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THE FRENZIED POETS
By
The
FRENZIED POETS
THE RUSSIAN SYMBOLISTS
O L E G A. M A S L E N I K O V
1952
University of California Press • Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
Cambridge University Press • London, England
Copyright 1952
by the Regents of the University of California
vii
viii Preface
embracing explanation of even so much as a single piece of
literature. Literature, like all art, like culture itself, is so com-
plex a phenomenon as to demand a many-sided illumination to
bring out all its facets.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the various presentations
of the Russian symbolist movement show diverse and at times
even conflicting interpretations. Moreover, the term "symbol-
ism" embraces a number of different connotations, because it
describes not a single, homogeneous current, but rather several,
parallel streams. This adds to the confusion. A writer who per-
haps best reflects these various streams is Andrey Biely (pseu-
donym of Boris Nikolayevich Bugayev, 1880—1934). He was
one of the leaders of the "younger" symbolists, who claimed
that a symbolist poet was a superior being, a forerunner of a
new race of artists—of men who could intuitively divine Plato's
ideal world and interpret the truth through the temporal sym-
bols that are accessible to the average man.
The life and works of a symbolist writer are inseparably
connected, for his writings reflect his inner experiences insofar
as they enable him to glimpse, in moments of creative ecstasy,
the absolute that lies beyond the veil of Isis. The present study
will, consequently, seek to establish certain biographical data
in the life of Andrey Biely, and to point out how his experiences
may have affected his works and those of his literary col-
leagues. Furthermore, since his biography and writings reflect
the "symbolist mentality" (to borrow a term from Professor
Janko Lavrin), a study of Biely's life and work may help to
illuminate the essence of the symbolist movement in Russia.
I feel that a word about the verses quoted is necessary. The
translations into English of some examples of modern Russian
poems (several of which appear without a title in the original),
seek to convey primarily the "feeling" of the Russian verse.
Their aim is to preserve the meaning and the rhythm of the
Russian. The translations, therefore, seek to duplicate such
Preface ix
deviations from the classical poetic forms as occur in the sym-
bolist verses, especially the lame or varying meters found in
some poems of Blok, Biely, and Balmont. For the same reason
they retain the peculiar system of capitalization in Biely's early
verses. I am aware of the differences between good Russian and
good English poetry. Yet in these translations I have occasion-
ally sacrificed poetic value, especially good rhymes, to pre-
serve the inner rhythm of the Russian, which was the main con-
cern of the symbolist poets. In their rebellion against tradition
they regarded themselves primarily as "bearers of rhythm,"
paying less attention to good rhymes and resorting also to <isso-
nances, which they infinitely preferred to trite, hackneyed,
"acceptable" forms. I also followed the authors in their occa-
sional use of three periods where we would ordinarily expect
dashes. These periods are set close, to distinguish them from
the spaced periods indicating missing words.
I might add a word about the nonchronological order of the
book. I have preferred to present Biely from several sides, in
his relations with other members of the Russian symbolist
movement, and thus attempted to reconstruct a general picture
of that fascinating period in the history of Russian culture. I
have, therefore, been obliged to discuss events in Biely's life
from several angles, and on occasion to repeat myself. I trust
that this flaw is offset by the advantages of the approach se-
lected for this study.
Various persons have shared with me their reminiscences
and materials pertaining to this study. I am grateful to many,
among them to Anna Alexeyevna Turgenev, the late Vladislav
Felicianovich Hodasevich, and especially to the late Mikhail
Andreyevich Osorgin. I should like also to express my appre-
ciation for the guidance and inspiration that I owe to my teach-
ers, colleagues, and friends: the late Professors Alexander S.
Kaun and George Z. Patrick; Professor Robert J. Kerner; -and,
particularly, Professor George R. Noyes, to whom I am deeply
x Preface
indebted for his invaluable and ever-patient criticism of the
manuscript, and to whom this work is dedicated. I should like
to thank also Professors Rudolf Altrocchi, Clarence D. Bren-
ner, Jacqueline E. de La Harpe, Waclaw Lednicki, Lawrence
M. Price, and Robert K. Spaulding, for their helpful criticism
and suggestions; and Professor Gleb P. Struve for his construc-
tive interest.
Finally I should like to acknowledge my debt to two mem-
bers of the editorial staff of the University of California Press:
to Professor William Hardy Alexander for his aid in improv-
ing a number of my translations (to his efforts I owe the rhymed
version of Bryusov's poem "To the City"); and to Mr. Maxwell
E. Knight for his numerous helpful suggestions in editing the
final version of the book.
Oleg A. Maslenikov
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA
CONTENTS
PART I : T H E BACKGROUND
3. Childhood 33
4. Boris Bugayev and the Solovyovs 45
5. Boris Bugayev as Man and Artist 65
PART III : ANDREY BIELY AND "LA MÊLÉE SYMBOLISTE"
a a a T
6 b b y u u
B v * f f
g /kh
r g kh
« d h* l M
d ^ ts ts
e ch ch
e H
ye:* * m sh sh
e e yo m shch shch
HC zh zh ï> (omit)
3 z z bl y
H i i b (omit)
Ë i y 9
K k k •fe
JI 1 1 \iei
H m m K) îu yu
H n n a ia
O o o - £10 -yi
n P P -ya
{î
- HÖ -ii
P r r
c s s
* initial, when b is transliterated
* * initial and intervocalic; but e after i or y following
t initial g, k, kh
X when accented, except when following g, k, kh
ABBREVIATIONS
U S E D IN THE FOOTNOTES
Arabeski: Andrei Belyi, Arabeski (Moscow, 1911), 504 pp.
Nachalo veka: Andrei Belyi, Nachalo veka (Moscow, 1933), 503 pp.
Na rubezhe: Andrei Belyi, Na rubezhe dvukh stoletii (Moscow, 1930),
496 pp.
NekropoF: Vladislav Khodasevich, NekropoV (Bruxelles, 1939), 280
3
4 The Frenzied Poets
II (March 1, 1881) had led the government to adopt a vigor-
ously reactionary course, and during the ensuing quarter cen-
tury, Konstantin Pobedonostsev ( 1 8 2 7 - 1 9 0 7 ) , procurateur
of the holy synod and former tutor of Tsar Alexander III, domi-
nated the spiritual life of Russia. His forceful personality came
to symbolize the almost physically oppressive power of the
state, which obtruded upon every phase of Russian life. Against
this background of political reaction, Russia began undergoing
vital economic changes, which in turn brought about unavoid-
able social readjustments.
The 1880's marked the beginning of Russia's industrializa-
tion, a period when she embarked upon what amounted to a
belated industrial revolution with its inevitable concomitant—
urbanization and rise of a capitalistic economy. The landown-
ing class, long on the decline, all at once became aware that it
had lost its leadership in Russian society and that thereafter
the upstart bourgeoisie (though still a minor factor in govern-
mental policy), would dictate in matters of literary and artistic
taste.
As Russia's industrialization progressed and her social pro-
file changed, the materialistic system of philosophy grew in
prestige, until it had become completely dominant. Contempo-
raneously with this rising tide of materialism, the Russian
intellectuals found that the new currents of biological thought
tended further to depress their self-esteem. The doctrine of
Darwinism, which was beginning successfully to penetrate the
consciousness of the average educated Russian, added to his
spiritual discomfiture. Darwinism seemed to rob a reasoning
individual of his belief in man's divine origin and consequently
in the immortality of his soul: the notions which, as the ex-
ponents of contemporary scientific thought insisted, he had in-
vented and to which he had clung for ages in an attempt to
overcome the finality of the oblivion that was death. In its
popularized version, Darwinism shattered the link between
Origins 5
man and god and forged in its place one that bound man and
ape, thus further undermining man's self-importance and self-
assurance.2 Hence, toward the end of the nineteenth century, the
political, economic, and social changes in Russian life, as well
as the philosophic doctrines that came from abroad, tended to
depress the self-esteem of Russian intellectuals, and to under-
mine their sense of security and well-being. Consequently they
found themselves exposed not only to the forces that underlay
the romantic rebellion in western Europe, but also to those that
determined the modernist movement.
It is not strange, therefore, that in Russian symbolism traits
of French symbolism are blended with those that hark back to
German romanticism of an earlier generation. Spiritually the
Russian symbolists stood closer to the German romantics*
(Schleiermacher, the Schlegels, Novalis, Schelling, and their
successors, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche), than they did to the
French symbolists (Verlaine, Rimbaud, Mallarmé). The basis
of Russian symbolism lay first and foremost in the idealistic
philosophy, which was the direct negation of modern material-
ism.
The Russian poets ostensibly accepted the artistic creed of
their French contemporaries. Yet by so doing they were ac-
tually acknowledging their debt to German thought, which they
translated to fit their own philosophic beliefs. To the Russians
symbolism meant more than a literary method that employed
2
Already by 1870 Darwin's Origin of Species had evoked a protest from the
populist critic N. K. Mikhailovskii, whose work Teoriia Darvina i obshchestven-
naia nauka (St. Petersburg, 1870-1873, 2 vols.) argues against Darwin. Another
anti-Darwinist was N. IA. Danilevskii, Darvinism (St. Petersburg, 1885-1889, 3
vols.). During the 1890's Darwinism evoked considerable journalistic comment,
which included translations as well as native Russian works: M. A. Engel'gardt,
Ch. Darvin (St. Petersburg, 1894) ; M. A. Antonovich, Ch. Darvin i ego teoriia
(St. Petersburg, 1896) ; Ernst Haeckel, "Transformizm i Darvinizm," Mir Bozhii
(1900) ; N. K. Mikhailovskii, "Darvinizm i Nitssheanstvo," Russkoe Bogatstvo
(February, 1898) ; K. A. Timiriazev, Charl'z Darvin i ego uchenie (6th ed., Mos-
cow, 1908). A. Bers "Darvinizm i khristianskaia nravstvennost'," Vestnik Evropy
(May, 1910).
* See Viktor Zhirmunskii, Nemetskii romantizm i sovremennaia mistika (St.
Petersburg, 1914).
6 The Frenzied Poets
symbols in order the more subtly to express thought and feel-
ing, more than a method that used one concept to convey the
meaning of another. Symbolism to them meant also more than
a school that championed and propagandized a literary style
or method. In Russia symbolism connoted an idealistic philos-
ophy, a Weltanschauung, inherent in a symbolist poet. Sym-
bolism implied a revelation of ultimate reality through the
physical phenomena of our world. In this aspect it harkened
back to certain phases of Oriental philosophy, to Plato, to the
mystics (especially Jakob Boehme), and to nineteenth-century
idealism. Symbolism, therefore, implied also a way of life; a
symbolist poet was to seek such a life as would afford him the
greatest opportunity for gleaning visions of the ultimate. The
poets, consequently, deemed it their duty to seek stimulation
for their muse.
In literature this new period coincided with the end of the
"golden age" of the Russian novel. The publication of Dosto-
yevsky's The Brothers Karamazov (1880) marked the end of
an era. The older generation of writers had either died or re-
tired. Dostoyevsky died in 1881; Turgenev in 1883; Gon-
charov produced no major novel after his Ravine (1869). Only
Tolstoy remained, and even he announced his retirement from
belles lettres.
Although in Russia the symbolist movement produced also
prose and philosophical and critical essays, it featured prin-
cipally the revival of poetry, and its writers regarded them-
selves first and foremost as poets, "bearers of rhythm." Here
its origins can be traced directly to the Russian literature of
the 1880's. With the older generation of novelists either dead
or retired, the younger writers, the so-called "men of the
'eighties," proved temperamentally unsuited for works of
heroic stature; they were a generation of short-story writers,
second-rate poets, and third-rate historical novelists. Since
Garshin and Korolenko belonged ideologically to the preced-
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