Codex manuscriptus

2949-0510 2949-0502

IWL RAS

https://doi.org/10.22455/CM.2949-0510-2024-5-307-366

Research Article

Articles

Literary Group “Kuznitsa”: History, Aesthetic Platform, Artistic Practice

Gacheva

Anastasia G.

codeximli@yandex.ru

15 05 2024

5 307 366

literary group “Kuznitsa” proletarian literature aesthetic platform artistic practice imaginative thinking cosmism projectivism

2026

The article is devoted to the first period of existence of the literary group “Kuznitsa” (1920–1923), connected, on the one hand, with the formation of its aesthetic and creative face, and on the other — with the desire of the “blacksmiths” to take a leading position not just in the leadership of proletarian literature, but also in its institutional design. Relying on archival sources, periodicals of the 1920s, magazines and collective collections of the group, as well as lifetime publications and publications of members of the “Kuznitsa”, the history of the group’s emergence, the formation of its aesthetic platform, milestones of the struggle for leadership in proletarian literature is presented. The article proves that the path of the “Kuznitsa” in 1920–1923 ran between institutionality and authorial identity. It is shown that the real poetic practice of the members of the “Kuznitsa”, the individual development of its leading poets, who set the tone for the group, who were its leaders and occupied a key position in the VAPP, went beyond institutional settings, and the principle of “imaginative thinking” declared by the “Kuznitsa” gave scope to creative freedom. Poets were widely oriented towards the poetics of Russian symbolism, introduced elements of literary play and friendly dialogue into their works, and in their work, despite the declared task of building a new “proletarian culture”, the motives of Novokrestyan poetry were widely heard, attention to the Russian classics, to eternal themes and images increased. The causes of the crisis in the “Kuznitsa”, which ended with the release in 1923 of the group of its leading figures — V.T. Kirillov, M.P. Gerasimov, V.D. Alexandrovsky, are considered.

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