What is characteristic of the Silver Age. Who coined the term "Silver Age"

The literature of the Silver Age in Russia, created at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, is an important part of the artistic heritage of our country. This time was characterized by the presence of many different directions and currents, ideological inconsistency, inherent not only in various authors, but also taking place even in the work of individual writers, composers, and artists. During this period, there was an update, a rethinking of many types and genres of creativity. As noted by M.V. Nesterov, there was a "general reassessment of values."

Even among progressive thinkers and cultural figures, there was an ambivalent attitude towards the creative heritage left by the revolutionary democrats.

Decadence

In general, and the literature of the Silver Age in Russia, in particular, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, were marked by the widespread decadence (“decadence”), which proclaimed faith in reason, the loss of civic ideals, and withdrawal into personal, individual experiences. Thus, some part of the intelligentsia sought to "get away" from the difficulties of life into the world of irreality, dreams, and sometimes mysticism. This process took place, because at that time there was a crisis in public life, and artistic creativity only reflected it.

Decadence captured even the representatives of the realistic. However, most often such ideas were still characteristic of the representatives of the modernist trends.

Modernism and realism in art

The term "modernism" is used in relation to many types of art of the 20th century. It appeared at the beginning of the century, and its predecessor was realism. However, the latter had not yet gone into the past by that time, thanks to the influence of modernism, new features arose in it: the “framework” of the vision of life moved apart, and the search for means of self-expression of the individual in artistic creativity began.

The most important feature of the art of the early 20th century is the synthesis, the unification of various forms.

Turn of the century literature

Back in the 90s of the 19th century, directions were outlined in Russian literature that opposed the realism prevailing at that time. Chief among them was modernism. Many writers of the Silver Age (we will consider the list, directions and their main representatives below) one way or another left realism. They continued to create, creating new trends and directions.

Modernism

Literature of the Silver Age in Russia opens with modernism. It united various poets and writers, sometimes very different in their ideological and artistic appearance. At that time, active modernist searches began, which were largely inspired by F. Nietzsche, as well as some Russian writers, for example, A.A. Kamensky, M.P. Artsybashev and others. They proclaimed the freedom of literary creativity, called themselves its priests, preached the cult of the "superman" who renounced social and moral ideals.

Symbolism

As a direction, symbolism in Russia took shape at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Allocate "senior" symbolists, which include V. Bryusov, F. Sologub, K. Balmont, Z. Gippius and others who were the first to create in this direction. The younger representatives include the Silver Age writers A. Bely, V. Ivanov, S. Solovyov, A. Blok and others. The theoretical, aesthetic and philosophical foundations of this trend were very diverse. For example, according to V. Bryusov, symbolism was a purely artistic direction, and Merezhkovsky took Christianity as a basis; Vyacheslav Ivanov relied on the aesthetics and philosophy of antiquity as interpreted by Nietzsche, and A. Bely was fond of the works of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Kant, V. Solovyov. The basis of the ideology of the "younger" symbolists is the philosophy of V. Solovyov with the idea of ​​the advent of Eternal Femininity and the Third Testament.

The Symbolists left as a legacy both poetry and prose, drama. But the most characteristic was poetry, in various genres of which many writers of the Silver Age worked in this direction.

V.Ya. Bryusov

Creativity V.Ya. Bryusov (1873-1924) is marked by many ideological searches. The revolutionary events of 1905 aroused his admiration and marked the beginning of the poet's departure from symbolism. However, Bryusov did not immediately choose a new direction, as he formed his own attitude towards the revolution, which was very contradictory. The poet joyfully welcomed the forces that, in his opinion, were to cleanse Russia of its former principles and beliefs and put an end to the old world. However, in his work, he also noted that this elemental force carries destruction in itself. "To break - I will be with you! To build - no!" - wrote V.Ya. Bryusov.

His work is characterized by a desire for a scientific understanding of life, a revival of interest in history, which was shared by other writers of the Silver Age (the list of representatives of symbolism was indicated above).

Realism

The ideological contradictions characteristic of the era as a whole also influenced some realist writers. For example, in the work of L.N. Andreev reflected a departure from realistic principles.

But in general, realism has not disappeared. The literature of the Silver Age, whose poets emerged from realism, retained this trend. The fate of an ordinary person, various social problems, life in many of its manifestations were still reflected in culture. One of the greatest representatives of realism at that time was the writer A. Bunin (1870-1953). In difficult pre-revolutionary times, he created the story "The Village" (in 1910) and "Dry Valley" (in 1911).

Acmeism

In 1910, there was a controversy around symbolism, and its crisis was outlined. This direction is gradually being replaced by acmeism ("acme" in Greek - the highest degree, blooming time). The founders of the new trend are considered to be N.S. Gumilyov and This group also included writers of the Silver Age O.E. Mandelstam, M.A. Kuzmin, V. Khodasevich, A.A. Akhmatova, M.A. Zenkevich and others.

In contrast to some obscurity, vagueness of symbolism, the acmeists proclaimed earthly existence, "a clear view of life" as their support. In addition, the acmeist literature of the Silver Age (whose poets and writers have just been listed) introduced an aesthetic-hedonistic function into art, trying to get away from social problems in poetry. In acmeism, decadent motifs are clearly audible, and philosophical idealism has become the theoretical support of this trend. Some Russian writers of the Silver Age went further in their work, which acquired new ideological and artistic qualities (for example, A.A. Akhmatova, M.A. Zenkevich, S.M. Gorodetsky).

In 1912, the collection "Hyperborea" was born, in which the new first declared itself. Acmeists considered themselves the successors of symbolism, about which Gumilyov said that he had "completed his circle of development", and proclaimed the rejection of rebellion, the struggle to change the conditions of life, which the literature of the Silver Age often expressed.

Writers - representatives of acmeism tried to revive the concreteness, objectivity of the image, to cleanse it of mysticism. However, their images are very different from realistic ones, as S. Gorodetsky put it, they seem to be "... born for the first time" and appear as something hitherto unseen.

A.A. Akhmatova

A.A. Akhmatova. The first collection of her poems "Evening" appeared in 1912. It is characterized by restrained intonations, psychologism, intimacy of themes, emotionality and deep lyricism. A.A. Akhmatova clearly started from the idea of ​​"original Adam" proclaimed by the Acmeists. Her work is characterized by love for a person, faith in his abilities and spiritual strength. The main part of the works of this poetess falls on the Soviet years.

Akhmatova's first two collections, the aforementioned "Evening" and "Rosary" (1914), brought her great fame. They reflect an intimate, narrow world, in which notes of sadness and sadness are guessed. The theme of love here, the most important and the only one, is closely connected with the suffering caused by biographical facts from the life of the poetess.

N.S. Gumilyov

The artistic heritage of N.S. Gumilyov. In the work of this poet, the main themes were historical and exotic, and he also sang "a strong personality." Gumilyov developed the form of verse, made it more precise and precise.

The work of the acmeists was not always opposed to the symbolists, because in their works one can find "other worlds", longing for them. Gumilyov, who at first welcomed the revolution, a year later was already writing poems about the death of the world, the end of civilization. He suddenly understands the devastating consequences of the war, which can be fatal for humanity. In his poem "Worker" he seems to foresee his death from the proletarian's shot, a bullet "that will separate me from the earth." Nikolai Stepanovich was shot allegedly for participating in a counter-revolutionary conspiracy.

Some poets and writers of the Silver Age - representatives of acmeism subsequently emigrated. Others have never been able to do it. For example, Anna Andreevna Akhmatova, wife of N.S. Gumilyov, did not accept the Great October Revolution, but refused to leave her native country. These events left a big mark in her soul, and the poetess was not immediately able to return to creativity. However, the beginning of the Great Patriotic War again awakened in her a patriot, a poet, confident in the victory of his country (works "Courage", "Oath" and others).

Futurism

At the same time as acmeism (that is, in 1910-1912), futurism arises. He, like other directions, was heterogeneous, highlighting several currents. The largest of them, cubo-futurism, united the poets V.V. Mayakovsky, V.V. Khlebnikova, D.D. Burliuk, V.V. Kamensky, and others. Another variety of futurism was egofuturism, represented by the work of I. Severyanin. The Centrifuge group included poets who were beginning at that time and B.L. Pasternak, as well as other writers and writers of the Silver Age.

Futurism revolutionized form, which now became independent of content, proclaimed freedom of speech, completely abandoning literary continuity and traditions. The Futurists' Manifesto "Slapping the Face of Public Taste", published in 1912, called for the overthrow of such great authorities as Tolstoy, Pushkin and Dostoevsky.

Writers of the Silver Age of Russian Literature V.V. Kamensky and V. Khlebnikov managed to conduct successful experiments with the word, which influenced the further development of Russian poetry.

V.V. Mayakovsky

Among the futurists, the great poet V.V. Mayakovsky (1893-1930). In 1912, his first poems were published. Mayakovsky was not only against "all kinds of junk", but also proclaimed the need to create a new one in public life. Vladimir Vladimirovich foresaw the October Revolution, denounced the realm of "fat", which was reflected in his poems "War and Peace", "A Cloud in Pants", "Man", "Spine Flute", in which the entire capitalist system was denied and faith in person.

Other poets and writers of the Silver Age

In the years preceding the revolution, there were other bright poets and writers of the Silver Age of Russian literature, who are difficult to attribute to one direction or another, for example, M.A. Voloshin and M.I. Tsvetaeva. The creativity of the latter is characterized by demonstrative independence, as well as rejection of generally accepted behavioral norms and ideas.

Russian culture of that time was the result of a long and difficult journey. High humanism, nationalism and democracy, despite the high pressure of government reaction, remained its integral features. More detailed information can be found in any textbook ("Literature", grade 11), the Silver Age is necessarily included in the school curriculum.

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FROM SIBERRY AGE OF RUSSIAN POETRY.

The Silver Age is a term that, according to the prevailing Russian criticism of the 20th century. traditions, designate the art (primarily the poetry of modernism, i.e. new, modern) of Russia at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. or early 20th century.

The boundaries of the designated period are defined by different researchers in different ways. The beginning of the Silver Age is dated by most scientists to the 1890s, some to the 1880s. Differences regarding its final border are great: from 1913–1915 to the middle of the 20th century. However, the point of view is gradually being asserted that the "Silver Age" came to an end in the early 1920s.
Vadim Kreid, a Russian poet and literary critic, believed: “It all ended after 1917, with the start of the civil war. There was no Silver Age after that. In the twenties, inertia still continued, for such a wide and powerful wave as our silver age was, could not stop moving for a while before crashing and breaking. Most of the poets, writers, critics, artists, philosophers, directors, composers were still alive, whose individual creativity and common work created the Silver Age, but the era itself ended. By inertia, some associations also continued - such as, for example, the House of Arts, the House of Writers, "World Literature" in Petrograd, but this postscript of the Silver Age was cut off in mid-sentence when a shot was fired that killed Gumilyov (the poet was shot in 1921).
The Silver Age emigrated - to Berlin, to Constantinople, to Prague, to Sofia, Paris... But even in the Russian diaspora, despite complete creative freedom, despite the abundance of talents, he could not be revived. The Renaissance needs a national soil and an air of freedom. Emigrant artists lost their native soil, those who remained in Russia lost the air of freedom.

The Silver Age was represented by various currents:

SYMBOLISM - one of the modernist trends in Russian poetry at the turn of the century (1890-1910)

- Art, from the point of view of symbolist poets, is "comprehension of the world in other, non-rational ways",the opportunity to see behind the outside world a "mystically see through essence".

–– A symbol (Greek symbolon – a conventional sign) is a poetic image that expresses the essence of a phenomenon. “A symbol is a window to infinity” (F. Sologub). “A symbol is only a true symbol when it is inexhaustible and limitless in its meaning” (Vyach. Ivanov).
So, Blok's "Stranger" can be read as a story in verse about a meeting with a charming woman. At the same time, the Stranger is a symbol in which the author's anxiety about the fate of beauty in the world of earthly vulgarity, and disbelief in the possibility of a miraculous transformation of life, and the dream of other worlds, and a dramatic understanding of the inseparability of "dirt" and "purity" in this world …

Characteristic poetry of the Symbolists
☺ understatement, concealment of meaning;

 transmission of the subtlest movements of the soul, the music of the verse, the maximum use of the sound and rhythmic means of poetry.

 Elitism. The work of the Symbolists was originally addressed to the elite, the initiates. The poet counted on the reader-co-author, not trying to be understood by everyone.
Publishing house "Scorpion"; Almanac "Northern Flowers"; magazines "Scales", "Golden Fleece".
"Senior Symbolists" - their works reflected despondency, disbelief in human capabilities, fear of life.

Gippius Zinaida Nikolaevna (1869–1945)

Merezhkovsky Dmitry Sergeevich

Bryusov Valery Yakovlevich (1873–1924)

Balmont Konstantin Dmitrievich

Sologub Fyodor (Fyodor Kuzmich Teternikov) (1863–1927)

"Junior Symbolists" - in their poetry, the desire for a higher ideal, faith in the higher purpose of art.

Bely Andrey (Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev)

Blok A.A. (1880–1921)

Ivanov Vyacheslav Ivanovich (1866–1949)

ACMEISM (Greek akme - the highest degree of something) - a modernist movement that was formed as a reaction to the extremes of symbolism.It acquires the main importance in poetry, according tothoughts of theorists of acmeism,artistic exploration of the diverse and vibrant earthly world. S. Gorodetsky wrote: "The struggle between acmeism and symbolism ... is, first of all, the struggle for this world, sounding, colorful, having shapes, weight and time ..."

Basic principles of acmeism.

–– Rejection of the mystical nebula, acceptance of the earthly world in its diversity, visible concreteness, sonority, colorfulness.

–– Objectivity and clarity of images, sharpness of details.

–– A call to the past literary epochs.

Literary association "Workshop of poets", magazine "Apollo",

Akhmatova Anna Andreevna (Gorenko) (1889-1966)

Gumilyov Nikolai Stepanovich (1886–1921)

Gorodetsky Sergey Mitrofanovich

Zenkevich Mikhail Alexandrovich (1891–1973)

Mandelstam Osip Emilievich (1891–1938)

FUTURISM (lat. futurum - future) - avant-garde movement of the early twentieth century (1910).

The main features of futurism.

–– Rebelliousness, anarchic outlook, expression of the mass mood of the crowd.

–– Rejection of cultural traditions, an attempt to create art directed towards the future.

–– Experimentation in the field of rhythm, rhyme, orientation to the spoken verse, slogan, poster.

–– The search for a “liberated”, “self-made” word, experiments to create an “abstruse” language.
In futurism, a kind of shocking repertoire has developed. Biting names were used: "Chukuryuk" - for the picture; "Dead Moon" - for a collection of works; "Go to hell!" - for a literary manifesto. Derogatory reviews of the previous cultural tradition and contemporary art were given. For example, "contempt" for Gorky, Andreev, Bryusov, and Blok, who were deliberately lumped together, was expressed in the manifesto "A Slap in the Face of Public Taste" in this way: "From the height of skyscrapers, we look at their insignificance!" D. Burliuk's assessment of outstanding contemporary artists could seem even more insulting: "Serov and Repin are watermelon peels floating in a garbage tub." The public speeches of the futurists were defiantly designed: the beginning and end of speeches were marked by gong strikes, K. Malevich appeared with a wooden spoon in his buttonhole, V. Mayakovsky - in a "women's" according to the then criteria yellow jacket, A. Kruchenykh wore a sofa cushion on a cord around his neck, etc. . P.

Burliuk David Davidovich (1882–1967)

Kamensky Vasily Vasilyevich (1884–1961

Kruchenykh Alexey Eliseevich (1886–1968)

Mayakovsky V.V. (1893–1930)

Khlebnikov Velimir (1885–1922) (Viktor Vladimirovich Khlebnikov)

Late XIX - early XX centuries. - a period that went down in history under the name of the Silver Age of Russian culture. This was most clearly manifested in Russian poetry, literature and art. N. A. Berdyaev called this rapid rise in all areas of culture the “Russian cultural renaissance”.

The state of society in the last years of the Russian Empire

At the end of XIX - beginning of XX centuries. Russia's development was extremely uneven. Huge successes in the development of science, technology, and industry were intertwined with the backwardness and illiteracy of the vast majority of the population.

The 20th century drew a sharp line between “old” and “new” culture. The First World War further complicated the situation.

Culture of the Silver Age

At the beginning of the 20th century, critical realism remained the leading trend in literature. At the same time, the search for new forms leads to the emergence of completely new trends.

Rice. 1. Black square. K. Malevich. 1915.

The creative elite saw World War I as an omen of the imminent end of the world. The themes of world cataclysms, sadness, melancholy, uselessness of life are becoming popular.

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Many poets and writers, indeed, very plausibly predicted the future Civil War and the victory of the Bolsheviks.

Briefly about the Silver Age of Russian culture, the following table tells:

Table “Silver Age of Russian Culture”

Rice. 2. Heroic lope. V. M. Vasnetsov. 1914.

In the era of the Silver Age, Russian theater and ballet achieve great success:

• In 1898, the Moscow Art Theater was founded, headed by K. S. Stanislavsky and V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko.
• "Russian Seasons" abroad with the participation of A. P. Pavlova, M. F. Kshesinskaya, M. I. Fokin became a real triumph of Russian ballet.

Rice. 3. A. P. Pavlova. 1912

Silver age in world history

The Silver Age was of great importance for the development of world culture. Russia has proved to the whole world that it still claims to be a great cultural power.

Nevertheless, the era of the “cultural renaissance” was the last conquest of the collapsing Russian Empire. The October Revolution put an end to the Silver Age.

What have we learned?

The golden age of Russian culture at the end of the 19th century was replaced by the Silver. This era, which lasted until October 1917, was marked by the emergence of a huge number of brilliant figures of culture and art. The cultural conquests of the Silver Age are highly respected throughout the world.

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"Silver Age"… The atmosphere of this period was created not only directly by creative artists. But also organizers of artistic life, famous patrons. According to the legend, he called this golden page of Russian culture the “Silver Age” philosopher Nikolay Berdyaev. The poetry of the Silver Age was marked by a spiritual outburst unparalleled in the history of culture. We know only a small part of the cultural wealth accumulated by mankind. Poets and philosophers of the "Silver Age" sought to master all layers of world culture.

It is customary to define the boundaries of the "Silver Age" in just a quarter of a century: 1890-1913. However, these boundaries are highly contested on both sides. In scientific works, the beginning is usually taken as the middle of 1890 - Merezhkovsky and the early Bryusov. Anthologies - starting from the time of the famous anthologies of Yezhov and Shamurin - usually begin with Vl. Solovyov, whose poetics was formed back in the 1870s. The collection "Sonnet of the Silver Age" opens with Pleshcheev. At the beginning of the century, Gogol, Tupgenev, Dostoevsky were attributed to the predecessors of modernism. The Symbolists placed at the origins of their school either Sluchevsky and Fofanov, or Aeschylus - and almost the poetry of Atlantis.

To the question: “When did the Silver Age end? a normal average intelligent person will answer: "October 25, 1917." Many will name 1921 - marked by the death of Blok and Gumilyov. But the poets of the "Silver Age" include Akhmatova, Mandelstam, Pasternak, Tsvetaeva, who created their poems after 1920 and after 1930.

The work of some poets of the post-revolutionary era does not fit into the framework of socialist realism. Therefore, the poet's reference to the "Silver Age" would be more correctly determined not by dates, but by poetics.

The poets of the "Silver Age" are interested in the poetic possibilities of the word, the subtle shades of meanings in poems. Epic genres are rare in this era: A. Blok's poem "The Twelve", M. Kuzmin's "Trout breaks the ice", but these works lack a coherent plot.

The form in the "Silver Age" plays a major role, poets experiment with the word, rhyme. Each author is brightly individual: you can immediately determine who owns those or other lines. But everyone strives to make the verse more tangible so that everyone can feel every line.

Another feature of the poetry of the "Silver Age" is the use of mystical meanings, symbols. Mysticism painted with itself eternal themes: love, creativity, nature, homeland. Even small details in the verses were given a mystical meaning...

The poetry of the "Silver Age" is tragic, imbued with a sense of universal catastrophe, motives for death, destruction, withering - hence the term "decadence". But the end is always the beginning, and in the minds of the poets of the "Silver Age" there is a premonition of the beginning of a new life, grandiose, glorious.

The complexity and ambiguity of the Silver Age worldviews gave rise to many poetic trends: symbolism, acmeism, futurism.

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The Silver Age is the heyday of Russian poetry at the beginning of the 20th century, characterized by the appearance of a large number of poets, poetic movements who preached a new, different from the old ideals, aesthetics. The name "Silver Age" is given by analogy with the "Golden Age" (the first half of the 19th century), the term was introduced by Nikolai Otsup. The "Silver Age" ran from 1892 to 1921.

History

The question of the chronological framework of this phenomenon remains controversial. If researchers are quite unanimous in defining the beginning of the "Silver Age" - this is a phenomenon at the turn of the 80s - 90s of the XIX century, then the end of this period is controversial. It can be attributed to both 1917 and 1921. Some researchers insist on the first option, believing that after 1917, with the start of the Civil War, the "silver age" ceased to exist, although those who created this phenomenon with their creativity were still alive in the 1920s. Others believe that the Russian Silver Age was interrupted in the year of the death of Alexander Blok and the execution of Nikolai Gumilyov, and the time frame for this period is about thirty years.

Literary currents and associations

Symbolism

A new literary trend - symbolism - was the product of a deep crisis that engulfed European culture at the end of the 19th century. The crisis manifested itself in a negative assessment of progressive social ideas, in the revision of moral values, in the loss of faith in the power of the scientific subconscious, in the enthusiasm for idealistic philosophy. Russian symbolism was born in the years of the collapse of Populism and the wide spread of pessimistic sentiments. All this led to the fact that the literature of the "Silver Age" does not raise topical social issues, but global philosophical ones. The chronological framework of Russian symbolism - 1890s - 1910. The formation of symbolism in Russia was influenced by two literary traditions:

Patriotic - the poetry of Fet, Tyutchev, Dostoevsky's prose;

French symbolism - the poetry of Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Baudelaire. The symbolism was not uniform. Schools and currents stood out in it: "senior" and "junior" symbolists.

Senior Symbolists

Petersburg Symbolists: D.S. Merezhkovsky, Z.N. Gippius, F.K. Sologub, N.M. Minsky. In the work of the St. Petersburg Symbolists, at first, decadent moods and motives of disappointment prevailed. Therefore, their work is sometimes called decadent.

Moscow Symbolists: V.Ya. Bryusov, K.D. Balmont.

The "senior" symbolists perceived symbolism in an aesthetic sense. According to Bryusov and Balmont, the poet is, first of all, the creator of purely personal and purely artistic values.

Junior Symbolists

A.A. Blok, A. Bely, V.I. Ivanov. The "younger" symbolists perceived symbolism in philosophical and religious terms. For the "younger" symbolism is a philosophy refracted in the poetic consciousness.

Acmeism

Acmeism (Adamism) stood out from symbolism and opposed it. Acmeists proclaimed materiality, objectivity of themes and images, the accuracy of the word (from the standpoint of "art for art's sake"). Its formation is associated with the activities of the poetic group "Poets' Workshop". The founders of acmeism were Nikolai Gumilyov and Sergey Gorodetsky. Gumilyov's wife Anna Akhmatova, as well as Osip Mandelstam, Mikhail Zenkevich, Georgy Ivanov and others joined the movement.

Russian futurism

Futurism was the first avant-garde trend in Russian literature. Assigning itself the role of a prototype of the art of the future, futurism as the main program put forward the idea of ​​destroying cultural stereotypes and instead offered an apology for technology and urbanism as the main signs of the present and the future. The founders of Russian futurism are considered members of the St. Petersburg group "Gileya". "Gilea" was the most influential, but not the only association of futurists: there were also ego-futurists headed by Igor Severyanin (St. Petersburg), groups "Centrifuga" and "Mezzanine of Poetry" in Moscow, groups in Kyiv, Kharkov, Odessa, Baku .

cubofuturism

In Russia, "Budetlyane", members of the "Gilea" poetic group, called themselves Cubo-Futurists. They were characterized by a demonstrative rejection of the aesthetic ideals of the past, shocking, active use of occasionalisms. Within the framework of cubo-futurism, "abstruse poetry" developed. The Cubo-Futurist poets included Velimir Khlebnikov, Elena Guro, David and Nikolai Burliuk, Vasily Kamensky, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Alexei Kruchenykh, Benedict Livshits.

egofuturism

In addition to the general futuristic writing, egofuturism is characterized by the cultivation of refined sensations, the use of new foreign words, and ostentatious selfishness. Egofuturism was a short-lived phenomenon. Most of the attention of critics and the public was transferred to Igor Severyanin, who quite early stepped aside from the collective politics of the ego-futurists, and after the revolution he completely changed the style of his poetry. Most ego-futurists either quickly outlived the style and moved on to other genres, or soon abandoned literature altogether. In addition to Severyanin, Vadim Shershenevich, Rurik Ivnev and others joined this trend at different times.

Peasant poetry

The concept of "peasant poetry", which has become part of historical and literary usage, unites poets conditionally and reflects only some common features inherent in their worldview and poetic manner. They did not form a single creative school with a single ideological and poetic program. As a genre, "peasant poetry" was formed in the middle of the 19th century. Its largest representatives were Alexey Vasilyevich Koltsov, Ivan Savvich Nikitin and Ivan Zakharovich Surikov. They wrote about the work and life of the peasant, about the dramatic and tragic collisions of his life. Their work reflected both the joy of merging workers with the natural world, and a feeling of dislike for the life of a stuffy, noisy city alien to wildlife. The most famous peasant poets of the Silver Age period were: Spiridon Drozhzhin, Nikolai Klyuev, Pyotr Oreshin, Sergey Klychkov. Sergei Yesenin also joined this trend.

Imagism

The Imagists claimed that the purpose of creativity is to create an image. The main expressive means of the Imagists is a metaphor, often metaphorical chains that compare various elements of two images - direct and figurative. The creative practice of the Imagists is characterized by outrageous, anarchist motives. The style and general behavior of Imagism was influenced by Russian Futurism. The founders of Imagism are Anatoly Mariengof, Vadim Shershenevich and Sergei Yesenin. Rurik Ivnev and Nikolai Erdman also joined Imagism.

satirical poetry

Speaking about the main directions of Russian poetry of the Silver Age, poetic schools and individual groups, one cannot fail to mention another association that entered the history of literature under the name "Satyricon".

It will be not so much about satire as a genre, but about a poetic style (not always feuilleton), which, due to various kinds of circumstances, was allowed to behave more freely within the framework of censorship than other currents.

Here it is difficult to talk about some kind of innovation - rather, about the development of the rich traditions of this genre of Russian literature, which has brilliant predecessors. But during the "revolutionary transformations", which in this case is the period we are considering, in the satirical and poetic field, too, if not revolutionary, then all the same changes took place. At least in the methodology, since, firstly, modernist trends influenced not only literature, but in general all areas of art, and secondly, the most talented poets of their time worked in this genre, which will be discussed in this article. section.

April 1, 1908 became a symbolic date. On this day, the first issue of the new weekly magazine "Satyricon" was published in St. Petersburg, which then had a noticeable impact on public consciousness for a whole decade. The first editor-in-chief of the magazine was the artist Aleksey Aleksandrovich Radakov (1877-1942), and from the ninth issue this post was transferred to the satirist, playwright and journalist Arkady Timofeevich Averchenko.

The editorial office of the magazine was located on Nevsky Prospekt, at number 9. "Satyricon" was a cheerful and caustic publication, sarcastic and evil; it interspersed witty text with caustic caricatures, amusing anecdotes were replaced by political caricature. At the same time, the magazine differed from many other humorous publications of those years in its social content: here, without going beyond the bounds of decency, representatives of the authorities, obscurantists, and Black Hundreds were uncompromisingly ridiculed and scourged. The position of the magazine in the last paragraph was determined not so much by writers and journalists with Jewish roots - V. Azov, O. Dymov, O. L. D'Or, but by purebred Russians: A. Averchenko, A. Bukhov, Teffi and others who gave anti-Semites far more violent rebuff than their Jewish counterparts.

satirists such as V. Knyazev, Sasha Cherny and A. Bukhov were published by L. Andreev, A. Tolstoy, V. Mayakovsky, famous Russian artists B. Kustodiev, I. Bilibin, A. Benois performed with illustrations. In a relatively short period of time - from 1908 to 1918 - this satirical magazine (and its later version, The New Satyricon) created a whole trend in Russian literature and an era that was unforgettable in its history.

A special merit in such a loud popularity of the "Satyricon" largely belonged to the gifted poets - satirists and humorists who collaborated in the magazine.

"Satyricon" attracted readers by the fact that its authors practically refused to denounce specific high-ranking persons. Nor did they have "compulsory love for the junior janitor." After all, stupidity remains stupidity everywhere, vulgarity remains vulgarity, and therefore the desire to show a person such situations when he himself can be ridiculous comes to the fore. Objective satire is being replaced by "lyrical satire", self-irony, which makes it possible to reveal the character "from the inside". This was especially pronounced in poetry, where the object of a satirical or humorous image is a lyrical hero.

The work of Sasha Cherny, Teffi, P. Potemkin, V. Goryansky, V. Knyazev, E. Vensky and other leading poets of the "Satyricon" was presented on its pages in various genres: poetic cartoons, pamphlets, humoresques, parodies, fables, epigrams. A very popular genre at the beginning of the 20th century was the feuilleton (including poetry), which attracted the public with topicality, a clearly expressed author's position, polemicism, and wit.

During the heyday of the journal, in 1911, its publisher M. G. Kornfeld published in the journal library "The General History Processed by the Satyricon". The authors of this brilliant parody-satirical work were Teffi, O. Dymov, Ark. Averchenko and O. L. D'Or, the book was illustrated by satyric artists A. Radakov, A. Yakovlev, A Junger and Re-Mi (N. Remizov).

The popularity of Teffi and Averchenko in those years is difficult to find analogues. Suffice it to say that Nicholas II himself read these authors with pleasure and bound their books into leather and satin. And it is no coincidence that the beginning of the "General History" was instructed to "process" Teffi: knowing whose favorite writer she was, one could not be afraid of censorship objections. Thus, speaking out against the Duma, the government, officials, bureaucrats of all stripes, the Satyricon, with the highest goodwill, unexpectedly fell into the role of legal opposition; its authors managed to do much more in politics with their poetic and prose works than any politician.

However, in May 1913 the magazine split over financial issues. As a result, Averchenko and all the best literary forces left the editorial office and founded the New Satyricon magazine. The former "Satyricon" under the direction of Kornfeld continued to publish for some time, but lost the best authors and as a result closed in April 1914. And the "New Satyricon" continued to exist successfully (18 issues came out) until the summer of 1918, when it was banned by the Bolsheviks for its counter-revolutionary orientation.