements of the Silver Age is considered. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that the multicultural and multilingual dialogue of translators is analyzed both with the texts of the original and with each other. The results of a comparative analysis of poems by Paul Verlaine “Art Poétique” in the translation of Valery Bryusov and Teofil Gautier “L’Art” in the translation of Nikolai Gumilyov are presented. The author notes that Bryusov saw ideas that resonate with his idea of symbolism as a stylistic phenomenon in Verlaine’s work. Particular attention is paid to the fact that Verlaine is polemicizing with the previous tradition - the poetry of the Parnassians, whose principles were embodied in the work of Gautier. The question is raised that Nikolai Gumilev, translating Gautier, engaged in implicit controversy with both Bryusov and Verlaine. The author dwells on the fact that the background of this polemic is the justification of the “neoparnassian” and “neoclassical” foundations in the style and poetics of acmeism. It is proved that the purpose of this polemic is the manifestation of the program mindsets of symbolism (in Bruce's version) and acmeism (in Gumilev version) based on the authority of Verlaine and Gautier.

Alexander Blok and Nikolai Gumilev in the Petrograd Union of Poets

In this article, the author proposes a detailed reconstruction of the history of the Petrograd Union of Poets, which was established with an avid participation of both Alexander Blok and Nikolai Gumilev. The author focuses his attention on their literary and organizational activities within the framework of the Union of Poets, as well as on their professional relations that have now become a subject of several myths created by unreliable memoirs and supported by the poets’ credulous biographers. The article is based on archival materials, magazine reviews and newspaper chronicles from 1920–21. The author also uses Blok’s Notebooks, heavily censored in the Soviet times but now made available in autographs.

Odoevtseva, Irina Vladimirovna (1895–1990)

Poet, memoirist, and novelist with roots in the Acmeist literary movement, Odoevtseva is best known for her two volumes of memoirs, which portray many of the leading figures of the Russian Silver Age. Born in Rīga, she died in Leningrad (modern-day St. Petersburg). She moved to Petrograd in 1918, where she studied poetry under Nikolai Gumilev, joined the second Guild of Poets, and published a book of verse. In 1922 she emigrated to France with her husband, the poet Georgy Ivanov (1894–1958), spending most of her life in Paris at the center of Russian émigré literary society, and visiting the USA only once. As an émigré, Odoevtseva initially turned to writing prose, with female protagonists as the focus of her interwar novels. During the post-Second World War period, she published several volumes of poetry, continued to place her work in various literary journals, and worked on the staff of Russkaia mysl’ [Russian Thought]. Georgy Ivanov died in 1958, and in 1978 she married writer Iakov Nikolaevich Gorbov (1896–1982). In 1987 Odoevtseva returned to live permanently in Leningrad at the invitation of the Writers’ Union. She was warmly welcomed, and attained her lifelong dream of reconnecting with Russian audiences through public appearances and the publication of some of her works.

Zenkevich, Mikhail Aleksandrovich (1886–1973)

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Zenkevich was a Russian poet and author, one of the founders of Tsekh poetov [The Guild of Poets] and the Acmeist movement—a representative of its left wing, Adamism. The association of Zenkevich and Narbut with Acmeism has often been referred to as one of a social and rather conventional nature, yet for both poets it was indisputable. Zenkevich’s first book, Dikaia porfira [Savage Purple] (1912), praised by Acmeism’s leader Nikolai Gumilev (1912), as well as by fellow poets Sergei Gorodetsky and Georgy Ivanov (1994), is on a par with Anna Akhmatova’s Vecher [Evening] (1912), Vladimir Narbut’s Alliluiia [Hallelujah] (1912), and Osip Mandelstam’s Kamen’ [Stone] (1913) for its importance to the Acmeist aesthetic. Zenkevich’s legacy is significant and diverse. He authored twelve books of poetry, two novels, Muzhitskii Sfinks [The Peasant Sphinx] (1928) and Na strezhen’ [To the River Bend] (1994); short prose, dramatic poems—Al’timetr [Altimeter] (1991–1921, 2004) and Triumf aviatsii [The Triumph of Aviation] (1937, unpublished)—translations, and critical articles. He became one of the founders of the Russian 20th-century school of poetic translation and was the longest surviving member of Acmeism.