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Notes on Literary Life in Petrograd, 1918-1922: A Tale of Three Houses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Barry Scherr
Barry Scherr*
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College
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Extract

The Bolshevik Revolution had little immediate effect on the periodicals, news-papers, and publishing houses that were already in existence in 1917. During the first few months after the takeover, Communist Party papers appeared along with satirical journals, such as The Scourge (Bich) and The New Satyricon (Novyi satirikon), that remained steadfastly opposed to the new regime. Then, in the middle of 1918, the government ordered the closing of all opposition news-papers and magazines, and authors suddenly discovered that the places where they could publish were limited. The civil war brought further hardships; shortages of food and firewood plagued everyone in the cities, but writers also suffered from the paper shortage that made publishing virtually impossible.

Despite the harsh material conditions of the next several years, a vigorous cultural life endured in Petrograd, thanks in no small part to a number of organizations that aided artists, musicians, writers, and scholars.

Type
Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , June 1977 , pp. 256 - 267
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1977

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References

1. Dan, Levin, Stormy Petrel : The Life and Work of Maxim Gorky (New York : Appleton-Century, 1965, p. 204.Google Scholar

2. I. F., Martynov and T. P., Klein, “K istorii literaturnykh ob “edinenii pervykh let Sovetskoi vlasti (Petrogradskii dom literatorov, 1918-1922),” Russkaia litcratura, 14, no. 1 (1971) : 125–26.Google Scholar

3. Shirmakov, P. P., “K istorii literaturno-khudozhestvennykh ob “edinenii pervykh let Sovetskoi vlasti : Soiuz deiatelei khudozhestvennoi literatury (1918-1919 gody),” in Voprosy sovetskoi literatury, vol. 7, ed. Kovalev, V. A. and Pavlovskii, A. I. (Moscow and Leningrad, 1958), p. Leningrad.Google Scholar

4. Shirmakov also names Gumilev as one of the Union's organizers, but Alex Shane points out that Gumilev was out of the country until April 1918, while the Union was formed in. March (see Shane, Alex M., The Life and Works of Evgenij Zamjatin [Berkeley and Los Angeles : University of California Press, 1968], p. 213 Google Scholar; on pp. 26-34 Shane offers a concise and well-informed account of Zamiatin's role in this group as well as in the publishing house World Literature, the House of the Arts, and the Writers’ House).

5. Shirmakov, “Soiuz deiatelei, ” pp. 462-72, provides a thorough account of all these activities. In a memoir devoted to Blok, Zamiatin also refers to the journal that the Union planned to publish (see his Litsa [New York : Inter-Language Literary Associates, 1967], pp. 17-18).

6. Shirmakov, “Soiuz deiatelei, ” p. 473.

7. For a history of The Sail see Golubeva, O. D., Gor'kii—izdatcl’ (Moscow, 1968), p. 62–96.Google Scholar

8. Ibid., p. 98.

9. Ibid., pp. 104 and 108.

10. Shirmakov, “Soiuz deiatelei, ” p. 462.

11. Ibid., p. 469.

12. World Literature, with the approval of Narkompros, assumed the rights to the two series of works that the now defunct Union had planned to publish, but material shortages as well as opposition from the State Publishing House, which had received exclusive rights for publishing all Russian classics, prevented World Literature from printing the works of contemporary Russian authors (see Golubeva, Gor'kii, pp. 115-16).

13. A. D., Zaidman, “Literaturnye studii ‘Vsemirnoi literatury’ i ‘Doma iskusstv’ (1919- 1921 gody),” Russkaia litcratura, 16, no. 1 (1973) : 142–43.Google Scholar

14. Ibid., pp. 143-45.

15. Komei, Chukovskii, Sobranie sochinenii v shesti tomakh, vol. 2 : Sovremcnniki (Moscow, 1965), p. 486.Google Scholar

16. Ibid., p. 503.

17. Two good descriptions of the facilities at the House of the Arts are by Vs. Rozhdestvenskii, A. in his Stranitsy shisni : Is literaturnykh vospominanii, 2nd enl. ed. (Moscow, 1974), pp. 263–66 Google Scholar; and by Khodasevich, V. F. in his Literaturnye stafi i vospominaniia (New York : Chekhov Publishing House, 1954, pp. 401–5.Google Scholar

18. Zaidman, “Literaturnye studii, ” p. 146; and Chukovskii, Sovremcnniki, p. 151.

19. The most valuable of these memoirs include those by Chukovskii, Rozhdestvenskii, and Khodasevich (see footnotes 15 and 17 above) as well as the early sections of Fedin's Gor'kii sredi nas (see footnote 20). Interesting comments can also be found in M. L. Slonimskii, Sobranie sochinenii v chetyrekh tomakh, vol. 4 : Rovesniki veka; Sent’ let spustia; Vospominaniia (Leningrad, 1970), pp. 407-18. Articles devoted specifically to life in the House of the Arts include Anna El'kan, “Dom Iskusstv, ” Mosty, 1960, no. S, pp. 289—98; and Vladimir Milashevskii, “V dome na Moike : Iz zapisok khudozhnika, ” Zvezda, 47, no. 12 (December 1970) : 187-201. Occasional references to the House of the Arts (and often also to the Writers’ House) appear in many of the autobiographies and collections of memoirs by those who lived through the period. See, for example, Iurii Annenkov, Dnevnik moikh vstrcch : Tsikl tragcdii, vol. 1 (New York : Inter-Language Literary Associates, 1966); Nina, Berberova, The Italics Arc Mine (New York : Harcourt, Brace & World, 1969)Google Scholar; Irina, Odoevtseva, Na bercgakh Nevy (Washington, D.C. : Victor Kamkin Inc., 1967)Google Scholar; Nikolai, Otsup, Sovremenniki (Paris : Imprimerie Cooperative fitoile, 1961 Google Scholar; and Victor, Shklovsky, A Sentimental Journey : Memoirs 1917-1922, trans. Sheldon, Richard (Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press, 1970)Google Scholar. The House also inspired works of fiction. The abandoned bank that was located in the same building as the House served as the setting for Alexander Grin's novella, “The Ratcatcher” ( “Krysolov “). Perhaps the most unusual work devoted to the House is Forsh', Ol'gas Sumasshedshii korabl (Leningrad, 1931)Google Scholar, a roman A clef in which many of the House's inhabitants appear under fictitious names. The novel has been republished in the West (Washington, D.C : Inter-Language Literary Associates, 1964) with a fine introduction by Boris Filippov (pp. 7-55), who draws on various memoirs to create a vivid portrayal of life in the House of the Arts.

20. Fedin, K. A., Gor'kii sredi nas : Kartiny literaturnoi shizni (Moscow, 1967), p. 28.Google Scholar

21. Lctopis’ Doma literatorov, no. 1/2 (5/6) (January 15, 1922), p. 6.

22. Chukovskii, Sovremenniki, p. SOS.

23. Zaidman, “Literaturnye studii, ” p. 146.

24. Chukovskii, Sovremenniki, pp. 504-5.

25. Letopis1 Donia literatorov, no. 2 (November 15, 1921), p. 8; and no. 1 (November 1, 1921), p. 7.

26. Martynov and Klein, “Dom literatorov, ” pp. 128-29. Odoevtseva provides a more personal description of the facilities at the Writers’ House; several times she refers to the comforts provided there, emphasizing the warmth, the brightness, and the food (see Odoevtseva, Na beregakh Nevy, pp. 157, 183, 320).

27. Fedin, Gor'kii sredi nas, p. 26

28. Ibid., p. 27.

29. Slonimskii, Sobranie, vol. 4, p. 450.

30. Fedin, Gor'kii sredi nas, pp. 28-29, 89.

31. Lctopis’ Doma literatorov, no. 1/2 (5/6) (January 15, 1922), p. 6.

32. V. A., Shoshin, “Konkurs Doma literatorov,” Russkaia literatura, 10, no. 3 (1967) : 214–19.Google Scholar

33. E. I., Zamiatin, “Serapionovy brat'ia,” Literaturnye sapiski, no. 1 (May 25, 1922), pp. 7–8Google Scholar; “Serapionovy brat'ia o sebe, ” Literaturnye sapiski, no. 3 (August 1, 1922), pp. 25-31.

34. Martynov and Klein, “Dom literatorov, ” pp. 129-33, discuss these activities in detail.

35. Information regarding dates, editors, and affiliations of these journals can be found in Muratova, K. D., comp. and Balukhatyi, S. D., ed., Periodika po literature i iskusstvu za gody rcvoliutsii : 1917-1932 (Leningrad, 1933), pp. 52, 142, 149.Google Scholar

36. Martynov and Klein, “Dom literatorov, ” pp. 133-34.

37. Khodasevich, for example, puts full blame for Disk's closing on Zinoviev (Literaturnyc stat'i, p. 412).

38. For details of this incident see Gleb, Struve, Russkaia literatura v izgnanii : Opyt istorichcskogo obzora sarttbeshnoi literatury (New York : Chekhov Publishing House, 1956, p. 18.Google Scholar

39. Martynov and Klein, “Dom literatorov, ” p. 134, cite this last reason along with the aesthetic and ideological views of certain members as the main causes for the decision to close the House.

40. Borisov, A. A., “A. M. Gor'kii—organizator pervogo Doma uchenykh,” in Gor'kovskie chteniia, vol. 10 : K 100-lctiiu so dnia roshdcniia pisatelia, ed. Bialik, B. A. (Moscow, 1968), pp. 322–23 Google Scholar. Borisov refers to the Petrograd division as Pctrokubu, while the main organization was often called Tsekubu (for “Central Commission … “) as well as Kubu. To avoid a surfeit of acronyms I simply use Kubu throughout.

41. Ibid., p. 327.

42. Ibid., pp. 324-25.

43. Litcratarnyc zapiski, no. 1 (May 25, 1922), p. 21; no. 2 (June 23, 1922), p. 21; and no. 3 (August 1, 1922), p. 23. On p. 22 of issue no. 2, a statement by the governing board of the Writers’ House shows that the House was receiving and distributing to its members aid packages sent directly from abroad. Since at least one of the foreign organizations mentioned (and presumably others as well) sent goods both to the Writers’ House and to the Scholars’ House, Kubu may have had good reason for insisting that the Writers' House supply its members out of its own resources.

44. Slonimskii, Sobranie, vol. 4, p. 401; Rozhdestvenskii, Stranitsy shizni, p. 327; Khodasevich, Literatumyc stafi, pp. 393-94; and Fedin, Gor'kii srcdi nas, p. 114.

45. Borisov, “Gor'kii—organizator, ” pp. 329-32.

46. Brief information on the activities of both organizations is provided in Pechaf i revoliutsiia, 1, no. 1 (May/June 1921) : 181. The original leadership of the Writers’ Union was drawn largely from the members of the House of the Arts; the same was true of the Poets’ Union, which included Blok, Belyi, Gumilev, Rozhdestvenskii, and Kuzmin. Readings organized by the Poets’ Union were frequently held at the House of the Arts. For more information on the Poets’ Union see the notes in Aleksandr Blok, Sobranie sochinenii v vos'mi tomakh, vol. 6 : Prosa, 1918-1921 (Moscow and Leningrad, 1962), pp. 542-43.

47. The Institute of Art History is the focus of Veniamin Kaverin's memoir “V starom dome, ” published in his Sobcscdnik (Moscow, 1973), pp. 6-170 See pp. 9-14 for a brief account of the Institute's early history.